Gallery Update: Holiday Peak Season Spotting at PDX!

With holiday peak season still in full-swing at my work, I've barely had any time for myself. Aside from going on a few flights earlier this month, I really haven't done anything else because of work and lousy weather. Weather was still lousy today, but regardless, I decided to take a day for myself and do some spotting up at Portland on my only day-off this week; I was also mindful in not going overboard with the photography this time around, so I primarily focused on the things I wanted to see. And today's spotting trip was worth it!

For starters, I redeemed myself after a failure last year in chasing down a unique cargo airline that was chartered to help with peak season cargo. The airline I'm referring to is the Guam-based Asia Pacific Airlines, a cargo carrier that UPS charters every year to help do runs up and down the west coast during peak season. It's a relatively small airline with three Boeing 757-200PCFs and a single 727-200F operating out Guam and Honolulu, Hawaii and very unusual to see them operating on the mainland.

I also got to photograph another WestJet Encore Q400 and a Volaris A320neo to round out some of the international carriers. But another highlight of the day was getting to see a Jazz Air CRJ-900 sporting the new Air Canada livery operating the once-daily Portland-Calgary route; I was cheated of that opportunity the last time I spotted in Portland due to a last-minute equipment substitution to a Q400!

While on the topic of international carriers, it was recently announced that British Airways will begin year-round service between Portland and London-Heathrow starting June 1, 2020! Rumors and speculation on British Airways adding PDX to their network have been circulating for a few years now, and now it's finally coming to fruition. British Airways will operate the route using Boeing 787-8 Dreamliners, which will mark the very first scheduled service of the aircraft type to Portland!

And finally, another surprising highlight of today's spotting trip was a coveted opportunity to see a McDonnell Douglas MD-88 operated by Delta Air Lines running a charter for the New Orleans Pelicans NBA team! I say this is a coveted opportunity because Delta is now the only U.S. operator to have the "Mad Dog" still in scheduled service following the retirements of Allegiant and Americans' MD-80 fleets; I've only seen MD-88s two other times and both those opportunities were planes operated by Allegiant Air. It was also a coveted opportunity because Delta utilizes their MD-88s on short-haul routes primarily on the east coast out of their Atlanta hub, making west coast appearances extremely rare. And Delta is now in the process of phasing out both their MD-88 and MD-90 fleets, so I was thrilled to finally catch an MD-88 in Delta colors!

Portland (PDX) 49

Preview:

Boutique Air Pilatus PC-12/47 (N471SS) taxiing for departure as BTQ358 for Pendleton. N471SS was the first PC-12 in the EAS carrier's fleet!

NetJets Gulfstream Aerospace G-IV-X G450 (N448QS) arriving on 10L as EJA448 from San Jose.

United Airlines Airbus A320-232 (N494UA) arriving on 10L as UAL1950 from Denver. Still waiting to see the new United livery...

Delta Air Lines Boeing 767-332/ER (N1603) arriving on 10L as DAL179 from Amsterdam.

Meridian Air Charter Dassault Falcon 900EX (N963RS) taxiing for departure as GTH9 for Salt Lake City.

BTQ358 departing on 10L for Pendleton.

DAL179 taxiing to the terminal.

GTH9 departing on 10L for Salt Lake City.

Volaris Airbus A320-271N (N533VL) arriving on 10L as VOI956 from Guadalajara. 

VOI956 taxiing to the terminal. I have yet to photograph one of Volaris' aircraft with a Mexican registration!

WestJet Encore (d/b/a WestJet) Bombardier DHC-8-402 Dash 8 Q400 (C-FWEP) arriving on 10L as WEN3628 from Calgary.

WEN3628 taxiing to the terminal.

AvCenter Cessna 560XL Citation Excel (N499AV) arriving on 10L as TTE499 from Jackson Hole.

Israeli Aircraft Industries IAI-1125A Astra SPX (N500MA) arriving on 10L from Indianapolis. Registered to Andretti Autosport! 

Jazz Air (d/b/a Air Canada Express) Bombardier CL-600-2D24 CRJ-900LR (C-FJJZ) arriving on 10L as JZA8315 from Calgary. My first time seeing a CRJ in the new Air Canada colors! And I don't think I've photographed a single CRJ at all this year!

