Remarks: Air Berlin cruises down the final toward runway 24R as patrons enjoy an early dinner at In-N-Out Burger on a beautiful Saturday afternoon in Socal.
Remarks: I was standing on the balcony of our room at the Renaissance Hotel at ATL looking elsewhere when I heard two loud booms and looked up to see that this DL MD-88 had blown two tires. The Captain skillfully maneuvered the aircraft onto the high speed taxiway while flame and smoke erupted from the undercarriage. Most surprising was how long it took for the evacuation to commence and for airport fire & rescue to arrive -- at least 5 minutes on both accounts, from the time the plane stopped. All 47 pax and the crew evacuated via the left-hand slides (due to failure of the rear slide) after this photo was taken, with only minor injuries. This was DL2284 from Pittsburgh.
Remarks: Rocketing away from runway 1R in Sin City on our way to SNA. Much of the famous Las Vegas strip is visible below as we make the left turn on the BOACH4 departure.
Remarks: Though it doesn't have the notoriety or fame of its bigger neighbor across the runway, the quaint Maho Boat Bar has great food and drink (at lower prices), comfortable shaded seating, and this time of year, much better light for shooting the action at Juliana. People pause from their beach activities to take notice of KLM's beautiful MD-11, arriving as KL763 from Amsterdam.
Remarks: Dive-bombing runway 10 at picturesque St. Barths is PJ-WIS, the newest Twin Otter to Winair's fleet. Built in 1975, this airplane joined Winair in June, 2010, and this is the first shot of it on JP. Fellow JP photographer James Rowson captures the action from further down the hill.
Remarks:Something Different! For reasons still a bit unclear to me, Delta's daily 73G service to Atlanta requires a runway 28 (opposite direction) takeoff with anything less than a 15 knot tailwind. Most days, this flight is several hundred feet in the air by the time it crosses Maho Beach, but occasionally we're treated to a flight crew who like to put on a better show. This was the lowest we saw over a 10 day period, as DL448 to Atlanta is ripping out probably 20-30 feet over the beach, much to the delight of everyone in the vicinity!
Remarks:The Whole Scene. I've wanted to capture a wide-angle shot of the entire Maho Beach "complex" in SXM for some time, but had never found a decent location. Through some exploration of the older portion of the hotel (and after "unlocking" a few locked doors), I found just what I was looking for. The overwhelming and unique atmosphere of Maho is on display here, as people play in the sand, surf, and sun -- most of them totally oblivious to the Air France A340 landing in the background!
Remarks: Happy Birthday to me (well, a couple days early...)!! Throw in an MD-11 with the tranquil setting of beach, pool, and sun in St. Maarten and one has a quadfecta that simply can't be beat!
Remarks: To celebrate the one year anniversary of the the start of construction, I give you the first JetPhotos picture of the 737-700 fix-based home simulator that resides in my living room. Here, we are lined up on runway 28R at Portland International about to depart into a beautiful sunset, headed to Las Vegas. There's still lots of work to be done on this project, but I'm very pleased with the result so far! The sim is powered by 7 networked PCs running FS9, Project Magenta GC software, and numerous other programs and enhancements. Visuals are provided by three projectors warped onto a 22ft curved screen for a 150° FOV. Hardware provided by Flight Deck Solutions, SISMO, Engravity, and a whole host of others.
