Gallery Update: Air Canada Rouge Inaugural to PDX

This occasion and spotting trip should've happened last month, and I'm referring to Air Canada bringing back their seasonal-daily flights between Portland and Toronto, which was transferred over to their low-cost subsidiary, Air Canada Rouge. Originally slated to reinstate/inaugurate flights on May 24, Air Canada pushed back the start date until today due to the airline having to enact on mitigation measures which include schedule changes, temporary route suspensions, and fleet utilization as a result of the ongoing worldwide grounding of the Boeing 737 MAX fleet, of which Air Canada currently have over 20 in their fleet not flying. But the new Air Canada Rouge service between Portland and Toronto have finally started today with the inaugural arrival and it's another exciting new sight in terms of airline colors at PDX!

Air Canada Rouge is a low-cost subsidiary airline owned by Air Canada. Established in December 2012 with flights beginning on July 1, 2013 from eastern hubs at Montréal and Toronto, Rouge flights are integrated into the Air Canada mainline and Air Canada Express networks, with fares being sold with Air Canada flight numbers in a manner similar to how regional flights are listed and handled. Air Canada Rouge was established in order to help the mainline parent company to compete more efficiently with other low-cost carriers in Canada such as Air Transat, Sunwing, and WestJet in the leisure and vacation travel market, largely operating routes to Europe, the Caribbean, and the United States. Air Canada transferred two Airbus A319s and two Boeing 767s from their mainline fleet when they launched the Rouge subsidiary. Within a year and a half after launching, the Air Canada Rouge fleet rapidly expanded to a fleet of 28 aircraft, which also saw the addition of the A321 to the fleet, and the airline began service out of western Canada to predominately serve leisure markets from Vancouver and Calgary to various destinations in the western United States and Asia.

Today, Air Canada Rouge predominantly fly to leisure destinations in Europe, the Caribbean, South America, Central America, Mexico, and the United States with a fleet of 60 aircraft consisting of the Airbus A319, A320 (which is a new addition as of this year, all coming from Mexican low-cost carrier, Interjet), and A321 for short to medium-haul routes and the Boeing 767-300ER for the long-haul routes; the airline expects to have fleet total of 64 aircraft by the end of 2019.

Portland (PDX) 46

Preview:

Alaska Airlines Boeing 737-900/ER (N297AK) arriving on 28R as ASA140 from Anchorage.

Delta Air Lines Boeing 737-932/ER (N865DN) arriving on 28R as DAL725 from Minneapolis/St. Paul.

Compass Airlines (d/b/a Delta Connection) Embraer ERJ-170-200LR E-175LR (N602CZ) airborne off 28R as CPZ5842 for Seattle/Tacoma.

Delta Air Lines Boeing 737-932/ER (N862DN) arriving on 28R as DAL2618 from New York-JFK.

United Airlines Airbus A320-232 (N4901U) airborne off 28R as UAL2233 for San Francisco. Formerly registered as B-6275 with China Southern Airlines.

Icelandair Boeing 757-256 (TF-FIR) "Vatnajökull" taxiing for departure as ICE662 for Reykjavik-Keflavik. Great to see this livery again! 

Jazz Air (d/b/a Air Canada Express) Bombardier DHC-8-402 Dash 8 Q400 (C-FSRN) airborne off 28R as JZA8126 for Vancouver.

ICE662 airborne off 28R, homeward bound to Reykjavik-Keflavik.

Southwest Airlines Boeing 737-7H4 (N793SA) airborne off 28R as SWA6961 for San Diego.

Learjet 55 (N69VH) airborne off 28R.

United Airlines Airbus A319-131 (N829UA) airborne off 28R as UAL611 for Denver.

Alaska Airlines Boeing 737-890 (N530AS) arriving on 28R as ASA309 from San Jose.

Spirit Airlines Airbus A320-232 (N631NK) taxiing for departure as NKS293 for Las Vegas.

United Airlines Airbus A320-232 (N494UA) vacating 28R after arriving as UAL251 from Washington-Dulles.

NKS293 airborne off 28R headed for Las Vegas.

Air Canada Rouge Airbus A319-112 (C-GITR) arriving on 28R as ROU1841 from Toronto-Pearson. The inaugural arrival of Air Canada Rouge into Portland as well as the resumption of Air Canada's seasonal service to Toronto for 2019! Although this year's flights started a month later than originally scheduled. My first time seeing the Rouge livery!

