Ft Lauderdale - I must have done something......

And - I don't know what. I wonder if the spotting gods decided to listen to my "Ft Lauderdale is getting boring". Or, maybe they liked the diet that I started and saw my salad that I took to Ft Lauderdale for lunch and liked it, or someone reading my blog contacted friends to get some schedule changes. I don't know what it is or who did it, but all I can say is THANK YOU!!! :) For the last two days, I have taken my lunch and headed up to Ft Lauderdale for about 30 minutes over lunchtime to take a break from work and on both days, there have been special schemes all over the place.

It started on Wednesday with Southwest's Nevada 1. There is a little story behind this one. Several years ago when I started spotting a Ft Lauderdale, I used to stay to the last possible moment before heading back to the office. One particular lunchtime, I did decided to head back a little early as all I saw in the distance was a blue aircraft - obviously thinking it was a regular Southwest. As I headed over the bridge over I-95 back towards the office, I turned and saw it was Nevada 1 - it was blue - it was a special blue! Ever since then, I have wanted to catch this - and - finally Wednesday was the chance again!

There is a difference between the special airTran sports colors and some of their other special schemes. Usually, the sports special colors can be seen a long way away - Falcons 1 with it's read and black, Colts 1 with it's blue with white writing. The other special schemes have to be searched for - like the one below - Orlando makes me smile.

Two days after this jetBlue special scheme went into service, I saw it on a terrible day at Ft Lauderdale - cloudy, dark, no hope of a decent shot. Wednesday was totally different weather, and I'm glad I finally caught it.

Those three all came in a matter of 30 minutes. So, salad in hand, I decided to test my luck again on Thursday lunchtime - again - 30 minutes was all I could spare. And, testing my luck was really worth it again. First of all, this Sunwings with it's Viking hybrid scheme came out. Sunwings has been one of the regulars this past winter season, sticking to their regular schedule, but always with the regular color schemes. Finally, the Vikings scheme came today. Now there is only one left that I need to catch of theirs - the Travel Service hybrid. Anyone have friends at Sunwings? Next Tuesday - Sunwings 025 - lunchtime - Travel Service??? I wish!! :)

This Continental started taxiing out during a dark cloud period, and I thought it was just a regular -800 or -900 color scheme until it got closer to the end of the taxiway and then I finally realized it was the Eco-Skies color scheme. The cloud was still covering the sun and I was starting to wonder if I would get it in decent light. But, thanks to landing traffic, it stayed on the taxiway, the cloud disappeared, and it's green winglets stood out in all their glory! Another nice job Continental!

Finally, as mentioned above, the non-sports airTran special schemes can be a little difficult to tell from a distance, and again this was the case. As it taxied out, I could see something on the fuselage, but thought it might be the Orlando scheme again. And, I'm glad I was wrong! Little Debbie adorning, interestingly, only one side of the aircraft - if you saw her from the other side, you wouldn't know - it's a plain scheme on the other side. So, if you see N950AT from the wrong side - try to get to the other side!

I guess the next few days, I'll be filling up the salad bowl, packing the ranch dressing and see what hopefully the spotting gods might reward me with again. Greedy? Sure - why not - lots of special things still to catch......

Another few days spent behind the camera lens....

Right place...right time...right airport..Opa-Locka

This was definitely a case of being at the right airport at the right time and in the right place. My son and I had been down in Miami for something apart from aviation photography. It was a cloud day today but on the way back from Miami to West Palm Beach, there were breaks in the cloud, so we stopped off at Opa-Locka to see what was around. The one thing about Opa-Locka is always expect the unexpected. The first thing that struck me is the S7 Airlines A310 that I'd shot in various states of dismantling has now totally gone - they didn't take too long to break that ship up at all. We drove around to the top of the airport, and this little thing caught my eye.

It's nice to see rare aircraft like this - this a private L-39 that was parked on the ramp. While shooting this, I heard the sounds of powerful engines starting - not the normal sound you hear at Opa-Locka, so turning around and looking, on the main ramp were three US Navy Northrop F5-N Tiger II's. I quickly jumped into the car and headed over to the ramp and managed to get them departing the ramp and taxiing to the runway. We saw their powerful but low take-off's to the east. This was definitely being in the right place at the right time! I'm not sure why they were at Opa-Locka - my guess is a refuel in between training sessions, but if any of my readers happen to know, I'd be interested.

Always expect the unexpected.....at Opa-locka....

A real special visitor to FLL

I haven't been around for a while, because, it has been one of the worst winter shooting seasons in years - many people have said that. A lot of westerly operations because of cold fronts, airlines going out of business, like SkyService, and generally lower volumes of operations.

However, at the end of March, there was a really special visitor to Ft Lauderdale. I missed it on the way out - it was in transit from Russia to an airshow in Chile. After missing it on the way out, I was hoping that it would come back through on the way back to Chile, and on Tuesday, April 7, 2010, it did - and - I was able to catch it - a Beriev Be-200Chs from the Russian Ministry for Emergency Situations - here is the Wikipedia entry http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beriev_Be-200.

