Mensagens

A mostrar mensagens de março, 2011

Looking huge...

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Today went to the airport to get Air Berlin's A330 of lunch time. Was decided to try a spot that was in my mind for a while.... When I got there, noticed that it wouldn't work because of the light....maybe in the afternoon... So decided to move a little bit, just enough to put the sun on my back. The first pics wasn't that bad.... Air Berlin 's D-AERS on short final to runway 05 The second shot got cut and didn't turned out like I wanted.... M.N. was with me and with a 10-20mm lens, probably managed to get the full result (I was on 18mm, with my 18-200)

"old" Netjets

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Yesterday was browsing some old pics when I noticed this one, that was still on my archives of original shots, untouched.... Really like the framing, the sharpness and amazing sky and clouds of this one... With a polarizer this one would be even more interesting, for sure...but it was taken just using the old 300D and 18-55 lens...

Jet2: 757 and the Scotland Menorca

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Last Monday, the  Air Finland with Allegiant Air livery  (OH-AFL) wasn't the only surprise ... Before that, arrived the Manchester and Leeds flights from Jet2. The first one to arrive was this 733 (G-CELU): G-CELU with Scotland titles, entering through "Charlie" after a 23 landing. Despite I already had photographed this plane (check HERE ), it looks like it got an all brand new paintjob.... Besides the titles, all the painting looks brand new, specially noticeable on the engines....shinning! The second Jet2 of the day was quite a surprise, a B757...as far as I know it's only the second time they bring this type to Madeira and it was another registration.... (check HERE ) G-LSAG The apron with the 2 surprises of lunch time, G-LSAG (B757 from Jet2) and OH-AFL (B757 from Air Finland with Allegiant Air livery) with a more usual Thomas Cook Scandinavia in the middle....

New Photo of the Week - Air Finland dressing Allegiant Air

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Today was one of those days that got myself thinking if it was worth to go to the airport at lunchtime, before heading to work.... Finally decided to go and check the status of the Easyjet that had yesterday a birdstrike on the engine...if nothing would be going on with that plane, at least would have some nice traffic to photograph.... The first surprise of the day was the Jet2 757....as far as I know it's only the second time they bring one of those.... But, the best was yet to come...noticed Air Finland coming in to land in 23, far away...pointed the camera and noticed the winglets...Great! They still hadn't brought any 757 with winglets... When it was on final, noticed that the livery was different....at first though that it was the old livery but then, realised it was something completely diferent!!!! WOW!! It's been quite a while since I last got a surprise like that....just like the old times when you had no idea what was coming and kept getting new stuff.... F

Easyjet's engine birdstrike

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This morning, the Easyje t from Lisbon had an engine birdstrike before the final approach to runway 05. Everything went ok but the plane is grounded.... Tomorow we'll probably know something more on the engine but....I wonder....will it be this time that we'll have something interesting (cargo plane) around here to bring a new engine to the Easy....?? Check Samuel Passos vídeo of the final approach of the plane to runway 05... Notting visible but the loud and strange noise is noticeable.... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FZS_Daob6nU

Saturday's privates

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 One of the purposes of last Saturday spotting session at Madeira's airport was to get the rare Embraer ERJ-135 that was at there. When I got there, it was preparing to leave... The Embraer ERJ-135 Legacy 600 from London Excecutive Aviation (G-HUBY) lining up on runway 05 "local" Madejet's Hawker CS-DPA also made a few entries on the ruway for engine tests The private arrival of the afternoon, SE-RFJ, a Cessna 680 Citation A small overview, incluind the other bizjet that was at Madeira: Omni's CS-TFO, a Learjet 40 that had been making some trainings at Madeira and Porto Santo the previous day.

Eyes on: Real Thaw 2011

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A actividade cibernética da Força Aérea Portuguesa parece estar em alta, depois da apresentação há dois dias atrás da página da Esquadra 751, hoje foi a vez da página Oficial do Real Thaw 2011, um exercício que decorrerá a partir da BA5 , em Monte Real, na zona de Monte Real e Covilhã e que estará igualmente aberto à participação dos spotters, com a organização de um Spotters Day e visitas à BA5. Ver: http://www.emfa.pt/realthaw/index.php

Panning the Easyjet

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Last Saturday, after a while, weather became quite dull and cloudy so, decided to try a panning for the incoming Easyjet... The speed choosen was 1/80. Shooted a small burst when the plane was in front of me and got a couple of acceptable shots... Despite that, the panning effect was still a bit lower than I had expected on a landing... Next time will try some lower speeds... Easyjet's A319 G-EZBD landing on 05