JZA8315 taxiing to the terminal. Originally delivered to Jazz Air as a CL-600-2D15 CRJ-705ER (a CRJ-900 airframe configured with 75 seats) in August 2005. It was converted to CL-600-2D24 CRJ-900LR standards (configured with 76 seats) in February 2018, in accordance with Jazz Air's April 2016 announcement that all their CRJ-705s would be configured to CRJ-900s. Since then, Jazz took on additional CRJ-900s, both used (from SkyWest Airlines) and new from Bombardier.

Asia Pacific Airlines Boeing 757-230PCF (N888LT) arriving on 10R as MGE2490 from Ontario. I am thrilled to finally catch this elusive cargo carrier! Leased by UPS to do extra cargo runs up and down the west coast on their behalf during the holiday peak season. 

Southern Air (d/b/a Amazon Prime Air) Boeing 737-83N/BCF (N5167A) airborne off 10R as SOO3601 for Chicago/Rockford. Originally destined for American Trans Air - ATA as N334TZ, but not taken up. Instead delivered as EI-DIL with GECAS and then leased to Jet Airways as VT-JGE in November 2004. It was then put into storage in December 2018 and converted for cargo before being re-registered as N855DM with GECAS. Delivered to Southern Air's Amazon operations in July of this year.

C-FWEP departing on 10L as WEN3627 for the return-leg to Calgary.

C-FJJZ departing on 10L as JZA8316 for the return-leg to Calgary. And right after the WestJet flight of course! Definitely cut-throat between Canada's two largest carriers with Air Canada trying to one-up WestJet by returning jets to the route!

N888LT airborne off 10R continuing on as MGE2490 to Seattle-Boeing Field before ending the day back at Ontario as MGE985. This plane was scheduled to return to Honolulu (according to the airline's website!) on Christmas Eve, so today was most likely my only viable opportunity to see this livery; I'm glad I was able to do so!

Originally delivered to Condor as D-ABNN in April 1992 before being transferred to the now-defunct Thomas Cook Airlines in July 2002. Ryan International Airlines leased this plane in December 2003 before returning to Thomas Cook in April 2004. It was then transferred back to Condor in May 2004. It then went to Russia in October 2004 as RA-73014 flying for VIM Airlines before going into storage in December 2014. The Bank of Utah then took ownership of the plane in January 2015 and went into storage before acquisition by Asia Pacific Airlines in April 2017. 

Dassault Falcon 900 (N900YY) arriving on 10L. 

NetJets Cessna 680 Citation Sovereign (N320QS) taxiing for departure as EJA320 for Scottsdale.

EJA320 departing on 10L for Scottsdale.

Frontier Airlines Airbus A320-251N (N310FR) "Sunny the Collared Lizard" arriving on 10L as FFT2171 from Las Vegas. After about a two-year hiatus, Frontier re-instated flights between Portland and Las Vegas.

Delta Air Lines McDonnell Douglas MD-88 (N912DL) arriving on 10R as DAL8935 from San Francisco. My first time photographing a Delta MD-88 and a true Delta "Mad Dog" and I am absolutely thrilled!  Been in service with Delta all the way from when it was first delivered in December 1987!

The flight was carrying the New Orleans Pelicans NBA team to play the Portland Trail Blazers tomorrow; the Pelicans lost to the Golden State Warriors on Friday. After they play the Blazers, N912DL will most likely carry the Pelicans to Denver, where they'll play the Denver Nuggets on Christmas Day. 

DAL8935 clearing the active at taxiway B6. N912DL along with her sister-ships are definitely in their sunset years as Delta is in the process of retiring both their fleet of MD-88s and MD-90s. That being said, I am really happy that I was able to catch at least one example of this loud, smokey "Mad Dog" before they head off into retirement! I never thought I'd get the opportunity!

DAL8935 taxiing to the remote cargo ramp, where the New Orleans Pelicans will disembark. The only other operator of the MD-88 I managed to photograph previously was Allegiant Air. Now I can finally check off Delta from my list!

Have a Merry Christmas and happy holidays!

Pilot Life: Taking My Friends, May & Serafina Flying!

