DFW | April 2009 | Founders' Plaza

It was suggested to me that I put some of my spotting shots in a blog, so if you'll bear with me, I'll add my shots going back from April of this year to now to get this blog up to speed.

First we'll start off with the first week of April this year. This was one of those rare days at DFW when gusty winds from the west limit landings to just 31L and 31R. It causes quite a bit of flight delays, but it's a spotters' delight as the China Air Cargo parking lot has a small grassy hill that overlooks the approach end of 31L.

Since I had already been planning to spot the crosswind ops at DFW that day off Runway 31L, I thought I'd see how things were shaping up at Founders' Plaza as the airport was about to gear up for the crosswind operations. The winds were already starting to pick up out of the west after being southwesterly most of the early hours of the morning after the front passed through.

^Nice early morning shot of an MD-11F freighter at the UPS ramp with the American Airlines line maintenance hangars in the background as well as the West Tower.

^I've been trying to catch a silhouette shot of a landing at DFW with sunlight coming through the aircraft cabin windows, this one is the closest I've gotten so far, the morning Sun Country 737-800 arrival from Minneapolis.

^A few seconds later, here she is about to touch down with International Terminal D in the background. After the Sun Country 737-800 landed, a Cessna Citation VII was the last arrival from the north to get in before the airport got turned around for departures to the north for a brief period before crosswind operations would begin. Both the Sun Country flight and the Citation that followed it were already crabbing sharply into the wind to land on 18R.

^Only a handful of departures were able to make it out on the 36s and 35s before the crosswinds from west kicked in. This is a Northwest DC-9-30 outbound, there was a lot of noise in the shot but I really liked the angle as the flights came off 36R, they veered off to the west and came right over Founders' Plaza making for some unusual photographic angles.

^US Airways 737-300 departing for Phoenix. I was trying to get the rising sun glinting off the fuselage, I sort of got it. Kinda.

^This American 767-300 was one of the last off the 36s and 35s before the long conga lines started forming to use both 31L and 31R as the westerly winds started to kick up.