Eyes on - Sqn.751 online

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Squadron 751, from Portuguese Air Force operates the EH-101 Merlin helicopter. One of its main missions and the one by which they're most known are the SAR on the wide Portuguese area (and some times on the Spanish and Morocco areas....) With quite an active Facebook page , a web  page is now online and it looks really great! Well worth the regular visit (added to Squadrons Links, on the right): http://www.emfa.pt/www/po/esq751/ Also online is another link regarding this squadron that's well worth the visit. An infography on the Squadron's missions during 2010: http://www.emfa.pt/www/conteudos/destaques/InfograficoEsq751.html Check my EH-101 photos on the Blog, HERE

TC & Starquest Expeditions

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Today we had the arrival of  TC & Starquest Expeditions / Thomson Airways B757, from AQJ (King Hussein  Intl Aiport , in Aqaba, Jordan). The plane wasn't looking that different but this kind of special flights is allways a nice catch. Was expecting just a small sticker with the TC Expeditions logo but after all, the Thomson titles were gone, replaced by the TC sticker and the tail was also different...nothing too exciting but, different... (glad it landed 05...if it landed 23 we would have get the right side of the plane which still remains with regular Thomson livery.... Thomson's G-OOBE landing on 05 with TC Expeditions stickers on fuselage and tail  You can check some more info on Expeditions HERE . Check the program for the Expedition visiting Madeira, HERE  (Hidden Wonders Around the World)

New Photo of the Week - Changing the spot...

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Last Saturday decided to go for an afternoon of spotting... Wanted to try a few different spots that only work on the afternoon, considering the light. Anyway, when I got there, the G-HUBY, a ERJ-135 was about to leave and also another bizjet was supposed to arrived by that time so, went to the usual spot. A few other spotters were also there so, ended up staying on the same place... When most of the traffic ended, everyone went out and I also went for some personal business, when I was returning to Funchal, noticed that Aigle Azur was about to leave with a TAP coming to land....decided to go to a different spot. I hadn't photograph from this place in quite a while and with some last sunrays, the scene was really nice and the best...unusual on my last shots... TAP's A320 CS-TNM landing on 05

Tuifly Specials

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Last Tuesday was German day.... The first ones were the Tuifly. 4 of them.... A couple of them were just regular yellow Tui livery but the other two were a couple of special liveries... !! The first (already at the airport when I arrived) was already known D-ATUE, with the  DB ICE IM ZUG ZUM FLUG livery (DB Air One) and it was expected. The other one was a surprise to me and despit I already had some pics of it, it was quite some time since I last caught it....the Hapag-Lloyd Kreuzfahrten (D-ATUF) Despite the rainy weather, D-ATUF landed with a nice sunlight! D-ATUE taxiing to runway 05 ...and departing with a great water spraying, from recent shower rain...   D-ATUF pushing back to runway 05. A big cheer group from Tui, waving World of Tui flags to the departure of  D-ATUF

Memories: Belgians at Porto Santo

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It's been a while since my last post on military aviation, so here's a memory post... Porto Santo usually gets a lot more military traffic than Madeira but some of Murphy's law must say that whenever I'm there there's nothing going on.... My first digital Camera was a small Fujifilm Finepix 6800. For the time it was rather nice for some vacation pics but it was no spotting camera... Anyway, back in 2003 I was in Porto Santo, during summer vacations when I noticed (it was hard not to notice...) a bunch of F-16's arriving to local airport... They were Belgian, including one with the most fantastic Tiger tail I had seen (and again...Murphy said that it would be the one to be parked on the farest dispersal....as far I as know this plane end-up having a crash accident a couple of years later, unfortunatelly...) Anyway, as far as I can remember, it was the first time I saw (and heard!!!!) live F-16's...the moments and the pic's are now part of my mem

A different Q400 / replacing the Q200

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Last Tuesday was German day, no doubt... Anyway decided to share the Sata planes after the littles spotters for 2 reasons: Sata's Q400 on that day was quite unusual around here and the Q200 that usualy makes FNC-PXO flights is grounded with a mechanical problem... Last Tuesday, Sata's Q400 that came from Ponta Delgada was a different registration: CS-TRG Checking Airliners and Jetphotos  noticed that in either there was only 1 pic of this reg....rare, for sure... After arriving from Ponta Delgada, caught it departing to Las Palmas  with quite a nice framing... Sata's Q400 CS-TRG, departing to Las Palmas The other reason I mention in the begining was the grounding of "local" Sata Q200 due to mechanical problems.... I've heard that the replacement part still has to come from outside Europe so, tomorow a Q400 should arrive to Porto Santo to replace the Q400..... Sata's Q200 CS-TRB that ensures the Madeira-Porto Santo flights P.S.: J

Little Spotters...