It was another beautiful day to get a local flight in to practice some commercial maneuvers. I also brought along some passengers flying as well! For over a year now, my friend May and I have been trying to find some where our schedules matched so we go out flying; the timing of today matched with the weather couldn't have been more perfect! After I picked up May and her sister Serafina, we drove to the airport and hangar and I proceeded to do my pre-flight and walk-around.

N1636H is becoming my go-to airplane!

After pulling the trusty Piper Cherokee out of the hangar, we hopped in and I gave the usual passenger safety briefing. I got the engine started up and powered on the avionics and picked up the ATIS information Salem was currently broadcasting. I picked up taxi clearance and proceeded towards Runway 34; as per the usual procedure, I got the engine run-ups done. After getting a takeoff clearance I got the plane airborne with two very-excited passengers!

I proceeded to do a downwind departure to the south towards Albany. Weather was forecast to deteriorate starting tomorrow, but I was already starting see fog and low clouds further south; I was planning on keeping things local in order to make effective use of my time to practice commercial maneuvers anyways, so I kept us just northeast of Albany near Jefferson and Stayton, all the while remaining clear of Salem's Class Delta airspace. After doing some clearing turns and scanning for traffic both visually and with ADS-B, I talked with my passengers regarding the commercial maneuvers I needed to practice; I also made frequent position calls on the Albany CTAF frequency.

The first thing I did was chandelles, and as soon as I pitched the airplane up, May and Serafina both screamed with excitement! Something tells me they liked this maneuver! After gaining some altitude from a couple chandelles, the next thing I did was steep spirals, so I pulled the engine power pack to idle with carburetor heat on and began a circling descent over a point. After two laps (I gotta get back to doing three!), I leveled with about 1,300 feet between us and the ground, perfectly set up to do some ground reference maneuvers, particularly Eights on Pylons. After determining two points about equal distance from each other, I executed the maneuver, drawing a figure-eight from a God's-eye-view. After a couple laps, I took us out further northeast towards Stayton and Aumsville, just east of Salem and climbed.

Selfie with May and Serafina! A nice day to take these lovely ladies flying!
(Photo credit: May Pinto-Haynes.)

After clearing the airspace around us, I let May take the flight controls while we were flying over Highway 22 and guided her on doing some gentle banks and turns; she didn't do too bad! After that, I decided to take us back into Salem and call it a flight, I positioned for a straight-in approach for Runway 34, picked up the weather, and called up the tower controller, who cleared us to land.

We made an uneventful landing on 34 and taxied off the runway. I was going to get fuel, but the self-serve pumps weren't working, so I just taxied back to the hangar. After disembarking, I pushed the plane back into it's hangar with the tow bar proceeded to do the usual post-flight clean up before calling it a successful flight.

Another good day of flying with good people to accompany me, done!

Gallery Update: Army Chinook Action in Salem!

As I was getting fuel after getting back into Salem following a local flight practicing commercial maneuvers, I spotted a United States Army Chinook helicopter on the ramp as it was about to take off and got a few pictures of it! What's interesting about this catch is that the Chinook I photographed was an MH-47G, the latest and most-sophisticated special operations version of the venerable transport helicopter. Either way, I was excited to see and photograph a Chinook fly for the first time after seeing them on static display at past air shows!

Salem (SLE) 34

United States Army Boeing-Vertol MH-47G Chinook (10-03789) from the 4th Battalion, 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment (Airborne) (4–160th SOAR(A)) (also known as the "Night Stalkers" and Task Force Brown) out of Gray Army Airfield within Joint Base Lewis-McChord (JBLM), Washington just after engine-start. About to depart back to Gray Army Airfield.

Taxiing out. Given that it's used for special operations, I can only imagine that aircraft like this are used for clandestine and covert ops that are probably classified! The 160th SORA(A) provides helicopter support for general purpose forces and special operations forces. Its missions have included attack, assault, and reconnaissance, and these missions are usually conducted at night, at high speeds, low altitudes, and on short notice. This kind of distinction means that this special operations force consists of the Army's best-qualified aviators, crew chiefs, and support soldiers!

