Special JetBlue Veterans Aircraft

I was lucky to catch the JetBlue Veterans dedication jet on its first day or regular service after the special charter day dedicated to the Veterans that was well covered on NYCAviation.com.  The first revenue flight brought the aircraft into Fort Lauderdale on a perfect cool fall day.  Here is the special bird....

More time spent behind the camera lens....

So much has been happening....

It's been quite a while since I posted - there has been so much going on - in the aviation world, in the business world, in the family world - sometimes it all just catches up at one time.   So, let me try and recap at least the past few weeks....

First of all, I was very privileged to be on the inaugural flight that landed on the brand new runway at my home airport, Fort Lauderdale/Hollywood International Airport.  Articles I wrote for both NYCAviation.com on the opening of the runway and on my good friend Captain Eric Auxier's blog for the event had a great deal of the coverage.  Here are a couple more pictures of the event, including Captain Randy Forester and First Officer Scott Morgan pointing at their fresh first rubber laid on the brand new runway.

Of course, I had to get a shot of me on the runway in front of the aircraft as well.

On the same day, I was able to catch a rare sight in Fort Lauderdale, Flair Air, a Canadian charter company brought their perfect Boeing 737-400 in as well.

A few days later, in the midst of the first cool (can't really call them cold fronts in Florida in October), I caught my first Southwest Boeing 737-700 in their new color scheme as it departed off runway 28R.  What I loved about this shot was the ability to get the new heart on the underside of the aircraft.

The next exciting event was being able to cover the brand new service of TAME from Ecuador into Fort Lauderdale.  Again, this was well documented for NYCAviation.com.  The brightly colored A320 is now a regular sight with it's "Love Life Ecuador"titles.

And finally for this post, the new US Airways heritage aircraft with American titles have started coming out.  My first catch of one of these was the repainted PSA smiling bird.  The day after that, came a different surprise.  One of the US Airways special schemes that I have not caught before, Battle Born Nevada came in.  The fate of this color scheme is not known in the new American fleet, so it was great to finally get it.

So, finally I have managed to get caught up for the last few weeks.  The Winter shooting season in Florida has all but started now as well.  Following the time change this weekend, we should start to see more of the heavier winter schedule start to arrive here and with the weather as it has been the last week or so, it certainly bodes well for a good season.  Hopefully, some more of those US Airways Heritage and special schemes in the near future as well :)

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

Yellow Taxi Anyone???

With the rash of color scheme changes that past week, I managed to get one at Fort Lauderdale.  I was surprised actually, because this one I had no announcement of until the day it happened.  But, the next day, said aircraft came to home base, so it was good to get it...

It sure is bright, but it's interesting to say the least....

Some more time spent behind the camera lens...

Weather Permitted Again.....

I have, in all the time I've lived in Florida never had had such a pattern of disruptive weather as far as spotting and photography goes!  If it isn't raining, it's cloudy.  If the sun is shining, the heat is oppressive and that causes heat haze like mad!!!

Today, however, all the elements seemed to combine for a lunch time that was (mostly) sunny.  I honestly didn't think of going to Fort Lauderdale today, but the possibility of a Southwest Boeing 737-800 in the new color scheme tended to be the lure towards the viewing park.  Said Southwest, when I checked later, was running 1hr 30mins late so I never got to see if it was a new one or not.

What did show up, however, were two United Boeing 737-800s with split scimitar winglets, within 30 minutes of each other.  One arrival and one departure.  Seeing as I hadn't managed to catch any of these before, it made the trip justified for sure!  So, here they are - I do love these new winglets!

Hopefully, the weather pattern will soon allow some more investigation of traffic at Fort Lauderdale.

Next week however, will be an exciting time!  Thursday, September 18, will be the opening of the new runway at Fort Lauderdale - the new 10R/28L.  I will be there for the opening and will hopefully have some good shots of stuff for the day - the first to land on the new runway will be a JetBlue A320 charter.  So, stay tuned for next week!!

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

Finally - some spotting time!!!!

