Mensagens

A mostrar mensagens de abril, 2009

New Photo of the Week

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This is one of my best photos (or at least is one of favorites). It was taken on June, 7th 2007 from a spot I had been trying for quite a while. That kind of pics, from that spot, aren't that usual, because the plane has to be using runway 23 (from runway 05, the most used you can also get some nice pics but it's harder, unless its a really early take off), and the best light is on the afternoon...during the morning and initially at afternoon you get too much backlit for any good results... A nice curiosity on that day was that the plane brought a Ferrari (a real one) on its cargo bay (it was a regular flight with passengers, the space available was the comon one on a passenger flight...) There's the Ferrari, near the handling cars Anyway, here's another shot of that take off. And just for curiosity, 3 other shots, also from that spot, with runway 05 in use (also in the afternoon) Works better with big planes...

Flower Festival

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These last days, Madeira (specially in Funchal) has been comemorating the Flower Festival, one the biggest touristic events at our island. I'm not a great flower fan but, must agree that Funchal downtown becomes a lot more interesting and busy during these days (and off course, beautifull with all those flowers...) Didn't go to the Flower parade (on Sunday), which is the peak of the celebrations but here's a shot just for the record...

Reading....

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Started reading last week a book my sister borrowed me: "A Ilha" (The Island) by Victoria Hislop . It's getting quite addictive... You can find the Synopsis of the book in the author's page Also, this weekend, I bought Ken Follett's "Voo Final" (Hornet Flight)...Seems quite interesting. Really looking forward to get to it...

With the father at the Office?

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26.Abril.2009, a few minutes after midnight, made a quick stop at the airport for a few quick nightshots of the traffic and this one really called my attention. On CS-TNL, which had just arrived, while the crew finished their procedures, a couple of kids (a boy and a girl) were completly and peacefully asleep... Later on they abandoned the plane with the crew. Sun and daughter of the captain on a "visit" to its "office"? :)) Anyway, it must have been a really smooth landing as they kept sleeping that peacefully...

April of Freedom

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Another 25th of April has passed... For the non-Portuguese, on April, 25th we comemorate the Revolution (1974) that ended the dictatorship that started in 1926, known after 1933 as "Estado Novo" (new state). Why the Carnation on top of the G3 rifle as a simbole? Well, opposite to expected by many people, specially worldwide, the military revolution was made whit very little violence and shots fired. One of the stories told about the carnations is that a flower seller that met one of the military columns in the capital, offered the soldiers its carnations which were putten on the barrels of the G3 rifles and the images of the Revolution are of soldiers with carnations on the rifles and not firing bullets. Anyway this last April, 25th was a Saturday, so decided to go downtown with my wife and daugther for a wallk in the exhibit mounted for the Flower Festival, one of Madeira biggest Touristic Events.... When I got there...Well..must admit that I got really surprise for finding

Fish34

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After a night-stop, the PoAF C212-300 crew started preparing its flight before 10am. Couldn't miss the chance of getting its departure as this kind of Aviocar is quite rare around here (PoAF only has 2 of the 300 type) and adding to all this, the replacer of the Aviocars, the new C-295 already started arriving to Portugal so, probably during next year, the C212-100 will all be taken off duty and these 300's the year after. The main mission of these planes is maritime surveillance and fishery fiscalization and other kind of oceanographic research. Call sign for this flight was Fish34 so I guess it was a mission of surveillance and fiscalization of our Maritime Economic Area, which is one of the biggest in Europe. (too bad the relative lack of investiment on the "hardware" for its fiscalization. Anyway, the Air Force is getting some new material for this. I guess the Navy situation is way worse with few and old ships. Looks like their Oceanic Patrol ships are still

Hapag Special and Aviocars on the double

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Yesterday (21.Apr.2009) afternoon went to the airport for some spotting and it was one of those days really worth it. With 3 Tuifly's (Hapag-Lloyds) coming in the afternoon, there was a good chance of getting something really interesting. Before leaving to the airport, already knew that 2 of them were bluey's (boring regular Tui blue livery used by almost all the airlines connected with the TUI group). The 3rd one, in the other hand was something worth the trip: D-AHLK, the only Tuifly special liverie that I hadn't caught yet. Also, when I was on my way to the airport, Jorge Abreu called me, saying that there was a big nose Aviocar parked in the apron...A 300?? Well, definitely worth the trip: I had never had caught a C212-300, here at Madeira. After all it ended being a catch on the double for Aviocars as a while after I arrived, Medic36 (the callsign for Medical Evacuations made from the PoAF C212-100 from Porto Santo) arrived from PXO. This last one is quite an histo

Training Circuits

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Yesterday on the afternoon went with my kid and wife to Santa Cruz. My daughter just loves the playground of that city (my home town, home of the airport, hehe!) When I was arriving, noticed a bizjet on its final to runway 05. Decided to go to the ramps, behind the airport to have a peek on the bizjet. Getting there, saw that it hadn't land. Was making some training circuits and it was the bizjet that I had seen the night before but couldn't photograph: (CS-DIY) On the first approach I photographed, the pilot gave power quite early on the final and passed runway 05 already quite high. The second approach I photographed was the last one and he came in for the final land. On the Apron, as usual, the cargo plane from Swiftwair, on its Weekend stop. Today it resumed its flights to Lisbon.

A Quicky at Night

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Hey! No Red Circle in the corner...it's not that kind of Quicky... Yesterday I was at Santa Cruz, so before leaving to Funchal, had to (of course) make a stop at the airport. As I arrived at the parking behind the runway, noticed that the Portuguese Air Force Aviocar was taxiing to the stand...!!! Hadn't the radio on but, at that time of the night, it could only be a "Medic36" flight: a Medical Evacuation from the neighbour smaller island of Porto Santo. Turned my car around and left in a hurry for the terminal, has the terminal balcony would be the only place to get some nice pics of it. Unfortunatelly, when I arrived at the balcony, it was already entering the runway to return to Porto Santo...Big Miss!!! It was a unique oportunity to photograph this propeller plane at night with the propellers running and the lights/beacons on... Too bad...took some quick pics of some of the night traffic and left... This Netjets Hawk 800 was a nice catch, as bizjet's are allwa

Bisonte at LPMA

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Ok, let's boost this blog a little bit... Yesterday we had, finally, some military traffic at LPMA: A C130, from Portuguese Air Force. For a military aviation fan, like me, this airport can be very frustrating as there's nothing going on in terms of military aviation. Anyway, the pics... Bruno, the owner of this Zlin also went for a quick ride to Funchal Bay (and the Aeroclube Piper, went to Porto Santo)