NOTE: Appropriate social distancing measures were practiced for the duration of this spotting trip and such practices are continued to be encouraged in the midst of this global crisis if anyone wishes to do their own plane-spotting at their own risk.
Alright, I decided to spend a Friday evening up at PDX for a quick spotting trip because it's been a while and frankly, I was starting to get a little stir-crazy and bored from all the isolation. Between working slightly-longer hours, flying when I could, and my studying, there isn't much else going on!
While passenger airlines are still suffering and operating at a reduced capacity because of the ongoing COVID-19 crisis, cargo airlines are still going strong, which shouldn't come as a surprise since they're playing a vital role in transporting essential supplies, equipment, as well as medicine to help combat the Coronavirus. And that's what I wanted to focus on during this spotting trip as there were a few things I wanted to specifically go after. I also took comfort in knowing that I wasn't alone today as there were a few spotters and families watching what air traffic there was at the usual vantage point on top of the short-term parking garage. Again, it shouldn't be a surprise, since plane-spotting is an activity where social distancing is easy to do; of course, I kept my distance from fellow spotters and had no close interaction with anyone for the duration of this trip!
Honestly, it was a sad sight at PDX though with the terminal pretty much empty and lots of passenger airliners (mainly from Alaska Airlines, United Airlines, and Southwest Airlines) parked for long-term storage. And I should've had at least two previous spotting trips up to Portland already, which were supposed to be the inaugural Delta Air Lines flight to Tokyo-Haneda with Airbus A330-200s and then the inaugural flight(s) between Portland and Seattle-Boeing Field by JSX (formerly JetSuite X) and their Embraer ERJ-135s/145s respectively. Not surprisingly, the Delta flights between Portland and Tokyo-Haneda have not started at all after passing the transition date (March 28, 2020) from the Tokyo-Narita operations, and the JSX flights seems to have been removed from the carrier's route network completely. Hopefully, these flights will start up in the future once the current crisis is finally behind us. The British Airways inaugural flight between Portland and London-Heathrow is still scheduled as planned in June.
Today, I went after mainly the cargo heavies that are serving PDX. The main highlight of this trip was a Boeing 747-8F operated by UPS Airlines. I also noticed that FedEx Express was sending their older Airbus A300s into PDX and I definitely wanted to photograph one of those! Another surprise catch that I kind of forgot about was ABX Air; they usually send one of their Boeing 767-200s in the DHL livery, but this time, I got one in the standard ABX livery! The one thing I couldn't get this trip due to the winds blowing in the wrong direction was an Empire Airlines ATR-72 in the FedEx livery; I've seen several of their ATR-42s before and even got one of their ATR-72s in the 'Ohana by Hawaiian livery earlier this year, but I have yet to catch one in the standard FedEx Feeder livery. I'll get it next time! Aside from one exception, this is probably the first spotting trip I've done at PDX where I photographed only the cargo airlines!
Portland (PDX) 51
Preview:
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| FedEx Express McDonnell Douglas MD-11F (N590FE) clearing the active after arriving on 10R as FDX781 from Memphis. First delivered to American Airlines as N1757A in August 1991. Leased to USAfrica Airways in April 1994 before returning to American in February 1995. Acquired by FedEx in January 1998. |
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| Atlas Air (d/b/a Amazon Prime Air) Boeing 767-3Q8/ER/BDSF (N1361A) arriving on 10R as GTI3736 from Cincinnati. After seeing a few 767s in the Amazon colors, I finally catch one sporting the blended winglets! |
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| GTI3736 taxiing to the cargo ramp. First delivered as HL7249 to Asiana Airlines in March 1995. Then went to Southern Winds Airlines in Argentina as TF-ARB in September 2002. Airframe then spent the rest of its time in passenger configuration with LAN Airlines amongst its subsidiaries. Transferred to LAN Chile as CC-CEN in October 2003. Re-registered as LV-BFD for LAN Argentina in July 2006. Returned to LAN Chile in March 2008 and re-registered again to CC-CXL and transferred to LATAM Airlines Chile in May 2016. Acquired by Atlas Air in June 2016 for conversion to cargo. Re-registered as N1361A in April 2017 to be used for Amazon operations. |
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| UPS Airlines Boeing 747-8F (N611UP) arriving on 10R as UPS2998 from Louisville. My first time seeing a 747-8F operated by UPS! |
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| UPS2998 taxiing to the cargo ramp. Scheduled to depart later in the evening to Anchorage carrying the same flight number. |
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| Ameriflight Embraer EMB-120RT Brasilia (N201YW) clearing the active after arriving on 10R as AMF1977 from Medford. |
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| FedEx Express McDonnell Douglas MD-11F (N625FE) clearing the active after arriving on 10R as FDX382 from Memphis. |
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| West Air Cessna 208B Grand Caravan (N619MA) taxiing to the FBO ramp after offloading on the FedEx ramp. Arrived earlier in the evening as PCM1911 from Astoria. Formerly with Maverick Airlines, a tour operator that offers scenic flights of the Grand Canyon. |
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| ABX Air Boeing 767-223F (N312AA) airborne off 10R as ABX903 for Cincinnati via Seattle/Tacoma. My first time seeing the standard ABX Air livery on the shorter 767-200! |
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| First delivered to American Airlines in June 1984. Went to ABX Air in November 2008 and then transferred to Air Transport International in January 2011. Leased to Cargojet Airways as C-GCJO in July 2014 before returning to ABX Air in July 2015. Impressive to see that this 36 year old frame is still soldiering on, not to mention a rare Boeing 767-200! |
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| Frontier Airlines Airbus A320-251N (N341FR) "Fran the Sea Lion" arriving on 10L as FFT394 from Denver. |
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| FedEx Express Airbus A300F4-605R (N663FE) arriving on 10R as FDX591 from Memphis. My first time seeing an A300 operated by FedEx! |
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| First delivered to FedEx Express in November 1995. FedEx is the world's largest operator of the A300 and their fleet includes the very last A300 built. Over time, they'll replace these old workhorses with newer 767-300Fs straight from the Boeing factory. Sadly, my biggest regret was not getting a chance to see any of FedEx's Airbus A310s, which were all retired earlier this year... |
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| FDX591 taxiing to the ramp. FedEx A300s have been a rare sight to PDX, but most-likely because of the current crisis and the increased demand for ever-essential freight, FedEx is using these old workhorses to increase capacity. |
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| West Air Cessna 208B Super Cargomaster (N228DA) taxiing to the FBO ramp after offloading on FedEx ramp. Arrived earlier in the evening as PCM1973 from Eugene. Other than the fact that this Caravan was previously based in North Las Vegas, it's history is a bit of mystery... |
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