The last time I went spotting at Portland back in February, I realized I was getting a little bored because I've pretty much seen everything during reasonable hours up to that point. I did however realize that I did not have any decent shots of the large cargo carrier activity that flew there. So I decided to make a special late-afternoon trip to catch as many of PDX's cargo heavies that flew in around that time. I'm glad I made this trip despite being worn out from the previous three days of working in the sun because in addition to the cargo heavies I wanted to chase after, I also photographed several other things I haven't been able to see on previous spotting missions and was able to check off quite a few things on my "spotter's bucket-list." Here's the link:
Portland (PDX) 28
Preview:
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| NetJets Cessna 750 Citation X (N914QS) taxiing to the FBO after arriving on 28R as EJA914 from Washington-Dulles. |
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| SkyWest Airlines (d/b/a United Express) Embraer ERJ-170-200LR E-175LR (N167SY) arriving on 28R as SKW5445 from San Francisco. |
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| United States Navy F/A-18A+ Hornet (162873) of Strike Fighter Squadron 204 (VFA-204) "River Rattlers" taxiing to the FBO after arriving on 28R. This was quite a pleasant and welcome surprise! Formerly with the United States Marine Corps Marine Fighter Attack Training Squadron 101 (VMFAT-101) "Sharpshooters." |
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| United Airlines Airbus A320-232 (N495UA) departing on 28R as UAL550 for Denver. |
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| Beechcraft B300 Super King Air 350 (N350FP) airborne after departing 28R for Fresno. |
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| Southwest Airlines Boeing 737-7H4 (N468WN) departing via 28R as SWA1388 to Sacramento. |
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| Cathay Pacific Cargo Boeing 747-867F/SCD (B-LJE) departing on 28L for Hong Kong via Anchorage as CPA91. Though this is the same airframe I saw this past February, today's flight was not a normal day for Cathay Pacific to fly into PDX (regular days are Thursdays and Saturdays). |
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| SkyWest Airlines (d/b/a Alaska Airlines) Embraer ERJ-170-200LR E-175LR (N186SY) arriving on 28L as SKW3475 from San Diego. |
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| Alaska Airlines Boeing 737-990/ER (N493AS) in the "More to Love" livery arriving on 28L as ASA557 from Los Angeles. This livery celebrates the Alaska Air Group's acquisition and merger with Virgin America. I was quite thrilled to catch this livery since it went public! |
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| Condor Flugdienst Boeing 767-3Q8/ER (D-ABUT) departing on 28L as CFG2091 to Frankfurt Am Main. I'm happy to finally catch Condor's current "Sunny Heart" livery! |
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| Delta Air Lines Boeing 757-232 (N682DA) arriving on 28R as DAL1384 from Minneapolis. Strange to see a 757-200 without winglets. |
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| Alaska Airlines Boeing 737-890 (N583AS) departing on 28R as ASA592 for Santa Ana. |
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| SkyWest Airlines (d/b/a Delta Connection) Embraer ERJ-170-200LR E-175LR (N251SY) arriving on 28R as SWK4790 from Seattle-Tacoma. This is my first time photographing a SkyWest E-Jet in Delta Connection colors! SkyWest began flying Delta Connection flights with E-Jets in August 2016. |
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| Air NetExpress LearJet 35A (N220CK) airborne after departing on 28R as USC240 for Oakland. |
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| NetJets Cessna 680 Citation Sovereign (N346QS) taxiing to the FBO after arriving from Hayden/Yampa Valley as EJA346. |
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| Delta Air Lines Boeing 717-231 (N985AT) departing on 28R as DAL990 for Los Angeles. |
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| LearJet 60XR (N901PM) taxiing to the FBO after arriving from Sun Valley. |
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| Peninsula Airways-PenAir Saab 340B/Plus (N331AG) arriving on 28L as NLA198 from Crescent City. PenAir recently changed their ICAO code from "PEN" to "NLA." |
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| Horizon Air (d/b/a Alaska Airlines) Bombardier DHC-8-402 Dash 8 Q400 (N443QX) in the University of Alaska at Anchorage Seawolves livery departing via 28L as QXE2253 for Reno/Tahoe. |
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| SkyWest Airlines (d/b/a Alaska Airlines) Embraer ERJ-170-200LR E-175LR (N191SY) departing on 28L as SKW9324 for Oakland. |
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| United Parcel Service - UPS Airlines Boeing 767-34AF/ER (N303UP) arriving on 28L as UPS976 from Louisville. |
