Working Merlin...

On the same day of the arrival of the Atlético Bilbao, the Portuguese Air Force EH-101 based at Porto Santo was quite busy during a few hours.
It made a couple of Medical Evacuations on the sea. The first one was from cruise ship "Aida Vita", 240 miles from Madeira and the second one was from a petrol carrier ship 70 miles off our island.

After the arrival of Privilege with the spanish team, I left the airport.
Not longer after that received a call telling me that there was one of the new C-295 of the Portuguese Air Force (16704) at the airport and that the Merlin was also there refueling, before proceeding to another Medical Evacuation on the sea...crap!!
The problem with military traffic, specially on a civilian airport is that you never know when they're coming...

Anyway, later (around 15.30) was driving at Funchal when I noticed the EH-101 descending into the west part of the city...it had to be landing on the Hospital helipad.
Went there, off course. Not many oportunities of seeing it in action there. With traffic and so, decided to stay near the hospital, despite not beeing the best plane and not having a direct view on the roof helipad.
A few moments after it started its take off but oposite of what I was expecting it didn't made its exit to the side of the Carlton Hotel, where I had a better line of sight....it took off to the side of Barreiros Stadium, behing the Hospital...
With this and the crappy weather, didn't manage to get any better pics than these...altough the second one its rather nice on a more artistic view....

Anyway, you can allways have a look of a set of pics I took, back in 2007 to the trainings of  a Merlin at the Hospital helipad. It's on my old photoblog:

Just Click HERE.

The arrival of Atlético Bilbao

Yesterday (04.Nov.2009) the spanish football (soccer) team arrived to Madeira, to play with local team C.D.Nacional for the European League.
It was the first of 4 planes chartered for this event (lots of spanish coming)...2 from Privilege (EC-ISY and EC-HDS) and another couple of flights made by White's A320 (CS-TQK).

EC-ISY was the only one I got. Weather wasn't smilling to receice the spanish team/fans on this flights...

Some noticeable condensation effect coming out of the flaps...

Ao pôr-do-sol

Estava hoje na varanda a apreciar o por-do-sol, por trás dos edifícios circundantes quando reparei nuns "trabalhadores" em final de dia, no topo de um edifício ao fundo.
Achei que valia a pena ir buscar a máquina, pois estava um enquadramento muito bom, contra a luz do por-do-sol...

Testing, 1, 2, 3...

Got myself some new gear. Birthday is coming closer and decided to gift myself.
(and also my "old" 300D has been announcing its eminent death for a long time...).

I'm now the proud owner of a Canon 1000D.
Well, it's just an entry level camera (and so the 300D was) but I guess it's good enough for my skills. If I don't take good pics with it, then using a better camera wouldn't help at all...
Anyway, still testing some definitions as it brings a lot more features than the 300D...

A rather quick stop at the airport, on a Saturday late afternoon was the first plane spotting photography with it...
The second day of Aigle Azur to Madeira on A319. Coming on final with some backlit but a lot of great reflections...

The other French of the afternoon, taxiing to 05 to departure...

An old LTU plane, now with Air Berlin livery but still with a sticker with "Operated by LTU"

And finally, the home land airline...

Conclusions? Well, will let you decide on the pics but I'm rather pleased with the way the camera deals with whites and the sun. Used center-weight metering (unavailable on 300D) and it looks like it's the best option for plane shooting.
On the other hand, looks like works a real bad with the lens weak point, regarding low f numbers...
Will just keep trying definitions and trying to learn and improve...

Metal in the Air

Just sitting in front of the Discovery Turbo as it starts another episode of "Metal in the Air", presented by Bruce Dickinson, lead singer of the Iron Maiden and also an Astreus captain... :)

It's a rather interesting program and its presentation makes it everything but dull.

Anyway, when I was younger, Iron Maiden was one of my favorite bands, although I was more interested in Steve Harris bass playing than Dickinson's singing...

Don't really know what my fav, song was but today, I'll share this one...
(looking at this it doesn't really seem like a trustfull captain to fly with...hehe!!)

ATP by Night

On the same night I went for the Tu-154 photos, took the oportunity for some ATP night shots...
More than probably, next year it won't be around here anymore, so I might as well take the oportunities.

A different view....

And a more usual view, from the engine...looks rather nice, looking from here and definitely more interesting than the "tube" of a jet engine...

A dream come true...

This is a post definitely dedicated to my spotter friend Jan Swiderski!

One of my dream traffic at Madeira was the Tu-154. There were a few (at least 3) Tu-154 here before but, I missed them all...
The only other 2 times I had the oportunity to see one of these live was in Barcelona, in 2005 and now in 2009 but on both times it was quite far away to apreciate it the way it should be.

When I first heard the info that one these was coming I couldn't believe it...WOW!!!
Too bad it came and departed in the night....anyway still managed to take some pics...(Madeira Spotters rules!! hehe!)

It was a great night (arrived at the airport around 9.30pm and left the airport after midnight) together with some spotting guys (and looks like we're grabbing another guy into plane photography spotting...he sure looks enthusiast and took some very nice pics also.)

Anyway, the pics...

Say what??

Ah...ok...

That tail and engines are fantastic!! And what about that "bird impaler"? Is that an antenna or just some aerodynamic address? Does anyone know? Have to look about that...

The tail/engines does stand out of the plane...

Love those main gears...unfortunatelly with night landing/take off couldn't see them in "action"...

Putting the protections into the engines...(Yellowish hu? Well, didn't use customized white balance on this one...)

The front of the plane looks quite aerodynamic, oposite to the back...

12mm shot. Thanks to Jorge for lending me this lens. Looks like it's the next on whishlist, althought this shot doesn't show the potencial of the lens..