DFW | January 2010 | Founders' Plaza | The first spotting session of the year....

These were shots I took on January 2nd. We happened to be out on errands on the Fort Worth side of the Metroplex and we were on our next to last stop of the day, the last stop being over in the Valley Ranch area on the Dallas side of things. The missus noticed the kids getting restless in the back and she suggested (yes, she actually DID suggest this) "Hey got your camera? Let's go hang out at Founders' Plaza and give the kids a chance to run around and burn off some energy."

That's called a keeper, boys. ;)

Just missed this one, it had just landed when we pulled into Founders' Plaza and oh it would have been so sweet to catch this on short final to 18R. Oh well, just gives me another excuse to head out there that I can add to my 50-page list of reasons to hang out at an airport.......Sometimes this flight is a 767-300 also in Omni Air colors but whether it's a DC-10 or a 767-300, it's on a military trooping charter.

Every single time I've seen Lufthansa's regular A340 flight subbed with an A330 I'm either in the area without a camera or not able to get to DFW. Until now. And it has the NERVE to go taxi to the east side for departure. I think my list of reasons to hang out at the airport just hit 51 pages.

This is one American Eagle ERJ-145 blue tail I haven't caught until now, N606AE is an ex-American Connection bird that flew for Trans States as N819HK, hence the blue tail logo. It was built and delivered to Trans States in June 1998.

Not my best shot, but I had to include this for two reasons. One, I caught the beacon flash on it, and secondly, it's tail number- N666A. Not just a non-standard American tail number, but one not for the superstitious out there. It's always flown for American under this tail number, it was built and delivered to the American back in April 1992.

Four more shots to come, but those will be presented a bit differently from my usual....stay tuned!

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.

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.

DFW | December 2009 | Two Midwest E-Jets..in a row?

Things were busy at the ol' day job in December and I haven't had as much time to upload some of my DFW spotting pics from this month, hopefully in the coming weeks I'll have an assortment of shots from the last month of the year to share. This set of shots was from the 17th. I was wrapping up an afternoon at Founders' Plaza when not just one Midwest E-Jet landed, but two of them. In succession. Usually the Midwest flights land on the east side and thus too far for anyone at Founders' Plaza. So to see one land on the west side is unusual. But to get two in a row on the west side? Well that's just plain strange. Not my best shots, but it was a unique sight I had to share on my blog.

This particular Embraer is an ERJ-170 with the tail number N874RW. Built and delivered to Shuttle America in October 2006, she flew originally in Delta Connection colors. She was then used by Republic (parent company of Shuttle America) to fly regional services for Frontier Airlines in full Frontier colors with the mule deer tail graphic (how's that for irony) and after a brief stint in generic colors flying as US Airways Express, she started flying as Midwest Connect in early 2009.

So imagine my surprise to have another Midwest E-Jet landing right after the Midwest ERJ-170. And this one was not only an ERJ-190, it had just Midwest titles and not Midwest Connect titles as I assume once Republic assumed control of Midwest and the last of the 717s was sent to pasture, these are now Midwest's "heavy metal" (and boy I know some guys up in MKE who are totally pissed about that). This particular 190, tail number N165HQ, is one of the newer aircraft I've photographed at DFW, this one was built and delivered to Republic in September 2009, just three months ago.

DFW | December 2009 | Overheard

Out at Founders' Plaza on a quite blustery day to see what could be had and I heard the following exchange on my scanner:

Aircraft: Regional Approach, November eight-four-oh Foxtrot, one-zero thousand for four thousand.
Regional Approach: Okay, you sure you're eight-four-oh Foxtrot?
Aircraft: That's right, eight-four-oh Foxtrot.
Regional Approach: Well, see, according to this fancy-shmancy machine in front of me you're eight-OH-four Foxtrot.

(Long pause)

Aircraft: November eight-OH-four Foxtrot, at one-zero thousand for four thousand.
Regional Approach: That's better.........