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| SkyWest Airlines (d/b/a Alaska Airlines) Embraer ERJ-170-200LR E-175LR (N188SY) departing on 28L as SKW3470 for Santa Barbara. |
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| FedEx Express McDonnell Douglas (Boeing) MD-10-30F (N303FE) arriving on 28L as FDX781 from Memphis. Externally, the aircraft is still a classic DC-10. The MD-10 is just a re-designation following retrofit cockpit upgrade that includes an Advanced Common Flightdeck (ACF) used on the MD-11. The MD-10 cockpit upgrade program was launched by Boeing in 1996 following their merge with McDonnell Douglas, which eliminated the need for the flight engineer position and allowed a common type rating with the MD-11. This was advantageous to airlines like FedEx Express, which operate both the MD-10 and MD-11; it allowed them to have a common pilot pool for both aircraft. The MD-10 conversion now falls under the Boeing Converted Freighter program where Boeing's international affiliate companies perform the conversions. I am thrilled to photograph a variant of the legendary DC-10 for the first time in a long time! |
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| American Airlines Boeing 737-823 (N817NN) arriving on 28L as AAL307 from Phoenix-Sky Harbor. |
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| Southwest Airlines Boeing 737-76N (N7884G) arriving on 28L as SWA2738 from San Francisco. |
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| Horizon Air (d/b/a Alaska Airlines) Bombardier DHC-8-401 Dash 8 Q400 (N407QX) arriving on 28L as QXE2151 from Seattle-Tacoma. |
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| Alaska Airlines Boeing 737-890 (N558AS) departing on 28L as ASA570 to Los Angeles. |
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| Peninsula Airways-PenAir Saab 340B (N677PA) arriving on 28L as NLA186 from Redding. |
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| Delta Air Lines Airbus A320-212 (N361NW) departing on 28R as DAL37 for Salt Lake City. |
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| Alaska Airlines Boeing 737-990/ER departing on 28R as ASA714 for Salt Lake City. |
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| N251SY airborne after departing via 28R for the return-trip to Seattle-Tacoma as SKW4790. |
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| SkyWest Airlines (d/b/a Alaska Airlines) Embraer ERJ-170-200LR E-175LR (N170SY) arriving on 28L as SKW3383 from Kansas City. The first E-Jet to operate on the behalf of Alaska Airlines has since been repainted into the current livery. |
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| N493AS "More to Love" departing on 28L as ASA620 for Las Vegas. |
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| Southwest Airlines Boeing 737-8H4 (N8646B) taxiing to 28L for departure to Oakland as SWA4984. |
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| Southwest Airlines Boeing 737-7CT (N7821L) smoking the mains on arrival on 28L as SWA2711 from San Jose. |
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| United Parcel Service - UPS Airlines Boeing 767-34AF/ER (N352UP) arriving on 28L as UPS992 from Louisville. |
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| Spirit Airlines Airbus A320-232 (N642NK) taxiing to the gate after arriving on 28R as NKS360 from Las Vegas. This is my first time catching Spirit's all-yellow "Taxi" livery. I'm not a big fan of the color yellow but this livery in my opinion is simply atrocious!!! Spirit Airlines, the carrier that's really good at pissing off their customers, really knows how to embrace their bad reputation! |
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| NetJets Cessna 680 Citation Sovereign (N307QS) taxiing to the FBO after arriving from San Jose as EJA307. |
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| N901PM airborne after departing via 28R, off to San Jose. |
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| N682DA being towed to the remote ramp after being taken out of service for the day. Scheduled to depart to Minneapolis tomorrow morning as DAL1075. Note the construction equipment on the ramp in the foreground. PDX is starting to see construction for expansion of the terminal in order to balance the use of both the north and south concourses and to create more efficient passenger flow and transit through the facility. Preliminary completion is scheduled for 2020. |
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| Frontier Airlines Airbus A321-211 (N701FR) "Otto the Owl" arriving on 28R as FFT1403 from Cleveland-Hopkins. My first time catching an A321 operated by Frontier Airlines! The airline operates between Cleveland and Portland on a summer-seasonal basis. Frontier ordered A321s in 2014 and began taking delivery of them in October 2015. This airframe was the very first A321 for Frontier's fleet. Aircraft later scheduled to depart PDX for Denver as FFT794. |
