DFW | January 2010 | Founders' Plaza | It was *so* cold.......

Had an hour to kill this afternoon between kids' activities and decided to swing by Founders' Plaza despite the fact that it was 26 degrees with a brisk north wind that had the wind chill down in the single digits. So the operative word here is to sit in a very warm car and only hop out for shots you *really* want. I wasn't expecting anything interesting, but the chilly weather we've had lent itself to a scene you don't really see much of at DFW.......

Deicing! Doesn't happen much in these parts and I wasn't expecting to see it, but lo and behold, there you have it. The afternoon MD-11F departure gets a hose down. Funny thing is that this particular MD-11F, N276UP, was originally built in March 1996 as a passenger MD-11 for Japan Air Lines and flew as JA8588. JAL called their MD-11s "J Birds" and each one had a different species of bird on the winglet, this one was a white-tailed eagle. Way back then, JAL's MD-11s were regulars at DFW and just maybe this is one that's come on back. Ahhhh, nostalgia. I was usually out on my lunch break when JAL's MD-11s arrived back then.




Here the other side of the aircraft gets treated. The poor guy had a difficult time getting the #2 intake as he was positioned in front of it and had to spray into the blustery north winds. I'm surprised he tried as much as he did before repositioning upwind from the tail section.

When they started the #3 engine, this enormous cloud of white smoke poured out of the engine. Not unusual if the engine has cold soaked (I think this aircraft had arrived the night before and there was some freezing rain last night, hence the need for deicing to get rid of the accumulated ice), but it's usually not cold enough here to see this happen a lot. I think it actually has to be a lot colder to see some flames shoot out, but not sure.

Start up of the #1 engine then resulted in more white smoke. Didn't seem as thick and heavy as it did for the #3 engine, don't know if the engine bleed air maybe pre-warmed this engine a bit?

And finally the #2 engine was started with all the white smoke that comes with a cold-soaked engine start.

This particular aircraft, N276UP, was converted to freighter configuration in August 2004 by Singapore Aerospace at Peya Lebar Airport for UPS.