Happy week of Thanksgiving.
After ExpressJet inaugurated their "aha!" branded service to Eugene earlier this month, I've been keeping an eye on them and their fleet development. What I was after in particular was another one of their (as of right now) three ERJ-145s, preferably one that's actually painted in the "aha!" livery. Well, today happened to be that occasion after confirming which airframe it was via FlightRadar 24, so off I went to Eugene Airport for another spotting trip. And unlike my last outing to Eugene, the weather was actually nice!
Eugene (EUG) 8
Preview:
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| American Airlines Airbus A319-132 (N832AW) taxiing to the terminal after arriving on 16R as AAL1467 from Dallas-Fort Worth. |
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| United States Navy Lockheed P-3C Orion (161339) airborne off 16R as "Totem 85" following a touch-and-go. This is actually my first time seeing a standard P-3 Orion! The first time I saw a Navy P-3 was actually a modified variant, the EP-3E Aries II back at the 2015 Oregon International Air Show. |
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| Allegiant Air Airbus A319-112 (N324NV) taxiing to the gate after arriving on 16R as AAY514 from Oakland. I last saw this airframe back in my schooling days in Provo, Utah five years ago. |
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| "Totem 85" airborne off 16R following another touch-and-go. Based at NAS Whidbey Island with Maritime Patrol Squadron 69 (VP-69), the "Fighting Totems." |
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| "Totem 85 executing a low-pass over 16R. VP-69 is a Naval Reserve Squadron and is one of two squadrons based at NAS Whidbey Island to still have the P-3 Orion on hand (the other being VQ-1 and their EP-3E Aries IIs). |
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| "Totem 85" executing a missed-approach after shooting an instrument approach for 16R. |
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| "Totem 85" doing a full-stop landing on 16R. |
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| Face-to-face with the Orion! |
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| "Totem 85" clearing 16R and about to taxi-back for departure. |
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| Of course, the Navy is using airports like Eugene to fly cross-country and practice instrument approaches and landings for proficiency all while trying not to anger locals near their home base. |
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| SkyWest Airlines (d/b/a Delta Connection) Embraer ERJ-170-200LL E-175SC (N300SY) taxiing for departure as SKW3912 for Seattle-Tacoma. Arrived this morning from Salt Lake City as SKW4069. |
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| SkyWest Airlines (d/b/a United Express) Bombardier CL-600-2B19 CRJ-200ER (N937EV) on push-back for departure as SKW5474 for Denver. Arrived an hour prior as SKW5289 from San Francisco. |
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| SKW3912 airborne off 16R for Seattle-Tacoma. |
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| "Totem 85" airborne off 16R back to NAS Whidbey Island. |
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| N832AW parked at the gate. Scheduled to return to Dallas-Fort Worth as AAL1238. |
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| ExpressJet Airlines (d/b/a aha!) Embraer EMB-145LR ERJ-145LR (N846HK) arriving on 16R as ASQ7062 from Reno/Tahoe. Glad to finally catch the actual "aha!" livery! |
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| ASQ7062 clearing the runway. Like all the other ERJ-145s currently in the fleet, this airframe first flew for Trans States Airlines in United Express colors, first delivered in September 2004. |
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| Airframe was then withdrawn from use and stored in St. Louis in March 2016 until June 2018, when it was returned to revenue service. It was also stripped of the United Express livery and instead wore a simple Trans States house livery, used interchangeably between United Express and American Eagle routes as needed. |
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| Of course, when Trans States ceased operations in 2020 as a result of the pandemic repercussions, airframe went back into storage in April of that year. |
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| Aircraft was taken up by ExpressJet just a few months ago as part of their resumption as an independent regional carrier. |
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| ExpressJet officially took delivery of this airframe just last month. |
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| Of the three ERJ-145s currently in ExpressJet's fleet, this is the only airframe to bear the complete "aha!" livery as shown on advertisement renderings. There is another airframe that also has the same logos, but still have remnants of the United Express livery on the lower half (which I hope to photograph!). However N846HK is what "aha!" branded ERJs are supposed to look like! |
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| ASQ7062 pulling up to the gate. Scheduled to depart back to Reno as ASQ7063. |
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| Horizon Air (d/b/a Alaska Airlines) Embraer ERJ-170-200LR E-175LR (N644QX) airborne off 16R as QXE2097 for Seattle-Tacoma. Alaska Airlines E-jets are also a new sight at Eugene this year, as they've started rotating in along with the Q400s. The E-175s flown by both Horizon and SkyWest are primarily being used between Eugene and Los Angeles, which Alaska started flying out of Eugene this year in order to compete with the likes of Allegiant, Avelo (indirectly with their Burbank hub), as well as United. The other reason is in conjunction with Alaska joining the OneWorld alliance and to provide feed to American Airlines. |
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| SKW5474 airborne off 16R for Denver. Airframe formerly flew for ExpressJet under the Delta Connection brand. |
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| Cessna 525A CitationJet CJ2 (N295) airborne off 16R. |
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| SkyWest Airlines (d/b/a Delta Connection) Embraer ERJ-170-200LL E-175SC (N289SY) taxiing to the gate after arriving on 16R as SKW4117 from Seattle-Tacoma. Scheduled to depart later in the day as SKW3576 to Salt Lake City. |
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| Cessna 550 Citation II Bravo (N79DA) getting towed on the FBO ramp. Arrived two days ago from Bend. |
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