by Lufthansa Flyer | Nov 13, 2013 | Airlines |
I’ve posted enough plane-spotting entries over the last 2 or 3 years from HKG that I’ve lost track of which version that I’m on so I figured #638 is a safe place to start. I also know that I’ve been there a lot since one of the fisherman that I shared the break-wall with last Saturday recognized me when he said “you are back again from America?, you like our airport?”…….I do, I do indeed! I would catch more airplanes than he would fish that day. Here is my “Stringer” of planes for now, I’ll have another installment tomorrow:
China Airlines 747-400
Cathay Pacific 747 Freighter
Cathay Pacific A330
Cathay Pacific 747-400 B-HKT
Another CX 747 – there would be several more!
Dragon Air A330 B-HYI
EVA’s 747-400 B16408
Hong Kong Airlines A330 Freighter
Jet Airways Boeing 777 VT-JER……
…..and VT-JEQ
Juneyao’s Airbus A320
Korean Air’s 777 HL7743
Philippines Airbus A340-300
A really beautiful A380 – Thai’s livery looks great on this aircraft
Took a walk over to the opposite runway for a few overhead shots – Arrivals were rare since it is the primary departure runway.
I think this makes my top-10 favorite list……
Speedbird’s A380 arrives from London Heathrow
by Lufthansa Flyer | Oct 26, 2013 | Airlines |
Last weekend, I flew to Munich to join friends from Lufthansa’s Marketing and Social Media teams at a Bayern Munich match. As part of my trip which included spending 2 days in Munich and 1 day in Salzburg, I committed a significant amount of time to visit Munich Airport’s Besucherpark (Visitor Park) for plane spotting purposes.
I’ll talk more about the Besucherpark in an upcoming post, but for now I wanted to simply share a small sampling of Lufthansa aircraft that I was able to catch on ‘film’. As far as non-Lufthansa aircraft, I’ll put those images together in a separate post that I’ll publish on my plane-spotting site, www.Aero-Shots.com in a few days.
So without further ado, here are some of my favorite LH shots from Munich:
A319 D-AIBA
A319 D-AILY
A320 D-AIPS
For you Opera fans….D-AIDA
A321 D-AIDB
A321 D-AIRA prepares to taxi to the runway
A321 D-AIRD
A330 D-AIKJ
A330 D-AIKQ
A340 D-AIGU
A340 D-AIHM
A340 D-AIHN
Another of D-AIHN as she departs Munich
A340 D-AIHS
A340 D-AIHY
A340 D-AIHZ
CRJ900 D-ACKA
Dash-8 D-ADHB
Dash-8 D-ADHT
Canadair CRJ900 D-ACKK
by Lufthansa Flyer | Aug 15, 2013 | Airports |
Last weekend I flew out to Seattle to attend a press event hosted by Lufthansa (more on that in a future post) and as part of my trip I made sure to build in a significant time to watch Boeing’s newest creations take off and land at Paine Field (PAE). This was my first trip to the Boeing Mecca and it exceeded every expectation. The cherry on top of the trip was the VIP level tour that was arranged by Boeing’s Communications Group which consisted of 1.5 hours of being driven around the entire main factory in a golf cart, gaining sneak peaks at the newest 747-8’s, 777’s and even a rare peak at the very 1st 787-9 that is nearly complete.
Aside from the fantastic tour, I had made sure to camp out at the Future Of Flight Observation Deck as well as their parking lot for 8-10 hours a day hoping to get some fantastic shots. I want to take this opportunity to thank them for there fantastic hospitality and letting me spend all that time there!
The Boeing traffic at Paine is unpredictable and many flights are scheduled or cancelled at the last minute. Unfortunately it makes it tough for them to publish a timetable but it does create an environment where every arrival or departure is a pleasant surprise.
In all, I spent 3 days at Paine, logging 8-10 hours each day and the effort was well worth it. I had booked my room at the Hilton Garden Inn located directly next to the Future Of Flight center, and with a room facing the airfield I was never more than a few hundred yards away from the action. Each day had approximately 7-10 take offs or landings and all of them were of new aircraft being tested and certified by Boeing. It may not be the 1 arrival per minute rate we see at LAX but in this case the quality made up for the lack of quantity.
The Future of Flight facility is a great place for plane spotting thanks to their observation deck as well as a parking lot that has tall mounds near the fence-line of the airport that allow for unencumbered views of Runway 16R/34L, which is the primary runway used for Boeing aircraft.
I’ll break up the “Paine” spotting into 3 posts, each covering a specific day. The following images were taken on August 8.
FlyDubai’s newest 737
FlyDubai 737 Over The Numbers
Cathay Pacific’s 777 – N5014K
This retrofitted 747, dubbed DreamLiner, is used to transport large aircraft structures between Boeing and their suppliers
A special treat at Paine Field is being able find new, unpainted aircraft. This one being a 747-8 Freighter for Atlas Air. Notice the unpainted 747-8F still covered in vinyl in the background! This was a tough photo since it took all 500mm of my lens and I did not have a tripod nearby (hence the blur)……
Even at night, I could not take my lens off the field – Here is ANA’s latest 787, JA823A, nearing completion.
Paine Field is very much a general aviation field, and there are some fantastic gems that call PAE home. This is a beauty of a B-25!
Norwegian’s 787 shortly after returning from a test flight
China-based OKAir shows off its newest 737-800
The DreamLifter loads cargo through a hinged aft section.