I'm hoping that we are going to get some better traffic soon - Ft Lauderdale is getting a little boring :)

An event I was happy to witness....

Wednesday March 3, 2010 was a special day for someone - and I got to witness a little part of it from a distance. Captain Chesley B. "Sully" Sullenberger retired from US Airways after a long and of course, we know, distinguished career. Who will forget the "Miracle on the Hudson" - that event that stands out in aviation history for the sheer magnitude of what took place.

But, back to Wednesday March 3, 2010. I don't know who chose the final flight or how it turned out this way, but, the last flight was chosen as US Airways (Cactus) 1167 from Ft Lauderdale to Charlotte. What was planned in this flight was that First Office Jeff Skiles, the first officer during the Hudson flight was in the cockpit for this final flight. Being very close to Hollywood/Ft Lauderdale International Airport, I was able to go and witness the departure of the final flight. It was a cold, cloudy Ft Lauderdale afternoon and the wind was cooling the temperature quite a bit on the top of the Hibiscus parking garage.

Just after 1:10pm, Cactus 1167 pushed back from the gate. This was in a little bit of sunlight, the last we would see with this departure.

Once the taxi clearance was given, it was a pleasant but very nice surprise to see them given a clearance across the active runway 27R and down taxiway Alpha to the holding point of runway 27R. Needless to say, there were no complaints from the line of about 6 aircraft that were on taxiway Bravo waiting at the holding point already.

At the end of the taxiway, the tower controller read a very nice tribute to Captain Sullenberger on behalf of all the staff at Ft Lauderdale and then clearance was given to line up and hold. In his normal professional voice, there was an acknowledgement of "Thank You" and then a few seconds later, "Confirm Cactus 1167 cleared to line up and hold". As the landing jetBlue Airbus cleared the runway, take off clearance was given. No waiting - just a straight throttle up and the Airbus A321 powered down runway 27R.

The cloudy skies greeted the Airbus as it lifted off the runway and powered into the gray afternoon sky.

After the final tower communication was given and acknowledged, the airwaves were filled with comments of "Bye Sully" from several other crews on the frequency, and then there was a quiet "Thank You" and the flight was on it's way to Charlotte.

For those that are interested, I have downloaded the ground and tower communications for this event from LiveATC.net. The communications file is here. Cactus 1167 communications begins at around 15:08 into the MP3.

I have to add a personal note here. After listening to all the communications involved in this event, the whole "Hudson Miracle" event and aftermath and having just finished reading Sully's book "Highest Duty: My Search for What Really Matters", I have nothing but admiration for a person I consider the consummate professional. I wish him well in his retirement - a retirement that I think is only from US Airways, but not from the industry.

Another note - these are the first real pictures from my new D200 - its taking a little bit of getting used to! But, some more time spent behind the camera lens....

Opa-Locka and Miami on a cool day...Superbowl Sunday

It's early in February - we still get some nice cool days from the cold fronts that tend to drop down our way and on those days, the sky is clear, the light is perfect and it is worth getting in the car to drive down and spend a few hours at an airport. Superbowl Sunday was such a day - temperatures in the 60's and a clear day. My son and I headed out to start the day at Opa-Locka. There was one main reason for this - one of the few flying private Boeing 707's and when we got there - there is was in all it's glory. I've been trying to find this fine specimen for quite a while, so it was really nice to get a decent shot of it.

From there, we headed down to Miami to spend the afternoon looking there. This was the first time that I had shot Miami for any length of time with westerly operations. Thank goodness for a conveniently placed shooting shot and a wonderful view of runway 27. When Miami is on westerly operations, there are a lot more departures from the south runway and still a few arrivals. Hopefully, they roll long enough to get airborne just in front of the viewing spot like this Avianca A320.

Or, they land and roll long enough like this Cathay Pacific Cargo B744.

Caribbean has been leasing aircraft for a while to compliment their fleet. This is the latest one that has come from Transavia in Holland and still wears the hybrid color scheme.

With the cargo operations being on the south side of the airport, it's always nice to get these heavies lifting off in front of you.

However, if they are fully loaded like this World MD-11 (in their hybrid color scheme), then the rotation is a lot further down the runway and the lift off shots are not as spectacular.

My trusty Nikon D50 that has been shooting for almost 4 years is about to pass into my wife's hands and I am soon going to be the owner of a Nikon D200 - more megapixels, more power, I'm looking forward to seeing the results of this upgrade - watch this space....

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

Tis the season - at Opa-Locka (OPF)...

I'd promised previously to post some of the season goings on at Opa-Locka. There hasn't been the level of activity that there has been at Ft Lauderdale, but there were certainly some nice sights to see at Opa-Locka over the season. This was all shot in about a 15 minute period - not a lot of time, but Opa-Locka is like that - it's an easy compact airport to shoot at, but the shots can be very rewarding.