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| Swift Air Boeing 737-401 (N420US) arriving on 28R as SWQ870 from Sacramento. First time photographing this charter airline! Airframe first delivered to Piedmont Airlines in April 1989. It was then transferred to USAir in August 1989 following the merger between Piedmont and USAir. Airframe stayed in the fleet when USAir re-branded to become US Airways in February 1997. It was withdrawn from the fleet on August 11, 2013 in conjunction with US Airways' retirement of their entire 737-400 fleet. Swift Air acquired the airframe on August 7, 2014. Later scheduled to depart for Pasco/Tri-Cities as SWQ9853 and then to Wendover as SWQ854; no doubt this is a casino charter! Just recently, Swift Air announced that it will acquire the newly revived Eastern Air Lines with the intention of retaining the Eastern name, assets, and associated trademarks. This is rather significant news mainly because news and activity regarding the new incarnation of Eastern Air Lines has been rather quiet. |
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| Jazz Air (d/b/a Air Canada Express) Bombardier DHC-8-402 Dash 8 Q400 (C-GGOY) arriving on 28R from Vancouver as JZA8125. Because of the construction associated with the terminal expansion, all Air Canada flights now have to park elsewhere at a completely different gate. |
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| LearJet 75 (N446DJ) taxiing to the FBO after arriving from Medford. |
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| Delta Air Lines Boeing 717-2BD (N922AT) arriving on 28R as DAL1618 from Los Angeles. |
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| American Airlines Boeing 737-823 (N861NN) arriving on 28L as AAL1017 from Dallas-Fort Worth. |
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| Compass Airlines (d/b/a American Eagle) Embraer ERJ-170-200LR E-175LR (N218NN) departing on 28L as CPZ6082 for Los Angeles. |
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| Alaska Airlines Boeing 737-990/ER (N468AS) departing on 28L as ASA402 for San Jose. |
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| FedEx Express McDonnell Douglas MD-11F (N582FE) arriving on 28L as FDX582 from Memphis. After only getting lousy or so-so shots of MD-11s in earlier spotting excursions, I FINALLY have a decent shot of this very large tri-jet! This airframe was once N1751A with American Airlines. |
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| Virgin America Airbus A320-214 (N631VA) "chic mobile" departing on 28R as VRD948 to San Francisco. Better catch this livery while it lasts because the Alaska Air Group has announced in March of this year that the Virgin America brand will be retired sometime in 2019, around the same time the airlines will complete the merge with a single operating certificate. As for what will become of Virgin America's Airbus fleet, it has yet to be determined by the Alaska Air Group; for now, the current fleet and orders Virgin America has will be transferred to the Alaska Airlines fleet at least until the leases on the Airbus aircraft expire. |
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| American Airlines Boeing 737-823 (N942AN) arriving on 28L as AAL2329 from Dallas-Fort Worth. |
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| Peninsula Airways-PenAir Saab 340B/Plus (N404XJ) "Spirit of Unalaska" taxiing to the gate after arriving from Arcata/Eureka as NLA184. |
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| Alaska Airlines Boeing 737-890 (N570AS) in the "Adventure of Disneyland Resort" special livery departing on 28L as ASA562 for Los Angeles. |
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| Alaska Airlines Boeing 737-990/ER (N448AS) arriving on 28L as ASA571 from San Diego. |
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| Alaska Airlines Boeing 737-900/ER (N273AK) arriving on 28L as ASA727 from Orlando. Note that this airframe does not have Alaska Airlines' Boeing customer code. In 2016, Boeing announced the discontinuation of customer codes for 7x7 models still in production. The move makes sense because customer codes were never used for the Boeing 787 Dreamliner and Boeing 737 MAX, and were not planned to be used on the Boeing 777X either. N273AK is an airframe delivered very recently and after Boeing's discontinuation of their customer code, therefore referred simply as a 737-900/ER. As newer Boeing models come online, we'll start seeing less of the older airframes that were given a customer code. |
Well, after getting some of PDX's cargo heavies as well as some new narrow-body liveries, I think I'll start spotting there sparingly. I'll still keep an eye out for things out of the ordinary, but I think I'm done spotting there frequently for now! Hopefully, I'll have opportunities to go to other, larger airports with a more diverse selection of airlines to photograph.
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