Gallery Update: Sukhoi Su29 Sighting in Salem!

After successfully finishing my Cessna 182 Skylane checkout and getting the high-performance endorsement this afternoon, I stuck around the airport to photograph a few things that caught my eye, including a locally-based Sukhoi Su-29! I'll let the photos speak for themselves.

Salem (SLE)

Preview:

Sukhoi Su-29 (N29VB) arriving on 34 after a local flight. I've only seen other Su-29 before and that would be none other than Renny Price's white and purple one that I've seen at several air shows here in Oregon! Hopefully, I'll be able to catch this bird again when I have some more time...

Cessna 182A Skylane (N4896D) arriving on 34 after a local flight. Unlike the Skylane I flew in, this straight-tail version is more of a classic design!

Valley Flyers Cessna 182M Skylane (N70574) in front of the hangar. The plane I just got checked out it today! I'm looking forward to taking this bird out on my own from here on out!

Tribute: Remembering Gail Halvorsen, the "Berlin Candy Bomber" and "Uncle Wiggly Wings"

Colonel Gail Seymour Halvorsen (October 10, 1920 - February 16, 2022)

This morning, we were saddened to learn the passing of Gail Halvorsen at the age of 101 years old yesterday in Provo, Utah on February 16, 2022. Colonel Gail Seymour Halvorsen was born on October 10, 1920 in Salt Lake City, Utah and served as a senior officer and command pilot of the United States Air Force. He learned to fly in rural Utah and earned his private pilots license in 1941 before joining the Civil Air Patrol. Colonel Halvorsen joined the United States Army Air Force in 1942 and was eventually assigned to Germany in 1948 in order to fly for the Berlin Airlift as part of Operation Vittles at the onset of the Cold War flying Douglas C-47 Skytrains and C-54 Skymasters. Best known as the "Berlin Candy Bomber" and "Uncle Wiggly Wings" (for rocking and wiggling his wings whenever his plane approached Berlin for the children to look out for), he is famous for kickstarting Operation "Little Vittles," a humanitarian operation that was a part of Operation Vittles, which dropped candy via miniature parachutes for German children during the Berlin Airlift in order to raise morale.

Colonel Halvorsen speaking at the 2018 groundbreaking ceremony for the Gail S. Halvorsen Aviation Center being built at the Spanish Fork Airport in Utah. 

Colonel Halvorsen initially began "Little Vittles" with no authorization from his superiors. But within a year, word of his humanitarian gesture reached Lieutenant General William H. Turner, airlift commander of the whole operation, who ordered the expansion of the "Little Vittles" operations. Support for the candy-dropping efforts grew, first from Halvorsen and his pilot friends flying in the Berlin Airlift, then to his whole airlift squadron, and then to the United States. When news of Operation "Little Vittles" reached the United States, American children and candy makers from throughout the country began contributing. Over 23 tons of candy was dropped as part of "Little Vittles" via over 250,000 miniature parachutes from September 1948 until May 1949. Halvorsen himself became a national hero and received the Congressional Gold Medal among other numerous awards for his part in Operation "Little Vittles." Many also consider him a hero of the Cold War, an icon of the West standing its ground against the expansion of a then-Soviet-led Communism.

Halvorsen flew C-47 Skytrains much like this one.

Douglas C-54G Skymaster on display the Hill Aerospace Museum in Ogden, Utah. This particular airframe actually flew in the Berlin Airlift and is now painted to look like the plane Halvorsen flew during the airlift in commemoration of his contributions to Operation "Little Vittles." Throughout the Wasatch and Utah Valleys, Halvorsen has been a well-known fixture in Utah communities, including The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which he was also a prominent member of.

After the Berlin Airlift, Colonel Halvorsen continued his military and humanitarian career, spanning 25 years where he advocated for and performed candy drops in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Albania, Japan, Guam, and Iraq. His professional and military career included various notable positions, including his contributions which led to the development of reusable manned spacecraft at the Directorate of Space and Technology and served as commander of Berlin Tempelhof Airport. Halvorsen retired from Air Force service in 1974 after logging over 8,000 flying hours. From 1976 until 1986, he served as the Assistant Dean of Student Life at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah. The legacy of Operation "Little Vittles" had a profound impact in the United States and throughout the world. Even after retiring from the military, Colonel Halvorsen continued to serve the local, national, and international community in a variety of ways.

Halvorsen's candy drop had also been a fixture and many local aviation events, albeit in a more educational and fun setting, including the 2018 groundbreaking ceremony of the Gail S. Halvorsen Aviation Center pictured here.