Rouge replaces mainline E-190s from previous years. Flights will still be once-daily for the summer season with the arrival during the evening hours and the departure back to Toronto is on the following morning after the A319 makes an overnight stay in Portland. Scheduled to depart back to Toronto tomorrow morning as ROU1840. Welcome to Portland, Air Canada Rouge!

United Airlines Airbus A320-232 (N452UA) airborne off 28R as UAL1460 for San Francisco.

GMJ Air Shuttle Embraer EMB-145XR ERJ-145XR (N386AZ) clearing 28R as A4 after arriving as HGT4112 from San Jose. Used to shuttle employees of Intel between Hillsboro and other Intel sites in California and Arizona. My first time seeing one of these ERJ-145 operations! These flights are usually operated out of Hillsboro, but the main runway there is undergoing a repaving project, hence the "High Tech" call-sign being heard at PDX for the time being.

Frontier Airlines Airbus A320-251N (N350FR) "Miracle the Seagull" getting towed to the remote ramp. Arrived earlier in the evening from Denver as FFT793 and was scheduled to return to Denver as FFT794; however the return-flight was cancelled this evening.

Alaska Airlines Airbus A320-214 (N842VA) departing on 28L as ASA1642 for Las Vegas. Formerly "reel steel" with Virgin America.

Hawaiian Airlines Airbus A321-271N (N214HA) "Kukui" arriving on 28L as HAL26 from Honolulu. This is actually my first time seeing a Hawaiian Airlines arrival into PDX and such an opportunity is only available during this time of year when the daylight hours are much longer.

SkyWest Airlines (d/b/a Alaska Airlines) Embraer ERJ-170-200LR E-175LR (N188SY) arriving on 28L as SKW3307 from Salt Lake City.

United Parcel Service - UPS Airlines Airbus A300F4-622R (N145UP) taxiing for departure as UPS975 for Ontario. Check out the double beacon light!

Southwest Airlines Boeing 737-73V (N7840A) arriving on 28L as SWA990 from Oakland.

SkyWest Airlines (d/b/a Alaska Airlines) Embraer ERJ-170-200LR E-175LR (N182SY) departing on 28L as SKW3479 for Boise.

Alaska Airlines Boeing 737-890 (N520AS) taxiing for departure as ASA534 for Los Angeles.

Alaska Airlines Boeing 737-890 (N514AS) arriving on 28L as ASA834 from Honolulu.

Southwest Airlines Boeing 737-7H4 (N289CT) taxiing for departure as SWA6560 for Oakland.

UPS975 departing on 28L for Ontario.

Gallery Update: Collings Foundation Wings of Freedom Tour 2019

The 2019 Wings of Freedom Tour is in Salem for Father's Day weekend! It has been four years since I last saw the warbirds of the Collings Foundation, and it has certainly been a while since I last saw them close to home in Salem, that is until today. And since I last saw them, they have expanded on the number of warbirds on tour from three typical planes to five total. In addition to their usual B-17 Flying Fortress and B-24 Liberator bombers, the tour this year now includes a B-25J Mitchell, a two-seat, dual-control TP-40N Warhawk, as well as a two-seat, dual control TF-51D Mustang in lieu of the TP-51C Mustang seen in the past.

While I did not intend to spend the entire afternoon just for the five warbirds, I ended up doing so and it was worth it in the end as I got to see some additional warbird activity that was happening in front of the B-17 Alliance Museum (most likely in conjunction with preparation for the 2019 Warbirds Over the West fly-in just two months away!) along with some plane-spotting from the ramp.

Wings of Freedom Tour 2019 - Static Display

Wings of Freedom Tour 2019 - TF-51D Flight

Wings of Freedom Tour 2019 - TP-40N Flight

Wings of Freedom Tour 2019 - B-25J Flight

Wings of Freedom Tour 2019 - B-17 & B-24 Interior

Wings of Freedom Tour 2019 - Warbird Activity

Salem (SLE) 24

Preview:

Collings Foundation Warbirds
As previously mentioned, the Collings Foundation brought five warbirds to display and take people on rides. Their usual B-17 and B-24 were static displays all day while their B-25, P-51, and P-40 were going up multiple times throughout the day giving rides.

Curtiss TP-40N Warhawk (NL293FR) parked on the ramp. This dual-controlled P-40N was once on display at the Evergreen Air & Space Museum before being acquired by the Collings Foundation and restored to airworthy condition, so this stopover is a bit of a homecoming for this particular warbird.

North American TF-51D Mustang (NL551CF) "Toulouse Nuts" parked on the ramp. This dual-controlled P-51D Mustang is one of three original, purpose-built TF-51Ds trainers from the post-war era left in the world. With the advent of the jet age, dual-controlled P-51 Mustangs like this one were used to extensively train fighter pilots until jet trainers like the T-33 Shooting Star became available. "Toulouse Nuts" is painted in it's original markings from the days it was in service with the West Virginia Air National Guard's 167th Fighter Wing.