The first shot is something that I had been hearing about from various sources and some pictures of it that were already posted. The Mexican Air Force had brought their Boeing 737-200 into OPF for some refurbishment and work. I had been wanting to go down to OPF to try and shoot is and as time rolled by, I was wondering if, by the time I got to OPF, it might had departed already. However, the day I was there, it was standing right next to the fence with the APU running and some technicians going back and forth between the aircraft and the hangar. I managed to get my shot in perfect light and came away very happy.

Sitting right across the apron from the Mexican Air Force B732 was this Global Air Boeing 737-200 with it's engines removed. This Mexican registered B732 is very plain in it's color scheme with just the 3 stripes of color. This B732 started it's life at Southwest Airlines and has gone to Japan, Kazakhstan, and many other destinations before arriving back at Global in November 2009. I'm guessing that soon enough, it will have it's engines restored and will be back in the air, but I might be wrong on that.

Talking of Boeing 737's, another model that has been making final visits to OPF have been the Boeing 737-300's of Brazilian airlines GOL and Varig. There are probably a total of 6 or 7 from the 2 airlines at OPF - sent here to end their life and be broken up for parts. This particular aircraft, PR-GLH I had seen at the customs building at Ft Lauderdale when it arrived in the country from Brazil. It then flew from Ft Lauderdale to OPF to probably end it's flying life.



Finally, I'd noted the first Siberian S7 A310 that had arrived at OPF in my last posting about OPF. Since then, that first A310 VP-BSZ has been moved out to one of the remote parking areas and it is currently having it's wings disassembled. This is the second S7 A310 that arrived at OPF not long after it's sister ship. VP-BTJ is now sitting out on the apron, it's titles covered and most likely to suffer the same fate as her sister ship.

The weather starting 2010 in South Florida has been unseasonably cold and the winds have been consistently out of the west. I'm hoping that soon enough, we'll be back in the glorious light sunny days so that a lot more time can be spent behind the camera lens. I'm also trying to work on some options to have a few special features on the blog over the next year or so, so please keep checking back..

'Tis the Season..well...it was...

First of all, Happy New Year to all - I hope the festive season was peaceful and the New Year ahead is everything that you all hope for.

Ft Lauderdale has been interesting this festive season. Having worked through the working days of the season, I was able to take advantage of some of the stunning Florida season weather to catch up on some on my list of want to have's, and there have been quite a few of them!

Canjet, the Canadian charter company always seems to get some interesting schemes for the aircraft that they lease over this busy period. Two schemes that I knew were flying for them this season were both from Germany - one from Tui and the other from Hapag Lloyd. Both are yellow schemes so it is quite a change from their usual blue and white scheme. One of them I have been able to get - the Tui. I'm hoping the Hapag Lloyd scheme comes into Ft Lauderdale sometime before it gets returned to Germany, so I'm keeping my eye out for it.

airTran has painted several of their Boeing 717's in special color schemes for NFL teams and one for a NBA team. I've seen the Atlanta Falcons jet, but in terrible weather, so when I saw the Indianapolis Colts jet, Colts 1 in perfect light, I was a very happy person. I have to get the Falcons jet, the Baltimore Ravens and Orlando Magic jets in just the same light to complete the collection.

One very interesting catch of the season was a US Airways B767-200ER that came into Ft Lauderdale on a maintenance ferry. Apparently, something had gone wrong with this aircraft at San Juan, Puerto Rico, and it was ferried back to Charlotte via Ft Lauderdale. The very interesting part is that the flight from San Juan, about a 3 hour flight, was completed at 10,000' - well below the pressurization level.

Continental, for a while, has been equipping their Boeing 757-300's with winglets. Since my first Boeing 757 with winglet view, I've always loved the look of them. Now to get their -300's with winglets as well was a prize for me - interestingly enough, I caught two of them two days in a row - almost the exact same shot. I hope that Northwest (Delta) does the same with their -300's - those will make for a great shot as well

Northwest (Delta color scheme) did grace Ft Lauderdale with one nice surprise of the season - the football charter bringing the Pittsburgh Steelers in for their post New Year game against the Miami Dolphins - and - they did it with style - an Airbus A330-300 in Delta colors - I think this aircraft is probably the best for the new color scheme after the Boeing 747-400's.

Finally for this post, I always love to see biz-jets, and this one is a classic. This Lockheed JetStar was manufactured in 1966 and still flies with great regularity. I've seen flying in and out of Ft Lauderdale a few times - this is her home base, but each time I manage to catch her, there is bright sunlight, or heat haze and as you can see from her color scheme, bright light and heat haze do not do her justice.

That was just a sampling of Ft Lauderdale over the season. Watch this space as some time was also spent at Opa-Locka over the season, and there was at least one very special catch there.

More time spent behind the camera lens.....