I also had the privilege of meeting and shaking hands with Colonel Gail Halvorsen, back in 2016. He was truly an inspiration and a fine gentleman.

Colonel Halvorsen and I at a 2016 aviation event that took place at the Spanish Fork Airport in Utah. This was without a doubt a very memorable moment in my life and I treasure it even more so now...

To you, Colonel Gail S. Halvorsen, blue skies and tailwinds sir! You will be greatly missed! And thank you for your inspirational service! His legacy lives on and it would be very appropriate to eat a chocolate bar in his memory.

Gallery Update: Thorp T-18 Sighting in Salem

As I was returning back to Salem following a quick cross-country flight, I heard another aircraft on the radio also flying into Salem. It was definitely an experimental homebuilt aircraft and I initially thought it was a Van's RV. But as it turns out, it was a Thorp T-18, a two-place, all-metal, plans-built, homebuilt aircraft designed in 1963 by John Thorp, himself an aeronautical engineer who made significant contributions to aircraft design throughout his life. Thorp's resume includes the Boeing Model 247 and the Lockheed P2V Neptune among others. The T-18 was one of the most popular homebuilt designs of the 1970s and early 1980s until the Van's Aircraft RV kitplane series came on the market.

I had the opportunity to catch this plane because as it turns out, it was owned and hangared right across from where I was hangared. I'll let the photos speak for themselves.

Salem (SLE)

Preview:

Thorp T-18 (N818TR) parked in front of the hangars.

The particular airframe is serial number 888. Over 1,600 plans for this homebuilt were sold and 400 examples of the T-18 still fly today. 

Gallery Update: Chasing Another "Aha!" Airlines/ExpressJet ERJ at Eugene

My first spotting trip out to Eugene for the year has me chasing down another one of ExpressJet's ERJ-145s. Curiously, there haven't been any recent photos of this airframe circulating online since ExpressJet took it on for their new independent operations that hasn't even hit its 6-month mark yet. So it was a mystery regarding what this ERJ-145 looked like as far as paintjobs and I was curious; according to information on PlaneSpotters.net, this ExpressJet ERJ-145 is doing business as "Aha!" Airlines so I thought it would be in the same livery that I saw last November. But I was a little surprised by what I saw. I'll let the photos speak for themselves.

Eugene (EUG) 9

Preview:

Southwest Airlines Boeing 737-7H4 (N267WN) clearing 16R after arriving as SWA1374 from Las Vegas.

SWA1374 taxiing to the terminal. At the beginning of the year, Southwest announced that they would add additional service from Eugene to Denver and San Jose.

Empire Airlines (d/b/a FedEx Feeder) Cessna 208B Super Cargomaster (N899FE) arriving on 16R as CFS4662 from Portland.

ExpressJet Airlines Embraer EMB-145LR ERJ-145LR (N843HK) arriving on 34L as ASQ7062 from Reno/Tahoe operating on the behalf of "Aha!" Airlines.

To be honest, I was a little underwhelmed with the paint job (or lack thereof!).

ASQ7062 taxiing to the terminal. 

Like the other ERJ-145s in ExpressJet's independent fleet, this airframe first started out with the now-defunct Trans States Airlines, having first been delivered in June 2004 and flew exclusively under the United Express banner.

N843HK went into storage in October 2015 and remained so until September 2018 at St. Louis, Missouri. It returned to revenue service with Trans States in October 2018, this time bearing Trans States Airlines' house livery and remained in service until the carrier's demise in 2020 as a result of the pandemic repercussions. Airframe went back into storage in March 2020 at St. Louis and remained so for a year.

Leasing firm Leland Aviation took possession of the airframe in March 2021 and ferried it out to Kingman, Arizona until August that same year, when the revamped ExpressJet took delivery of the airframe.

While ExpressJet did take delivery of this frame in August 2021 and had it ferried to Phoenix, Arizona, it was not pressed into service for "Aha!" Airlines operations until January of this year. So technically, this airframe is either the second or third ExpressJet took delivery of, but the fourth to be put into service .

I'm sure ExpressJet will send this ERJ-145 in for a proper paint job in due time.

SkyWest Airlines (d/b/a Alaska Airlines) Embraer ERJ-170-200LR E-175LR (N170SY) arriving on 34L as SKW3333 from Los Angeles.

Allegiant Air Airbus A319-112 (N302NV) in the Las Vegas Golden Knights special livery arriving on 34L as AAY17 from Palm Springs.

The last time I saw this airframe and livery was last November when the weather was absolutely atrocious, so I'm glad I got to see it in more optimal conditions.

NetJets Cessna 680A Citation Latitude (N560QS) arriving on 34L as EJA560 from Seattle/Boeing Field.

