West Coast Spotting Extravaganza

Hello All,

I am in the midst of a RIC-ATL-DEN-ABQ-DAL-AUS-PHX-LAS-DEN-RIC spotting and tourist journey, and thought I'd share a few austerely edited photos from the past few weeks.



I had 6 hours in ATL between flights, so I decided to put them to good use in the new International Terminal.

Air France couldn't give me any good light, sadly

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I love how you can see that one engine on this Air Tran 737 has already been shut down by looking at the fan blades.

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First Lufthansa A343

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And the gem of ATL. I sat 5 hours waiting for this flight, only for torrential rain to start before he taxied back. I nearly put my camera away in disgust before a sudden break in the deluge, and some nice reflections. After 2.5 years, my first MD-11 ever.

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Great set. The AirTran and md11 are especially cool.

As you have likely seen, Colorado has been beset by some horrid wildfires this past week in Colorado Springs. Upon hearing that the President was coming to the area to speak, my good friend (to whom I owe these photos as I am without car) decided to head down with me to try and catch her. As with any AF1 expedition, this one came with her own story as well.

Upon arrival, 90 minutes before the TFR, at KCOS, we proceeded to the runway we thought him most likely to use, 17L. After a bit, we decided to explore the other side of the field in case he screwed us and went that way. No sooner did we get there than they reversed the pattern. After grabbing some quick chow, we headed to 35L, to watch arrivals. Air Force One checked in 15 or so minutes later at 20,000 feet, headed for runway 17L on the opposite side of the field. We hopped in the car, knowing full well we couldn't make it there before him-we were over 12 minutes away with no lights. We gunned it nonetheless, listening to him all the way. The tower him instructed him to intercept the localizer for 17L's ILS at "Moguls" while descending through 9K feet. Shortly thereafter comes our lucky break, and one of the funnier ATC moments I have witnessed (which went something like this):

AF1: "Colorado Springs Tower, is the Localizer operational at this time?"
COS Tower: "Negative Air Force One, we forgot to turn it on"

That misstep bought us enough time to reach a suitable place, for us to jump out of the car, and for me to walk a ways up a hill for these photos. Thank you KCOS tower for not knowing to have your localizer on for the most powerful man on the planet.


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Thank you TJK, I was quite pleased with both.

Two other things:

First, please excuse the poor quality of these photos, I am using an uncalibrated monitor, and am away from my trusty Noise ninja for my 7D. I will re-edit when I get home in a months time.


Second, this will likely be a running thread, rather than starting separate KATL, KPHX< KCOS threads for a few photos each, so stay tuned, and I hope you enjoyed!


Nick

Congrats on AF1, Nick. The MD-11 pax came out great in the wet tarmac! :-) I am still hunting her... I missed it both at SXM and MIA due to my intelligent scheduling of flights :tongue:

Dude that's one heck of tour lined up for you. I look forward to your upcoming stuff. That KLM MD-11 makes up for the LH MD-11 we are still chasing.

Manny-Thank you! I owe the KLM MD-11 to airTran's utter inability to schedule one of my free tickets in a manner that didn't create a lengthy layover. It was only the morning of my flight that I put together that ATL was an MD-11 destination.


Fasil- While it wasn't our Lufthansa MD-11 (or that gorgeous Ethiopian one that you have caught) I am pretty thrilled to finally catch an MD-11, and a passenger one at that. I wont be shooting everywhere I go, but I will be spending a week in Vegas shooting the military side of things, so keep your eyes out. Keep me posted as to when you are returning to the States, I will be back out East late July/Early August. Can you say JFK reunion trip?