North American B-25J Mitchell (NL3476G) "Tondelayo" parked on the ramp. One of the very first planes to be added to the Collings Foundation's collection, this B-25 is painted in the markings of a bomber that flew in the 345th Bomb Group, 500th Bomber Squadron of the 5th Air Force nicknamed the "Air Apaches," which flew missions against targets in New Guinea in the Pacific Theater. 

Boeing B-17G Flying Fortress (NL93012) "Nine-O-Nine" on display.

Consolidated B-24J Liberator (NX224J) "Witchcraft" on display.

"Toulouse Nuts" taxiing out for departure for a passenger flight.

"Toulouse Nuts" just airborne off 34.

"Toulouse Nuts" on a high-speed pass!

"Toulouse Nuts" taxiing back in after landing.

The TP-40N taxiing out for a passenger flight.

Airborne off 34.

The TP-40N making a nice high-speed photo pass!

The TP-40N taxiing back after landing.

"Tondelayo" departing on 34 with some passengers on board.

"Tondelayo" making a pass over the airport, as is customary for any warbirds!

"Tondelayo" taxiing back to the ramp after landing.

Additional Warbirds
You almost kind of expect these things to happen; whenever a specific group of warbirds are in town, you expect more warbirds to show up and gather! In this case, we got two additional Oregon-based warbirds that flew into Salem, which included an AT-6 Texan flown by Bryan K. Harper out of the Eugene-area as well as "Old Glory," a N3N out of Creswell, Oregon owned by Ragwood Refactory owner Kyle Bushman. Most likely they were visiting the B-17 Alliance Museum; we anticipate seeing these warbirds in just over a month for the 2019 Warbirds Over the West event happening in August!

North American AT-6D Texan (N7517) arriving on 34 from Junction City. At the controls is Bryan K. Harper, President of the Lane County Farm Bureau and Vice President of Harper Farms, based in Junction City, Oregon.

Harper taxiing his Texan over to the B-17 Alliance Museum's ramp area.

Kyle Bushman making a flashy entrance with a little air show smoke in "Old Glory." This is probably my first time seeing a vintage N3N in-flight.

Naval Aircraft Factory N3N-3 (N61072) "Old Glory" arriving on 34 from Creswell. 

"Old Glory" taxiing over to the B-17 Alliance Museum.

N7517 parked on the ramp. Painted in the colors of the South African Air Force.

"Old Glory" parked on the ramp.

General Aviation Traffic
And of course, with access to the ramp, I got some decent plane-spotting in and got a nice variety of General Aviation traffic.

Piper PA-22-160 Tri-Pacer (N9556D) taxiing to the ramp.

Cessna 172N Skyhawk II (N5174E) taxiing to the ramp after a local flight. It's so weird seeing someone else fly the plane my uncle and I spent a lot of time time-building and training in now that it's been sold to the flight club here in Salem!

Beechcraft 95 Travel Air (N9601R) parked on the ramp.

Piper PA-31-310 Navajo (N116GW) parked on the ramp. Clearly, this eight-seat twin hasn't flown in a while...

Piper PA-46-350P Malibu Mirage (N4133G) airborne off 34 for Redmond.

Piper PA-28R-180 Arrow (N3767T) taxiing to the ramp after arriving from Novato, California before continuing on to Tacoma Narrows.

Teenflight Portland/Airway Science for Kids Van's RV-12 (N112TF) taxiing to the ramp after arriving from the Portland-area.

Van's RV-12iS (N412RV) taxiing to the ramp after arriving from Tillamook. This is the new Light Sport Aircraft (LSA) category of the RV-12, which was introduced in 2017. Equipped with the Rotax 912UL engine, the LSA variant comes factory-built and ready to fly, a departure from Van's Aircraft's tradition of providing kit-build aircraft.

Van's RV-6 (N113JW) parked on the ramp. This frame is based in Eugene.

Cessna 172N Skyhawk II (N737HJ) airborne off 34 for Eugene.

Infinite Air Center Piper PA-28-180 Cherokee (N8472W) airborne off 34 for Albany.

Eclipse EA500 (N80WP) taxiing to the ramp after arriving from Camarillo, California. Scheduled to depart tomorrow for Jackson Hole.

Cessna 195B Businessliner (N3070B) taxiing for departure. Always a treat to see a true GA classic still in good, working order!