A visit to Miami - in great weather..

My son and I had the opportunity to spend a long afternoon at Miami (KMIA) - we again tried to go and get the Transaero B777 from Moscow, but it was not bad weather in Miami that got us missing the plane - but the bad weather in Europe - it was over 3 1/2 hours late coming in, arriving after dark. But there were some good sightings to be had on a great afternoon with a few clouds about to start increasing into the late afternoon.

This is the first time I've been able to catch the Surinam Boeing 737-700 - a nice first time catch.

Lufthansa had 3 flights this particular day - this Boeing 747-400 coming from Frankfurt landed on the south runway (runway 9) - the A340 from Munich and the A330 from Dusseldorf both landed on runway 12 - the cross runway.

Sky Lease Cargo has one MD-11 in full colors - the other two are plain white at the moment, and by chance, we got the full colors.

My first time getting a Korean Cargo Boeing 747-400 at Miami - the other plane from this cargo carrier I caught in Anchorage.

Insel Air operates MD-80s from Curacao - the second time I have caught this airline - the first time with the large titles.

Avianca brings so many different types into Miami, A320s, A319s, Boeing 767s, but it's been a long time since I've seen one of their A330s in Miami.

Amerijet is famous in South Florida for their Boeing 727s - but have recently received a couple of Boeing 767-200s.

There must be a story behind this Atlas Boeing 747-400 - yes - it is a -400 even if you don't see a winglet - on the other side - there is one. This has been operating a few weeks now without the winglet on the right wing. I'm not too sure how it was lost or when it is going to be replaced, but there must be some kind of performance degradation without the second winglet - I would think they would want to have it fixed.

The last two are things I have wanted to get for a long time - the first being the American Eagle Embraer E145 with the pink Susan G. Komen sash - I've caught the Boeing 757 with the sash, but the Boeing 777 still eludes me.

Finally, I've been wanting the get the Air Berlin A330 for a long time but each time I've been there - it always goes to the runway on the opposite side I have been standing at - this time though, she came in right in front of me...

The Transaero still eludes me - one day I will get it - in perfect weather I hope. But, in the meantime, the first of many trips to Miami in the future I hope seeing as it's now just a quick 35 minute drive from home to Miami.

In the meantime, wishing everyone a Happy New Year, and, some more time spent behind the camera lens....

Merry Christmas to all!

Wishing everyone a very Merry Christmas and a Prosperous New Year!!!

Amazing what can happen in 10 minutes.....

Today was quite a special day - first off, the weather was absolutely perfect! Blue skies, a coolish day, a few small clouds in the sky, but the main reason was a couple of very special captures, and they both happened within about 7 minutes.

Knowing that there are hybrid schemes all over the place at the moment for the Canadian charter airlines, the South Florida spotters always try to keep an eye out on what is around when Canjet or Sunwing come around - today was no different. Having received an email that a special was around, I headed to FLL to get it - a Jetairfly B738 that is leased to Canjet for the winter season. Thursday is the next big charter day, so hopefully there will be others around - Sunwing has the Hapag Lloyd retro orange scheme from Germany and it's been seen in South Florida already...so...here's hoping...

The second catch was something that I have wanted to get ever since I heard about it and saw the first pictures - the American Airlines tribute to the troops - Flagship Liberty - with the subtitle "In support of all who serve" . Particularly at this time of year, the holidays approaching, there are many men and women servicemen who are far away from home serving their countries. It's small things like American has done with this B737-800 and the other aircraft they have, a B767-200 called Flagship Freedom that remind us of those who serve to protect us.

In case I don't get to post another entry before the holidays, wishing all my readers and visitors a very peaceful time with family, a Happy Christmas, Happy Hanukkah or Happy Kwanza.

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

Introducing.....The Bandit.....

This has been a very long wait - something I've been trying to catch for a very long long time - The Bandit - the private jet of Russian billionaire and businessman, Roman Abromovich, a Boeing 767-33A/ER registered P4-MES (home country Aruba) - he is also known in the soccer world as the owner of Chelsea Football club in the English Premier League. While I've seen her once before at West Palm Beach, but she was not in a shootable, and not even very viewable position, so when I looked at Flightaware this morning and saw a flight plan from St Maarten to Ft Lauderdale, I was keeping a keen eye on the time. Operations at Ft Lauderdale were westerly, so I knew I was going to be on the top of the parking garage to get her arrival. And, on time and using the callsign P4-MES Heavy, she approached runway 27R in what were perfect conditions on a cool Fall day. Fortunately, the approach was high so it offered a great shot in front of the refinery towers.

Then the even approach to the landing on runway 27R.

I'll have to get down and edit the last few in the sequence that I took because, while the approach was graceful, the landing certainly wasn't as there was bogey bouncing (left main gear, then right main gear, then back to left main gear) down a long section of the runway, accompanied by the obligatory tire smoke, before rolling out all the way to pretty much the end of the runway. I'll try and edit that section and get it posted soon....

But in the meantime, welcome to a view of one of the ultimate business jets plying the routes around the world.

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