DFW | January 2010 | Founders' Plaza | Shooting in the suck.....

This set of shots was from a decidedly murky IFR day- about 2 mile visibility with 500' ceilings. But that never stops me from doin' some spottin'. Rain. Shine. IFR. VFR. TSTRM. I'm there, boys.

Heading out from West Cargo bound for Brussels is this Sinapore Airlines Cargo 747-400F with the radio call sign "Sing Cargo 7978 Heavy" and heading to Brussels. The droop of the wings is indicative of the big fuel load for the flight out.

This particular aircraft was built and delivered to Singapore Airlines in August 2003. Here she's turned from Taxiway C onto Taxiway Z to take the Zulu Bridge over to the east side for departure.

Now here's something you don't see very often- this American MD-83 is backtracking up 18R to do a 180 at the end for departure. Apparently this particular morning they were using 18L for arrivals and 18R for departures, the reverse of the normal mode of operation.

"American 1288, do a one-eighty at the end of One-Eight-Right and position and hold for departure...American 1288, cleared for takeoff One-Eight-Right, RNAV to BPARK...."

This particular MD-83 is ex-TWA. N9681B was built and delivered to TWA in November 1999, one of the last to join TWA before it was acquired by American Airlines.

It's unusual (at DFW, at least) to see a UPS MD-11F this dirty. Those aren't smudges or shadows, that's grime. Now *that* is more becoming of a pimp-slapped freighter flying rubber dog shit out of Hong Kong!

This particular MD-11F was built originally in passenger configuration in September 1993 for Japan Air Lines and flew as JA8580 and was converted in Singapore to freighter configuration for UPS later on.

"United 723, cleared for intersection takeoff from Yankee to One-Eight Left, RNAV to BPARK...."

This A320, N478UA, was built and delivered to United in June 2001 and flew for several years in Ted colors before the operation was folded back into United's mainline. As I was leaving Founders' Plaza, a Beech King Air in FAA colors came in low on approach to 18R (the only approach to 18R in the time I was there), stayed about 100' above the runway and never landed. That explained why the operations on the 18s were reversed- the ILS on 18R was probably getting flight checked by a callibration flight.