DFW | April 2009 | Founders' Plaza

This particular day in April I was tracking several inbounds that I wanted to shoot pictures of, but they got held up as an outflow boundary from a nearby storm cell caused some erratic wind shifts between southerly winds and easterlies. I noticed three go-arounds in a row over on the west side and figured there must be quite a back up on the NW hold pad as departures held position until the weather improved. So off to Founders' Plaza!

^Sure enough the storms had quite a little cluster of aircraft on the NW hold pad. Here a Cessna 525 (CJ1) from Florida holds position on 18L. It made two attempts at take off, not sure why. He's got quite a back up behind him, too.

There are three "lanes" in the NW hold pad designated WF (Whiskey Foxtrot), WG (Whiskey Golf), and WH (Whisky Hotel). Aircraft will line up in each lane waiting their turn for take off on 18L. This group pictured here is using WH, the southernmost lane on the hold pad.

^It's not often that there will be four Airbus jets in hold pad at DFW. With a Frontier A319 and Mexicana A318 at WH (Whiskey Hotel), this United A319 and US Airways A320 take their positions at WF (Whiskey Foxtrot).

 ^A Mexicana A318 (XA-UBQ, built in October 2004 initially for GECAS and leased to Mexicana) takes position short of 18L as a gaggle of American MD-80s starts forming up behind it. This is the usual afternoon Mexicana departure headed for Mexico City.

^Here's Trixie, the Red Fox Pup, from Frontier getting ready to start its takeoff roll. This aircraft, N912FR, is an A319 built and delivered in August 2002 to GECAS for lease to Frontier Airlines. This flight is headed for Denver.

^After a while the arrivals started rolling in again and here's an American 757 (N601AN, built and delivered to American in February 1995) about to touchdown on 18L.

^Don't usually shoot pictures of American 737-800s as they're so common, but I liked the way that the exhaust of the CFM56s is deflected downward slightly from the airflow coming over the wings and lowered flaps. This aircraft, N967AN, was built and delivered to American in June 2001.

^Last shot of the day with the dark clouds of the one storm cell to the south- Singapore Cargo 747-400F rolls out from the West Cargo complex bound for the east side to depart off 17R. This aircraft, 9V-SFO, was built and delivered to Singapore Airlines in June 2004. Their cargo aircraft use the radio callsign "Sing Cargo".