August has arrived - the sun is still very high in the sky, but after the vacation and a really, really wet July (we had 2 dry days in the whole month according to the TV station on the news yesterday), today presented itself with the opportunity with some sun to spend an hour at Fort Lauderdale.  It didn't do any harm that I knew that my one missing JetBlue special, the FlyFi jet, N709JB was coming in as well.  And, what a lovely aircraft it is!

However, a couple of other very nice things arrived too.  For the first time, I was able to get a US Airways Airbus A319 in American colors - something that I know Cap'n Aux loves!!

The last one that I got for the day is something that I'd love to fly in!  Float planes are becoming more and more frequent visitors to Fort Lauderdale.  Going to the Bahamas, probably down to the Florida Keys and other exotic places.  Usually, what I have seen with float planes are Cessna's (Caravans and Grand Caravans), a couple of DHC-6 Twin Otters, but this is the first time I have seen a Maule M-7 Super Rocket - and - what a lovely sight it is - and what an awesome registration too!!  Ride please!!  Pretty please!!!!

So, hopefully, the rains are a thing of the past, or at least as much as we have had is gone and I can go back to spending more time behind the camera lens....

Attention those close to Chicago....

There is something very special coming up for you folk soon!!!  On July 26, the one and only Cap'n Aux, author Eric Auxier will be in Chicago to sign copies of his new book, There I Wuz.

The party will be at Aviation Universe. I’ll be doing a short talk, book reading and signing, and Q&A session, and just general chumming around with whomever shows up!  Currently scheduled to start at around 12noon, but check with Aviation Universe closer to the time.  Their details are:

13 W. Main St., Shop #6
Bensenville, IL  60106
Phone: 630-350-7913
Toll Free: 855-252-8864
www.aviationuniverse.us

So, go and support the friendly Cap'n, he will also have copies of his other published books as well.

And keep a good eye for him on your US Airways/American flights as well...

Vacation over - some South African stuff

As with all good things, they must come to an end and part of that is the vacation.  Having spent just under 4 weeks in South Africa on vacation, we have now returned back to the US and all the pictures from the vacation have been edited...so here are some highlights from the trip.

The first surprise of the trip was at Frankfurt.  Waiting for the connection to South Africa, the cloudy and cold day finally turned out half decent and this beauty took off right in front of us.  Not only my first Boeing 747-8i, but the special Fanhansa scheme for the World Cup.

From there, I spent a little time at OR Tambo International airport where the mornings can yield some lovely stuff.

Finally, I spent a little time at Lanseria International Airport - a private airport on the north-west side of Johannesburg.  Two scheduled airlines into this airport as well as a whole lot of private movements.  It also has a very interesting graveyard.

The Florida summer continues to deliver masses of rain and cloudy days, so there has not been time to spend at my local, but hopefully there will be some time in the near future.

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

Exciting things on the horizon!!

There are really some exciting things on the horizon - and - some are not aviation related!

This coming Thursday, May 29 has two exciting things happening.

Firstly, my family and I will be heading overseas on vacation.  There will be some exciting aviation articles coming from the trip as well as hopefully some great wildlife pictures courtesy of a rented 200mm-500mm lens :)  So - keep an eye out here for both - hopefully I will have time to post while I am overseas too :)

Secondly, the same Thursday, my readers all need to head over to the awesome blog of my friend Eric "Cap'n Aux" Auxier which can be found here:

Apart from a whole blog of great reading, there will be an announcement about his latest book.  Having seen a preview of the book, I can tell you all that you will all love reading this awesome book from cover to cover!!  I have a little bit to do with part of the book too - I'm happy to say that I was able to provide the cover picture for the book which you can see here.

Something else that has been going on over the past few weeks has been the advent of the new Airport Watch program at Miami International Airport of which I am also a part.  It has taken a couple of years to get to full fruition, but now it is up and running.  There was some great media coverage on the day, and I did an article for NYCAviation.com about it that you can read on the below link.

I haven't been out to get a lot of shots at Fort Lauderdale recently - a couple that will come in a later post, but the summer heat haze at Fort Lauderdale has been really brutal!

So, not a lot of time spent behind the camera lens, but some fun stuff happening!

