A planespotting trip is always a good way for me to get started on my Memorial Day weekend! About four years ago, there was a daily flight between PDX and Toronto-Pearson International Airport offered by mainline Air Canada that was suspended some time in 2012. Starting today, Air Canada reinstated daily seasonal flights to Toronto utilizing Embraer E-190 jets and I was able to photograph their inaugural departure this morning; the first arrival was last night so that means the Toronto-bound flights depart PDX in the morning and arriving flight returns about 12 hours later and then overnights for the next flight the following morning. In addition to catching the reinstated Air Canada mainline flight, I was able to photograph a few other new things at PDX, including a brand-new Triple 7 fresh from the factory destined for the Boeing paint hangar at PDX, a couple of FedEx Feeder flights including an ATR-42, a couple special liveries I haven't seen in a long time and an Alaska-SkyWest E-jet in the new livery. And I even got more sounds of freedom thanks to the Redhawks F-15 Eagles of the 142nd Fighter Wing from the Portland Air National Guard Base! Here's the link:
Portland (PDX) 23
Photo preview & highlights:
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| Alaska Airlines Boeing 737-890 (N530AS) departing on 28L as ASA833 to Honolulu. |
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| Peninsula Airways (PenAir) Saab 340B/Plus (N404XJ) in the previous livery as the "Spirit of Unalaska" pulling up to the gate after arrival as PEN180 from Redding with an intermediate stop in Eureka/Arcata. Airframe formerly with Mesaba Airlines operating for Northwest Airlink. |
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| Peninsula Airways (PenAir) Saab 340B (N677PA) arriving on 28L as PEN160 from Crescent City. |
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| Southwest Airlines Boeing 737-76N (N7709A) departing on 28L as SWA2548 for San Diego. |
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| Empire Airlines (d/b/a FedEx Feeder) Cessna 208 Super Cargo Master (N953FE) airborne after departure from 28L. |
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| PEN160 pulling up to the gate. |
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| Empire Airlines (d/b/a FedEx Feeder) Cessna 208B Super Cargo Master (N779FE) airborne after departure from 28L. |
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| American Airlines Boeing 737-823 (N853NN) in the old chrome colors departing on 28L as AAL2472 for Dallas-Ft. Worth. |
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| Empire Airlines (d/b/a FedEx Feeder) ATR-42-300 (N913FX) taxiing for departure as CFS675 for Klamath Falls. It's been a long time since I've seen one of these! |
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| Alaska Airlines Boeing 737-890 (N538AS) departing 28L as ASA30 for Boston. |
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| CFS675 airborne after departing from 28L for Klamath Falls. |
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| Empire Airlines (d/b/a FedEx Feeder) Cessna 208B Super Cargo Master (N973FE) airborne after departure from 28L. |
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| Gulfstream Aerospace (G-IV) Gulfstream IV (N799CP) airborne after departure from 28R for Bozeman. |
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| United Airlines Airbus A319-131 (N849UA) taxiing for departure to Denver as UAL714. |
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| Embraer EMB-500 Phenom 100 (N247SK) airborne after departure from 28R bound for Lexington, OR. |
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| Air Canada Embraer ERJ-190-100IGW E-190AR (C-FHKE) on push-back for departure as ACA546 as the first of the reinstated flights to Toronto. This is my first time seeing an E-190! Airframe arrived the night prior as ACA547 from Toronto as the first arrival of reinstated flights. |
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| Frontal view of the E-190. |
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| Side-view of the E-190 just to get an idea how long this E-jet is. Following the E-195, the E-190 is the second-largest stretch version in the E-jet family and is considered mainline-size. As such, many mainline carriers fly the type themselves, instead of having them flown by a regional partner, fitting them with a business class section. Air Canada operates 45 E-190 aircraft fitted with 9 business-class and 88 economy-class seats as part of its primary fleet. |
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| ACA546 beginning its taxi. U.S. operators of the E-190 include JetBlue and American Airlines (the latter's airframes being inherited from US Airways). With E-190s as part of their own fleet, U.S. airlines that operate them have increased crewing flexibility by having the ability of cabin crews to work aboard narrow-body or widebody aircraft. U.S. regional carrier Republic Airlines also used to operate E-190s on the behalf of Frontier Airlines for regional capacity support before Republic Airways Holdings sold off Frontier Airlines in 2013 and terminated Frontier-branded E-190 flights as a result. Following the end of Frontier-branded E-190 flights, Republic operated their E-190s for casino charters before the airframes were retired from the fleet, either being sold or returned to lessors in August 2015. |
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| UAL714 just after rotation from 28R for Denver. |
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| United Airlines Boeing 737-924/ER (N38446) taxiing for departure as UAL250 for Washington-Dulles. |
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| ACA546 rotating on 28R for Toronto. |
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| In the past Air Canada used a mix between Airbus A319s and E-190s depending on passenger volume. We've yet to see how they'll do this time... |
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| No doubt, the Embraer E-190 definitely fills a unique a market. And it's nice to see a greater variety of aircraft types at PDX now too! |
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| UAL250 departing on 28R for Washington-Dulles. |
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| American Airlines Boeing 737-823 (N866NN) in the old chrome colors taxiing for departure as AAL86 for Chicago O' Hare. I got lucky this trip with TWO old American "chrome" colors! I'll photograph these colors when I can before they're all gone! |
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| N677PA on a steep climb-out from 28L as PEN8808 for the short hop for Aurora on re-positioning/rotation flight. Another Saab 340B would later arrive to rotate in this airframe's place. That tells me that PenAir has more than two aircraft stationed in the Pacific Northwest at a time. |
