Fort Lauderdale is back to normal operations....

The extensions to current high-speed exits and the new large high-speed exit on runway 9L are now completed, and Fort Lauderdale has resumed normal operations on the two 9/27 runways. This will carry on for a little while longer; the extension and widening of 9R/27L is the next large operation which will turn Fort Lauderdale into a single runway airport. When the work on 9R/27L starts, runway 13/31 will close completely. It certainly served well during the closure of 9L/27R.

This means that in the hot lunchtimes of Fort Lauderdale, I've been back to the usual viewing spot at the end of runway 9L to see what has been about.

The first is something I've been trying to catch for a couple of years now ever since Delta took delivery of their 737-700 aircraft - they have not been operational into Fort Lauderdale at all until now - operating on a Cincinnati-Fort Lauderdale-New York JFK routing which has them leaving FLL around lunchtime - so I was glad to check this off the list.



Virgin America is always nice to catch - their clean crisp colors are great to see.



For a couple of days in a row, it seemed like Fort Lauderdale was Learjet city - every business jet that seemed to be taxiing out was either a LJ45 or a Lj60. Lovely aircraft they are!!







With the final merger of Air Jamaica into Caribbean Airlines and the operation on a single operating certificate, the Airbus equipment that Air Jamaica used to operate has been returned to the lessors and Caribbean's all Boeing fleet has taken over. However, there has been a shortage of aircraft to operate all the flights, so there have been fillers in from Miami Air International (seen below), Sun Country (seen below as well) and North American for the JFK routes. For the Miami Air and Sun Country aircraft, this has been a chance to get some rare visitors to Fort Lauderdale.





The end of summer will hopefully be coming soon as we move into August and with that, hopefully the hot summer lunchtimes will give way to some cooler temperatures!

In the meantime, so more time spent behind the camera lens....

Finding Nirvana......A Shuttle Launch

I finally got to see something I have wanted to see since the first launch 30 years ago - the launch of a space shuttle. Friday July 8, 2011 will be a day I will remember for many many years to come. Two days before the launch date, a friend of mine called and said they were going to the launch with an arranged group and had a spare seat in their car. I couldn't say "YES" fast enough. The evening before the launch had me driving from home to the Space Coast knowing that there was only a 30% chance of the launch. Friday morning had us driving towards the facility watching patches of blue appearing in the sky. It was still touch and go the whole morning until the T-9 minute hold which lasts for about 45 minutes. During that hold, NASA announced that weather was a "go" - there were no technical issues. So, at 11:29 - 2 odd minutes after the scheduled launch time, Atlantis took to the skies as STS-135 - the final shuttle mission. For me who has followed this program since it's inception, this was the ultimate, Nirvana, whatever you'd like to call it - it was - a launch - my first ever, and the last ever - nothing to take that away....

Learning to fly the 747....a first hand account...

I have been following the blog of Capt. Rand Peck for quite a while now. A long standing NWA captain, now with Delta, in the time I have been following his blog, he has gone from the Boeing 757, to the Boeing 767 and is now qualified on the Boeing 747-400. For those that would like to know what is involved in getting rated on a new aircraft, head over to his blog, Rand Pack, A Life Aloft. He is going into great detail about the training and it's fascinating reading!

Thank you to the crew......

Ever since the runway change at Fort Lauderdale that I blogged on a while back, I've been trying to find the best spot for the departures and arrivals - going to the park on the south side of the airport, going to the viewing park and trying long range shots, and nothing has seemed to work totally the way I wanted it to. So finally, today, I thought I'd try the south west corner of the Hibiscus parking garage as that is pretty close to the end of runway 13 for lift off shots. It worked out a lot better than I had originally thought and while I still have a lot of shots to edit from that spot, I couldn't help but edit this one - Spirit flight 180 to La Guardia. The take off instructions to the vast majority of the aircraft are "fly heading 090, runway 13 clear for take off". Well, for the most part, they have been flying runway heading (heading 130) for a couple of miles before turning left onto heading 090. I don't know why this crew decided to do this, but pretty much immediately after take off, they started the left turn - I want to think it's because they saw me with my camera on the garage and wanted to give me a GREAT shot. Well, whatever the reason, they did give me a GREAT shot! The left bank in front of the clouds was spectacular and made the day for shooting! So, if any of my readers happen to know of the flight crew that flew A320 N607NK as Spirit flight 180 to La Guardia on Tuesday 6/21/2011 departing around 12:25pm, please thank them for me or even have them contact me through my blog - I'd love to give them a printed copy of this shot for their walls!

I'll hopefully get more of the shots edited over the next few days and get them up here too - another highlight for me was the Delta Boeing 737-700 that has now started to fly the CVG-FLL-JFK routing that leaves FLL at lunch time - the -700 was something of Delta's that I hadn't been able to catch before....

Some more time spent behind the camera lens......