Summer is starting to set in......

Every year at this time of year, aviation photographers in South Florida seem to go into hiding.  The sun gets really high in the sky casting nasty shadows over a great deal of the aircraft we normally shoot and the dreaded heat haze from the runways and taxiways start to show on the pictures.  Not to say that there aren't some intrepid photographers that still just go out (me being one of them!!) to see what we still can get.  So, over the summer, there might not be a lot of shoots, but there are still some interesting things going on.

I have recently done two articles on the changes at Fort Lauderdale with the new runway construction.  The first was on the actual construction itself and the second was on the demolition of the Hilton Hotel.  As the completion of the runway nears, there will be more and more coming.  Hopefully in a couple of weeks, I'll be part of a tour of the elevated runway section itself.  The opening of the new runway is set for September 18, 2014 currently, so activity if very fevered there.

Of course, I couldn't let a post go without at least one picture.  This I got a few weeks ago - the first time I have seen a Delta Boeing 757-300 with winglets - good to know they are putting them on now - United (Continental) did them a few years ago.

So, some more time spent behind the camera lens, but - for some slightly different reasons :)

A Special Day - FedEx Boeing 727 arrives at Fort Lauderdale/Hollywood International Airport (FLL)

Well, that doesn't seem to special does it - a Boeing 727-200 arriving at FLL - what does make it special though, it the fact that it has been donated by FedEx to FLL for training and this was the last flight of "Stephanie" N235FE.  Pictures below, but the full article from the event is available on NYCAviation.com.

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

Very...inattentive to my blog...and - RIP MH370

I realize that I have been very inattentive to my blog of late.  So much has been going on - at work - otherwise - but - the planes have not stopped - and - I haven't stopped photographing them.  I need to get more posted - but - in the last week or so - there have been two very interesting rthings at Fort Lauderdale.

Delta has started fitting the Boeing 757-300's with winglets - and - they look stunning - this I caught this past week

And then - Varig has started to return some aircraft from lease.  This was the first of 3 that will come through Fort Lauderdale in the next few months.

Of course, this weekend has also seen the tragedy that is Malaysian flight MH370.  As of writing this blog entry, the wreckage has not been found and there is so much speculation on what has happened.  I am not going to speculate - to me, speculation breeds rumors and we don't need those.  Until the wreckage is found and the black boxes located, we will never know what happened.  I will reserve all judgements until those two things have happened.......

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

2014 Florida Aviation Photography Convention - Ramp Tours

Once a year, a large group of aviation photographers descend on South Florida for the annual Photography and Slide convention that has been going on for 20+ years!   Part of the convention thankfully includes tours on the ramps of both Fort Lauderdale/Hollywood International Airport and Miami International Airport.  This year, the ramp tour at Fort Lauderdale was in absolutely perfect but cool weather.  A few of the subjects from that tour.

There was another special sighting on the Fort Lauderdale tour - what was an ex-American Eagle ERJ135 that is now adorned with South African Airlink colors, but no titles yet.  I can only guess it will be winging its (long) way to South Africa in the near future.

The ramp tour at Miami started off in beautiful weather, but unfortunately, an approaching cold front decided to present a layer of cloud that was frustrating to all the photographers, however, any time spent on the ramp of an airport in any weather is much better than time at work :) - unless you are a pilot that is.....  Here are some of the subjects from the Miami tour.

Hopefully, the tours next year will both be in perfect weather - we can only hope!

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

A NICE welcome to the New Year!!

First of all - Happy New Year to everyone!!  May 2014 be all you would like it to be!

The first couple of days at Fort Lauderdale/Hollywood International Airport have been different - on one, the temperature was in the 80s and humid.  Then, in came the cold front and with it some cooler temperatures.  And - with the cooler temperatures, can some hot equipment!

 The first was fashion executive Peter Nygård's Boeing 727-17 - what a beauty of a plane this is!

Following that, came this lovely Twin Otter float plane.  First time I have seen this at Fort Lauderdale as far as I can remember!

The year is starting off well!  I can't wait to see what the rest of the year brings!

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