EJA560 taxiing to the FBO ramp.

Peterson/Cat Learjet 45 (N657PP) arriving on 34L from Driggs, Idaho. This is the same Lear 45 I saw in Salem a little over a year ago that experienced a birdstrike!

Ameriflight Beechcraft C99 Airliner (N193SU) arriving on 16R as AMF8013 from Portland via McMinnville. From what it looked like on flight trackers and as denoted by this particular flight number, AMF8013 first flew to McMinnville for training to shoot some instrument approaches before coming down to Eugene to pick up cargo before heading back up to Portland as AMF1925.

Allegiant Air Airbus A319-111 (N317NV) taxiing for departure as AAY1415 for Santa Ana.

AAY1415 departing on 34L for Santa Ana.

N267WN taxiing for departure carrying on the same flight number it arrived in on as SWA1374 for Oakland.

Empire Airlines (d/b/a FedEx Feeder) Cessna 208B Super Cargomaster (N946FE) arriving on 34L as CFS7690 from Roseburg.

SWA1374 departing on 34L for Oakland. From what I've heard, Southwest's passenger loads out of Eugene have been pretty decent, especially if they're confident to add flights to Denver and San Jose starting this summer.

CFS7690 taxiing to the south cargo ramp.

N843HK taxiing out for departure as ASQ7063 for the return-trip to Reno/Tahoe.

N657PP taxiing back out for departure for Livermore, California.

Peterson/Cat is a well-known company for construction equipment and vehicles. And with multiple locations throughout the west coast, one would expect the company to have a corporate jet or two running around the region.

N657PP departing on 34L for Livermore.

Clearly, once this airframe was ready for service, ExpressJet likely needed it to start flying revenue service right away, so there probably wasn't time get it into a paint shop. One can still barely make out bits of the former Trans States titles and where the tail logo used to be. Considering that this was my first look of this airframe on its left side, I never noticed the remnants of the old Trans States titles!

Still, it's always neat to see an all-white livery on a commercial airliner without any identifying features on occasion. I still have one more ERJ-145 in ExpressJet's current fleet that I've yet to photograph.

ASQ7063 entering the active.

ASQ7063 lining up on 34L.

ASQ7063 departing on 34L for Reno/Tahoe.

With ExpressJet not even six months into their new independent operations yet, any new developments with regards to their expansion plans will be great interest in the future.

And let's not forget "Aha!" Airlines' upcoming business model of offering vacation packages (mimicking those of Allegiant's), which as of right now is still a work in-progress.

Gallery Update: Chasing a Contour Airlines ERJ-135 in Corvallis

I noticed on FlightRadar24 that a Contour Airlines ERJ-135 was scheduled to fly into Corvallis this evening on a sports charter. It also happened that I would be flying around the time it was scheduled to arrive, so I timed my cross-country flying to make a quick stop in Corvallis just so I could catch it and I'm glad it worked out! I'll let the photos speak for themselves.

Corvallis (CVO) 

Preview:

Contour Aviation (d/b/a Contour Airlines) Embraer EMB-135LR ERJ-135LR (N16525) arriving on 17 as VTE525 from Tucson.

On board is the Oregon State University Beavers women's basketball team following their loss to the Arizona Wildcats.

VTE525 taxiing to the ramp. Airframe first delivered to Continental Express in March 2001 and then went over to ExpressJet in July that same year and continued operating on the behalf of Continental Airlines.

It was withdrawn from service in September 2008 and stored at Kingman, Arizona from March 2009 to February 2012 before being brought back into service March 2012.

With the sun pretty much set, the lighting was just ideal to get shots like this.

Face-to-face with the ERJ-135 at dusk! I really love how this shot turned out!

VTE525 pulling up to the ramp.

After being brought back into service in March 2012, it flew under the United Express banner as United and Continental merged by then. Airframe was once again withdrawn and stored in June 2015 and stayed stored until June 2018, when Contour Aviation added this ERJ to its fleet.

VTE525 parked on the ramp.

Cessna 208B Grand Caravan (N208JA) parked on the ramp.

As tail log indicates, this is a former Southern Airways Express bird! First time seeing the old Southern Airways Express logo too! Ever since Southern Airways Express acquired Mokulele Airlines in Hawaii, the former seems to have adopted a logo similar to the latter. This airframe seems to have undergone some modification work ranging from the power-flow exhaust running along the bottom-right side of the fuselage to something over the pilot-side windshield.

Aircraft is overnighting in Corvallis and scheduled to depart tomorrow morning for Logan, Utah as VTE525 for some more sports charter operations.