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Yesterday had a really nice morning of spotting... Traffic was really nice and there was a really nice group of spotters to hang around and chat all morning long... Even if some of the pics got really crappy...who cares?! It was quality time... (one old lady even came to ask us if anyone important was to come...she's only used to that much photographers  when some VIP arrives at the airport....LOL) Anyway pic planes will be coming next days...for now just this one: Looks like someone else was also having a blast, watching the planes... ;) This kind of situation allways reminds me these 2 pics (Check HERE and HERE ) of old days... Despite the balcony and the clothings are diferent and although aviation is not that far and unknown these days, the magic is still there and the dreams still take-off with the planes... Enjoy kids!

New Photo of the Week - Snow up high in Madeira

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Yesterday the snow kept falling all day long in the higher peaks of Madeira (and also in some lower locations where snow  is quite unusual)... By the end of the afternoon, a lot of people was caught in surprise with the intensity of the snow fall and was unable the return back, so Emergency services had to go to the rescue of the people (almost 70 cars had to be abandoned in the middle of the snow....) Fortunatelly everything went ok and no casualties are reported... This morning took some shots from São Martinho and Pico dos Barcelos, on the upper Funchal... The view from the front of my daughter's kindergarden... A lot more white than usual...

Top of last 24H

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Got an email from Jetphotos, informing me that this shot was one of pics in Top of Last 24 Hours. It't not there anymore so, don't really know in which position it was but it was one of the 4 more seen pics of last day...allways nice... G-CGET from Jet2 just passing runway 05

A night-stop from Santa Maria

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Yesterday got the info that a private jet was coming from Santa Maria to Madeira. Didn't know if it would stay for the night but maybe I had luck... After family dinner, went to the airport and there it was, so went to the balcony for a couple of shots. On the first one, got lucky enought to catch the Fire Dept. truck passing behind with the flashing lights which allways gives a nice touch on long-exposition shots... Canadian Global Air Ambulance Learjet 35 - C-GAJS You can check some pics of this plane in Santa Maria, at Asas Santa Maria Blog

Air Museum

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A video regarding the Aviation history in Portugal and the Air Museum, in Sintra:

Last Sunday of February

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It's been a long time since I last caught TAP A330. Last sunday of February made a quick stop at the airport just when the TP131 when about to leave to Caracas. Not much traffic at that time, so, made a couple of quick shots at the apron.... CS-TON, pushing back to runway 05 A quick shot to CS-TRB, Sata's Q200, with Madeira Aeroclub's planes in the back (CS-AIC and CS-DCH) Then, moved to another location for a few shots of the take-off

ND filters

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Despite the Saturday, today was early wake day! Went to Reis Magos beach together with a couple of spotter friends and another photographer to have my first ND use practical lessons... Miguel had been talking about this type of filters and photopraphy and I was really forwarding to try it... It's quite diferent from action shooting of plane photo spotting but, definitely a lot interesting! Miguel lent me some of his filters and adatpter and provided some tips... Every day you get to learn something but today I've learnt a lot more than usual... For the first tries, I'm more than happy with the results and definitely interest in getting the material to keep trying more stuff... Enought talking...here's some of the pics.... Ghost photographers.... ;) This one goes specially to Alex .... Definitely a well worth early wake and a great way to start the day! A big thumbs up to the guys and a special thanks to Miguel!

Monday smallies

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Because smaller planes are also interesting (specially in an airport like Madeira, were Airbus/Boeing rules), here's a couple of shots of last Monday smallies... The small catch of the day... G-JMED, from AirMed arriving for a Medical flight "local" CS-TRB, the Sata Q200 that connects Madeira and Porto Santo

New Photo of the Week - White Jet2

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This morning, went for runway 05's head, just by the expressway, for some diferent shots. Just as I was starting to walk to the place, noticed a plane turnning into final, the radio was off so had no idea what it was...started running and almost on the last second turned around to shoot some pics... At first looks had not idea what it was and crossed my mind that it was an unexpected Palmair ...it wasn't it... Was better... a white Jet2 with full red titles...nice! (not very fond on white planes but in this case, it was a really nice catch...) G-CGET in short final to 05 Look Mom! one wheel only....LOL Lucky shot, on the right second...probably not many airport where you could shoot this kind of pics.... Lining up on runway 05 Departing to Leeds Definitely the traffic of the day for me, not only for the diferent livery but also because it was the plane on which most shots turned out really nice (in my opinion....)