Merry Christmas!!

Santa has already started his magical run across the world and his progress is always available here.  To all my readers and viewers, I wish you safest and happiest of holidays and peace and prosperity in 2014.  Just in case Santa has a problem with his sleigh, there is always the backup :)

Another year of moments behind the camera lens gone.....

Texas Special in Florida - 12/20/2013

Today was one of those days - the weather started out nasty - then got better.  During the morning however, I had seen that the new Spirit special scheme A320, N618NK, Greetings from Dallas, had arrived at Fort Lauderdale.  So, in the good weather, I decided with a couple of other spotters decided to go and see what was going on for the lunch hour.  Nothing moving - nothing special moving - we were just about to leave, when, I happened to see this blue tail with a S on it come out with a long orange stripe.  And - lo and behold - here came - N618NK...

Spotting highlight of the month so far!!!!  More (great) time spent behind the camera lens!!!

New Canadian Charter Season

Well, that time of year is upon us again - Canadian charters have started again.  Once again, Sunwing has added some leased aircraft to the fleet, a lot of which are painted with great logos and I am looking forward to catching those.  In the meantime, the first two that I caught are new for me too - a lease from European operator Smartwings - nice winglets they have and a Czech registered Travel Service jet.

Air Transat has also been flying in their Airbus A310s - the one I have been looking for with the Welcome titles arrived on a glorious day.  This season might be the last time we see the A310s in Florida as in 2014, air Transat is due to take delivery of the first of their Boeing 737-800's that are on order.  While those will make for nice shooting, I'll miss the powerful A310s.

Finally, while not a Canadian charter, something I have been looking for for a long long time, the Tiara Air from Aruba has been making more regular stops at Fort Lauderdale and so I was glad to be able to strike this from the list of wanted aircraft too!!!

It looks to be a promising season with some great aircraft to shoot!  In the meantime, more time spent behind the camera lens....

Bad weather - good friend!!

It is always great to meet up with a fellow blogger and in this case, it is always a pleasure - Cap'n Aux made a trip to Ft Lauderdale recently.  While the weather was terrible for pictures, I still managed to get a couple of shots on approach.

 

On approach - being followed by a very nice looking Gulfstream G650 - you can tell the weather wasn't the best!

 

Final approach - about 500 yards from touchdown.  The good Captain will be back at the end of this week - hopefully the weather will be a lot better too!

More time spend behind the camera lens!!

Short time shooting - two great results

I managed to get a little bit of time today to head up to Ft Lauderdale to see what was floating around.  I knew the one arrival - the Air Transat A310 with the Welcome color scheme, but the other one was a great surprise - my first American Eagle E145 with the new color scheme.  Now that the AA/US Airways merger has been approved - it's going to be interesting seeing this color scheme on an A330 - we already have seen it on A319's and A321's.

But, here are the two new ones today...

Some more time spend behind the camera lens...

jetBlue Tribute NYFD

jetBlue recently announced and presented their latest special scheme - a salute to the New York Fire Department.  After it was recently released, it has started making its trips around the stations of jetBlue.  Today, October 26, 2013 was the turn on Fort Lauderdale.  It great light, she made presence well known around the area.  A stunning aircraft - well done jetBlue.

Edit 10/27/2013 - added a couple more pictures that I have edited of this beauty.

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

Good weather - and even better biz-jets!

It was another nice Florida sunny but not too hot day today, so I went and spent my lunchtime checking out what was around.  Apart from the usual suspects, it turned out to be biz-jet day today!

These Citation CJ3's are growing on me.  A friend of mine flies one and says they are wonderful to fly - they just look so compact but I bet inside, they are luxurious.

A very interesting foreign visitor - the ride of former Formula 1 racer Rubens Barricchello.  It's been seen a few times in Fort Lauderdale - I'm not sure if he has home in the area to visit.

 The charter Learjet 45 of National Jets approaching it's home base.

A Brazilian-based Citation Sovereign.

I saved my favorite for last.  The Gulfstream G650 of Carnival Cruise Line and Miami Heat basketball team owner Mickey Arison.  This registration used to belong to a Bombardier Global Express, but that was sold and replaced with this glorious Gulfstream.  The Global Express used to be my favorite biz-jet, but, it has now been replaced by the G650 - I just love the lines on this aircraft.

Some more time spent behind the camera lens...