A beautiful classic: Pan American Airways’ DC-3
So beautiful, it deserves a second look…..
Another night shot of the flight line – There’s activity 24/7!
A wider look at the flight line, loaded with 787’s. You’ll notice on the left side Boeing’s newly completed Delivery Center.
by Lufthansa Flyer | May 24, 2013 | Airlines |
A couple of weeks ago, I spent a day in Frankfurt while enroute ultimately to Hong Kong. Obviously that created a great opportunity to take in “Plane Spotting” at one of the world’s best airport for the hobby. In case you missed my previous posts on my latest round of plane spotting, click here to see my behind the scenes look at a Lufthansa A380 in her hangar and click this link to see photos taken while walking the tarmac.
This installment covers several photos taken standing near the midway point of Runway 18. It was a good location because smaller aircraft would begin their rotation here and larger aircraft were at full speed and the noise was FANTASTIC! 🙂 There are many more photos taken from this spot that I will add to Aero-Shots.com in the coming weeks. I just have about 5,000 photos to sort through at this point….
Not too many more things to be said on the topic, so go ahead and enjoy the pics!
This themed ADRIA CRJ-200 carries a MINI market promo wherever she goes…..
Condor’s Boeing 767-300 D-ABUD
Lufthansa’s A330 D-AIKD ‘Siegen’
Lufthansa’s CRJ-700 D-ACPL
Lufthansa’s CRJ700 D-ACPO
Lufthansa’s 737 D-ABEA
Lufthansa’s 737 D-ABEH
Lufthansa’s 2nd 747-8i D-ABYC (There is no ‘D-ABYB’ as a memorial to an older 747 that was lost)
Lufthansa’s 3rd 747-8i D-ABYD
Lufthansa’s 6th 747-8i D-ABYG
Lufthansa’s CRJ-700 D-ACPS
Lufthansa’s A340-300 D-AIFA
Lufthansa’s A330 D-AIKG
Lufthansa’s A-321 D-AISV
LOT Polish’s ERJ175 SP-LID
Austrian’s de Havilland Dash-8 OE-LGK
Austrian’s Fokker F100 OE-LVF
Singapore’s A380 9v-SKB
TAP’s Airbus A319 CS-TTB
United’s Boeing 767 N673UA
United’s Boeing 777 N219UA
by Lufthansa Flyer | May 11, 2013 | Airlines |
As part of my trip to Hong Kong, I built in a day in Frankfurt in order to meet with a few of my contacts and friends at Lufthansa as well as to take advantage of plane spotting at the airport. I had arrived from Washington DC at 5:30a and had a full day in FRA before flying to Munich and onward to Hong Kong later that evening.
A good portion of my day was spent with my friend Uli who had arranged “behind the fence” access for us in order to get up close and personal to part of Lufthansa’s fleet. During the course of several hours, I managed to take over 400 photos from a variety locations.
To keep things organized, I will break up my day of plane spotting into 3 parts. Part I captures primarily long-haul aircraft parked around Lufthansa’s Technic hangars. Part II will take you into the A380 hangar for an up-close look at D-AIMD aka ‘Tokio’. Part III will focus on departing Lufthansa Aircraft and Part IV will look at non-Lufthansa traffic at the airport.
On to the pictures (All taken with a Nikon D7100 / Nikon 16-85 3.5:5.6 ED lens):
A330-300 D-AIKI was delivered in September 2005 and is the 4000th aircraft produced by Airbus
Airbus A330-300 D-AIKE joined the fleet in December 2004 and is nicknamed ‘Landshut’
Boeing 747-400 D-ABVN was built in May 1992 and is known as “Dortmund”
This Boeing 737-500 serves as a training aircraft for Lufthansa Technic’s Mechanics.
Airbus A340-300 ‘D-AIGP’ was completed in December 1998 and is nicknamed ‘Paderborn’
Airbus A340-300 ‘D-AIGX’ joined the fleet in September 2009 and is named ‘Duren’
Boeing 747-400 ‘D-ABVU’ joined the fleet in December 1998 and is nicknamed ‘Bayern’
Boeing 747-400 ‘D-ABVP’ joined the fleet in February 1997 and is named ‘Bremen’.
Airbus A340-600 ‘D-AIHE’ joined the fleet in January 2004 and is named ‘Leverkusen’. Here it’s pictured while having one of it’s Rolls Royce engines “Run Up”.
Then as if by divine intervention, I turn the corner around one the Technik hangars, and there sits my favorite Lufthansa aircraft, the Boeing 747-8i. This one happens to be the first one, D-ABYA or ‘Brandenburg’. I had the opportunity to attend the festivities celebrating her inaugural flight in June 2012 and had the pleasure of flying aboard ‘D-ABYA’ from Frankfurt to Washington DC on her 3rd ever departure from Frankfurt a few days later. For those of you wondering why I didn’t fly on the inaugural, I decided to visit family in Slovakia as part of my trip which also gave me the opportunity to photograph the inaugural ‘taxi’ and ‘takeoff’.
The 747-8i……
Boeing 747-8i ‘D-ABYA’ joined the fleet in May 2012 and is named “Brandenburg”. She is seen here being ventilated before flying to Hong Kong later that evening. I would see her the next morning over the Himalayas from my A330 from Munich.
The beauty and art of engineering……
She looks great for being 1 year old!!