Airborne off 34 for Gray Army Airfield. I think this occasion was my first time seeing a Chinook in flight! Note the the very long refueling probe extending from the nose; since special ops missions can last hours, the helicopters they fly need aerial refueling capabilities in order to stay aloft.

Gallery Update: Overcast, Yet Worthwhile Day at PDX

With my new job that I've held for a month now, along with what flying I'm able to get in towards my commercial certificate, and just a few life challenges I've been dealing with as of late, I've been feeling rather down, unmotivated, and a little drained lately. So in order to rectify the situation, I decided to take a day for myself by going up to Portland and do some plane-spotting. Considering that I spent all of October getting zero aviation photography in (mainly because of my new job and partly because of taking advantage of what good flying days I could get!), I'd say a major spotting trip was overdue. In fact, I wanted to go up today because I found out about a few opportunities that I'd like to jump on.

The main reason for going up today was to catch a true classic, a Boeing 737-200 operated by a charter airline! Getting to see and photograph a 737-200 in action for the first time was reason enough to go in spite of the somewhat lousy weather we had today! Other highlights from today include catching an Airbus A321neo in the standard Alaska Airlines colors for the first time, two of Southern Air's Boeing 737-800 freighters operating on the behalf of Amazon, and another WestJet Encore Dash 8 Q400 (with a slight variation to their livery!).

I also hoped that I'd be able to catch a Jazz Air CRJ-900 operating for Air Canada as well because they had been sending them to Portland from Calgary for the past month in lieu of the typical Dash 8 turboprops they'd sent in the past. But of all the days they were operating jets, I got a turboprop from them today! At least I got to photograph the new Air Canada livery again... I was also hoping to see a Volaris flight today (since they fly into PDX during reasonable hours on the weekends), but today's flight was running really late, so I didn't even bother waiting for it. I'll catch these two airlines some other time. But overall, it was a worthwhile spotting trip.

Portland (PDX) 48

Preview:

Alaska Airlines Airbus A321-253N (N921VA) departing on 10L as ASA764 for Washington-National. Finally, I catch an A321neo in the standard Alaska livery! This flight usually departs mid-morning, but was running an hour and a half late, which afforded me the opportunity to photograph it! Formerly Virgin America's "NEO Kid on the block" and the first A321neo Virgin America received. This airframe was also the very first A321neo to be delivered to an airline.

United Airlines Boeing 737-924/ER (N75426) departing on 10L as UAL679 for Chicago O'Hare. 

Wheels Up/Gama Aviation Cessna 560XL Citation Excel (N500UP) taxiing for departure as GAJ500 for Santa Barbara.

Alaska Airlines Boeing 737-990/ER (N278AK) departing on 10L as ASA347 for Ontario, California.

GAJ500 departing on 10L for Santa Barbara.

American Airlines Airbus A321-231 (N988AL) arriving on 10R as AAL1316 from Dallas/Fort Worth.

Delta Air Lines Boeing 737-900/ER (N917DU) taxiing to the gate arriving on 10L as DAL537 from New York-JFK.

Delta Air Lines Boeing 757-232 (N6711M) arriving on 10L as DAL1156 from Atlanta.

SkyWest Airlines (d/b/a Delta Connection) Embraer ERJ-170-200LR E-175LR (N260SY) departing on 10L as SKW3657 for Seattle/Tacoma. With Delta consolidating their regional flying to specific carriers per region, SkyWest E-jets in Delta Connection colors are starting to become a common sight here.

Atlas Air (d/b/a Amazon Prime Air) Boeing 767-306/ER/BDSF (N1321A) arriving on 10R as GTI3524 from Baltimore. Airframe formerly spent a lot of its early years in Europe flying for KLM, Zoom Airlines, ILFC, Fly Globespan, and Nordwind.

Southern Air (d/b/a Amazon Prime Air) Boeing 737-83N/BCF (N5153A) airborne off 10R as SOO3601 for Chicago/Rockford. I saw this frame the last time I spotted at PDX.

Alaska Airlines Airbus A320-214 (N625VA) clearing 10R after arriving as ASA1767 from Las Vegas.