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| Alaska Airlines Boeing 737-890 (N560AS) "Spirit of the Islands" special arriving on 28L as ASA575 from Los Angeles. I haven't seen this one in a long time! |
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| AAL86 departing on 28L for Chicago O' Hare. |
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| Alaska Airlines Boeing 737-990/ER (N407AS) arriving on 28L as ASA389 from San Francisco. |
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| SkyWest Airlines (d/b/a Alaska Airlines) Bombardier CL-600-2C10 CRJ-701ER departing on 28L. Formerly with Horizon Air as N607QX. |
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| Horizon Air Bombardier DHC-8-402 Q400 (N403QX) in Montana State University Bobcats livery arriving on 28L as QXE2480 from Medford. |
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| QXE2480 pulling up to the gate. |
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| Full-on frontal view of the DHC-8-402 with prop blur! |
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| SkyWest Airlines (d/b/a Alaska Airlines) Embraer ERJ-170-200LR E-175LR (N171SY) arriving on 28L. |
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| Southwest Airlines Boeing 737-7H4 (N944WN) arriving on 28L as SWA2544 from Phoenix-Sky Harbor. |
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| Alaska Airlines Boeing 737-890 (N553AS) in the new livery departing 28L as ASA423 for Seattle-Tacoma. |
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| United States Air Force/Oregon Air National Guard McDonnell Douglas F-15C Eagle (82-0016), the first of a flight of five departing on 28L. I never get tired of that sound of freedom!!! |
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| The second F-15C Eagle to depart on 28L was "Balls 5" (84-0005). |
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| To my surprise, the third Eagle to depart on 28L was a McDonnell Douglas F-15D Eagle (85-0130), a two-seater variant. This airframe is one of only 92 ever built and is used for flight training. |
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| The fourth to depart on 28L, an F-15C Eagle "Balls 2" (84-0002). |
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| And finally, the fifth to depart on 28L, and F-15C Eagle (78-0492). |
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| American Airlines Airbus A321-231 (N537UW) still in US Airways titles and colors taxiing for departure as AAL895 for Phoenix-Sky Harbor. I was absolutely pleased to catch this livery again (during the year 2016 mind you!) before the inevitable repainting of this airframe occurs. |
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| AAL895 departing on 28L for Phoenix-Sky Harbor. |
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| Horizon Air Bombardier DHC-8-401 Q400 (N407QX) in University of Oregon Ducks livery rotating on 28L. |
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| Alaska Airlines Boeing 737-890 (N548AS) smoking the mains on 28L upon arrival as ASA629 from Las Vegas. |
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| Alaska Airlines Boeing 737-8FH (N549AS) taxiing for departure as ASA588 to Palm Springs. Boeing customer code "FH" indicates that this aiframe is leased to Alaska Airlines from Dublin, Ireland-based SMBC Aviation Capital, the world's fourth-largest aircraft leasing company. |
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| Alaska Airlines Boeing 737-890 (N537AS) arriving on 28L as ASA573 from San Diego. |
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| ASA588 departing on 28L for Palm Springs. |
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| BOE569, a brand-new Boeing 777-300 (with temporary registration N55141) straight from the factory up in Everett, WA heading into the paint shop Boeing has at PDX, smoking the mains on 28L performing a touch and go. |
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| The varying colors of this "naked" aircraft roughly shows the different sections of the airframe that makes up the whole twin-jet. And yes, the rudder gives it away; this airframe will be going to KLM-Royal Dutch Airlines so this will be designated as a Boeing 777-306 (Dutch registration to be PH-BVR). |
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| Performing a touch and go. Apparently, it's a sort of tradition for any Boeing test flights coming to/going from PDX to do one touch and go. |
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| Back in the air! Don't worry; she'll be back real soon! |
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| SkyWest Airlines (d/b/a Alaska Airlines) Embraer ERJ-170-200LR E-175LR (N178SY) arriving on 28L as SKW3389 from Dallas-Ft. Worth. This the first Alaska-SkyWest E-jet to sport the new Alaska Airlines livery and my first time spotting this livery on this aircraft type. It was only recently delivered on May 7, 2016 and put into service not too long after that so I was pretty thrilled to catch this airframe so soon. Coming from Dallas-Ft. Worth, I personally find it hard to believe that they're flying these E-jets half-way across the country on domestic flights! |
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| SkyWest Airlines (d/b/a Alaska Airlines) Embraer ERJ-170-200LR E-175LR (N177SY) arriving on 28L as SKW3419 from Salt Lake City. |
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| Peninsula Airways (PenAir) Saab 340B/Plus arriving on 28L as PEN8809 from nearby Aurora on a re-positioning flight to be put into revenue service later on in the day. |
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| N404XJ taxiing for departure as PEN181 for Eureka/Arcata. This is the second time I've seen the old PenAir livery. |
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| Old meets new! N404XJ in the old livery and N410XJ in the new livery taxi by each other. |
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| PEN8809 pulling up to the gate. |
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| PEN181 departing on 28L for Eureka/Arcata. |
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| BOE569 touching down on 28L, this time for a full-stop landing. Note the left-main gears in full contact with the runway while the right-main gears are still in the air; the winds started to pick up, making landings a little bit more interesting. |
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| Nose gear making contact with the runway and reverse thrust just being activated. |
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| Slowing down. |
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| Taxiing to the paint hangar. The next time anyone sees this airframe, it'll be in the full KLM livery! |
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| Delta Air Lines Boeing 757-351 (N589NW) airborne after departure from 28R as DAL1067 for Detroit. Formerly with Northwest Airlines. |
