November has been very good to me so far......

And - today was no exception - after searching Flightaware at the start of the day to see if there was going to be anything good at Fort Lauderdale for the day, one very elusive special scheme came up - United's A320 Friend Ship - N475UA - and - it was due to depart at a decent time around lunchtime.  So, with perfect South Florida fall weather, I headed up with a lot to the viewing spot at FLL and walked down the field a little - westerly operations, the viewing park is too far down and they are way in the sky when they go past that, and - there is came!

However, this wasn't the end of special schemes for the day - just before this while waiting - an American B737-800 came flying down the runway.  As the light was so good, I couldn't resist shooting it - and - to my surprise - it had a lovely yellow ribbon on the tail...

Hopefully the rest of the month will be good to me - I did see that Southwest's Colorado One had been at FLL over the weekend - so - I'll be searching it out again...

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

A major cross off the bucket list - Air Force One!!

This has been a long long time in getting - since I first saw Air Force One in St Louis in 1999 when then President Clinton met Pope John Paul II, I have never managed to get close enough to get a decent picture of it - until today.  President Obama visited Fort Lauderdale today and in almost-perfect weather 92-9000 made it's approach to runway 9L.

VC-25A 92-9000 approaching Fort Lauderdale

It's been a special month so far - and it's only 4 days into the month!!!

Another wonderful few minutes spent behind the camera lens....

A very special surprise....

The fall season has finally arrived in South Florida and with it, thank goodness, the departure of the rain and some lovely blue skies, and, hopefully, this will continue for a while!

So, I went to sit up at the viewing park at Fort Lauderdale to enjoy some of the lovely weather.  There happened to be a C-17 at one of the FBO's that was due for a departure at some point, so I was keeping a good eye on that and a slightly interested ear to my scanner that was in the car next to me.  During one of the transmissions, my ears perked up a little - it kind of went something like this.

WN XXXX:  Tower, Southwest XXXX, ILS runway 27R.

Tower:  Southwest XXXX, you are number 2 to a heavy Boeing 707, runway 27R cleared to land

BRA2401: Tower, Bravo Romeo Alpha 2401 short final for runway 27R.

I have to admit that my ears perked up at the words Heavy Boeing 707.  I got out of the car and looked east and there they were, the tell-tale 4 streams of smoke trailing behind this object out to the east.  Well - it lands on runway 27R and because of 2 exits that were closed, it comes all the way to the last exit, Bravo 1, turns onto taxiway Bravo, goes to the end and does a 180 degree turn and heads down taxiway Charlie to Signature.

Oh - what was it?  Brazilian Air Force KC-137 - that came out of nowhere - who knows why - but - I'm glad it did.  It was a perfect start to the South Florida Fall shooting season.  Some more time spent behind the camera lens.....

FAB2401 - Brazilian Air Force KC-137