A special day - Lufthansa brings the A380 to MIA

I know that blog entries have been a little sparse lately - the heat of the South Florida summer has really set in along with dreaded heat haze and the still in effect cross runway operations at Ft Lauderdale. When this opportunity presented itself, I was very happy and I was very privileged to be part of the media contingent on Friday June 10, 2011 in witnessing a new part of South Florida Aviation History with the inauguration of Lufthansa's Airbus A380 service from Frankfurt to Miami replacing the Boeing 747-400. It also happened to be the very first landing at Miami of the Airbus A380. The press was met at the meeting area with the poster announcing the arrival.

As part of the ceremonies, the "A380's" of their day made their entrance in a procession prior to the arrival of the real thing. First was the American Airlines DC-3 Flagship Detroit,

followed by the restored Eastern airlines DC-7B.

The two "oldies" were lined up at the gate to await the arrival of the A380.

The A380 - D-AIMD "Tokyo" - made it's grand entrance on runway 9 to lines of spectators on the perimeter road and surrounding areas, it's two engine in reverse thrust.

Following which it taxied towards the terminal.

Through the salute of 4 water cannons provided by Miami-Dade Fire Department.

To it's parking gate at the J concourse.

Once all had deplaned, the crew was introduced to the media.

It really was a special day and the ability to see the first landing of this quiet giant was something I'll remember for many many years to come!

Some more time spent behind the camera lens.....

A temporary change at Ft Lauderdale...

There is a temporary change in place at Ft Lauderdale at the moment - the main runway 9L/27R is currently undergoing repairs and so the cross runway 13/31 will be in use for the next couple of months. For anyone that knows the spotting areas at Ft Lauderdale, the use of 13/31 is not really good for either the viewing park or the parking garages as they are just too far away and in the warm spring/summer temperatures of Ft Lauderdale, the heat haze is terrible! So, last week I went scouting a new location for the use of this runway and came across a public park that is located on the south of the airport that offers lovely shaded viewing locations, and, more importantly for photographers, some good access to lift off shots from 13 and what will be good arrival shots on 31 should the winds turn that way. Of course, as soon as I found this spot, the next 3 days were terrible weather days - clouds, rain, etc, but, at least I now have a decent location for the use of this runway configuration, and here are a few shots from that spot....

This Southwest B737 was up way early - probably a short-ish flight and a low load....

This US Airways B734 got a decent run down the runway, lifting off just in front of terminal 3 - home to American and jetBlue.

jetBlue's 10th anniversary A320 gets a good liftoff.

The B738's always seem to roll a lot longer - this Delta B738 was the longer roll of the two I shot - unfortunately, neither was the SkyTeam color scheme that I am looking for.....

This B753 really surprised me - being up so early - the power of that aircraft is amazing...

The second Delta B738 - up a little earlier...

This American B738 was the long roll of the photo session for me - off to Chicago with a pretty good load I can guess as she rolled and lifted just before the piano keys at the end of the runway..

Hopefully there will be some more trips to this location over the next couple of months while it is in use - I really like the different angles with the airport in the background compared to the usual shots from the viewing park and parking garage...

In the meantime, more time spent behind the camera lens....

Quick visits yield good results.....

Over the past week or so, ever since the Iron Maiden arrival, I've been taking short, quick trips to Ft Lauderdale focusing on some specific catches. The first one was a quick lunchtime visit, and while I did not expect this, it was a great sight to see. I've seen this twice - the first time, it was in line for departure one morning while I was on my way to work and while I tried my best to get to the viewing park at Ft Lauderdale in time to catch it, I just saw her powering down the runway and it was terribly heat hazed. The second time was coming home from work late one evening and in the last light of day, there she was departing. This time, it was different - 20 minutes out of a lunchtime, I was about to leave when the lunchtime Delta flight called in - it was a little late - I saw the winglets in the distance - thought the gray color was from the cloud cover - but - fortunately, it was not - the domestic SkyTeam in all her glory!!

I was alerted by a very good friend that the next one was an equipment sub for the usual early afternoon Delta flight from Atlanta - my first catch of a Delta B767-300ER with winglets! I love the size of those winglets - it's almost like they dwarf the plane as a whole!

While waiting for the B763W above, I heard the "Ruby" callsign - unusual for Ft Lauderdale - Vision has had a few flights into here, but I've never seen the B737-800 - but - the additional surprise was the Direct Air titles. She came in from Punta Gorda (the other side of the Florida peninsula) and what was fun after the landing was the tower asking where they were parking. The captain replied that they had been trying for the last 45 minutes to find that out - so they stopped close to the terminal while he made a call! I got distracted by the B763W to hear the final outcome of parking.

The last one over the past few days was another quick visit at lunchtime - and this time, a very rare visitor - a Lockheed Jetstar II in immaculate condition! A bit of research found she was built in 1977 and she is actually for sale according to a website - don't have the money at the moment, but what a buy she could be for someone!!

Hopefully some more quick visits might yield another few good sightings soon!

In the meantime, some more time spent behind the camera lens!!