Horizon Air (d/b/a Alaska Airlines) Bombardier DHC-8-402 Dash 8 Q400 (N421QX) bearing Horizon's retro livery taxiing for departure as QXE2744 for Sacramento. In just a few days time, Horizon Air and the rest of Alaska Airlines' regional operations at PDX will move from Concourse A, which is due to be demolished, over to Concourse C as part of the airport's terminal refurbishment that's been on-going for the past several years now.

Compass Airlines (d/b/a American Eagle) Embraer ERJ-170-200LR E-175LR (N202NN) departing on 10L as CPZ6088 for Los Angeles.

Delta Air Lines Boeing 757-232 (N676DL) departing on 10L as DAL1761 for Minneapolis/St. Paul.

Life Flight Network Pilatus PC-12/47E (N856LF) arriving on 10L.

Ameristar Jet Charter Boeing 737-205/Adv (N467TW) arriving on 10L as AJI9664 from Sioux Falls. I am absolutely thrilled to photograph what's become a really rare sight, a 737-200 in flight! A true classic!

Ameristar consists of two divisions based out of Addison, Texas: cargo operations under the Ameristar Air Cargo name as well as charter passengers operations. The airline began operations in September 2000 with cargo and started flying passengers ranging from sports and entertainment industry celebrities, college athletic teams, and high-wealth individuals exactly five years later.

As you'd expect, this true classic has an extensive history, having first been delivered to Braathens S.A.F.E. in June 1986 as LN-SUZ.

Pacific Coast Jet Charter Cessna 560XL Citation Excel (N746PC) taxiing for departure to Minneapolis/St. Paul.

SkyWest Airlines (d/b/a Delta Connection) Embraer ERJ-170-200LR E-175LR (N247SY) departing on 10L as SKW3840 for Seattle/Tacoma.

WestJet Encore (d/b/a WestJet) Bombardier DHC-8-402 Dash 8 Q400 (C-FKWE) arriving on 10L as WEN3628 from Calgary. Only my second time photographing the WestJet livery, but my first seeing this variant of their livery; this airframe sports the old logo next to the WestJet name, but when I photographed the inaugural WestJet flight into Portland seven months ago, it had the newer logo that was stylized as a Canadian Maple leaf next to the WestJet name.

Cessna 560XL Citation Excel (N560VM) arriving on 10L. Pretty cool livery for a corporate jet!

WEN3628 taxiing to the terminal.

Spirit Airlines Airbus A320-232 (N618NK) arriving on 10L as NKS691 from Las Vegas.

Southern Air (d/b/a Amazon Prime Air) Boeing 737-83N/BCF (N5147A) departing on 10R as SOO3608 for Tampa. Two Southern Air 737s flying for Amazon in a single spotting trip! Since I first saw Southern Air's Amazon operations, they expanded out of Portland. This airframe arrived a few hours prior as SOO3609 from Houston-Intercontinental. First delivered to American Trans Air - ATA as N324TZ in June 2002 before going to China Southern Airlines as B-5128. This airframe also inaugurated Amazon's new 737-800 operations between Portland and Chicago/Rockford earlier this year on May 2, 2019.

Jazz Air (d/b/a Air Canada Express) Bombardier DHC-8-402 Dash 8 Q400 (C-GGNF) taxiing to the gate after arriving as JZA8315 from Calgary. Not surprisingly, Air Canada shifted their Calgary flights to coincide around WestJet's flights, demonstrating just how cut-throat Canadian airlines can be! This is only my second time seeing the new Air Canada livery; the first time I saw it was a year ago to this month! Of all the days Jazz was flying CRJ-900s into Portland from Calgary, they had to send a Q400 today!

Life Flight Network Pilatus PC-12/47E (N126TS) taxiing for departure.

Delta Air Lines Boeing 767-332/ER (N171DZ) departing on 10L as DAL178 for Amsterdam. Starting in March 2020, Delta will be changing things up with their operations out of Portland. Having received new slots to fly into Tokyo-Haneda, Delta will shift over all Tokyo operations to there and end all flights to and from Tokyo-Narita starting March of next year; this is significant because Delta inherited much of the Narita slots they held from their 2009 merger with Northwest Airlines. The airline will also shuffle up what wide-body equipment they'll be flying as well. In the case of the Haneda flights, it will operated with Airbus A330-200s.