Mensagens

A mostrar mensagens de abril, 2011

Monarch returning

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I guess that one of the most expected returns for this year (at least for me) is of Monarch! It's been several years since the last flights of that airline to Madeira and I don't even remember seeing them around here... So, it's one of the airlines I've been wanting to see around  for a long time... Next Monday will be the day (probably with an A320...). The only time I caught a Monarch plane was 3 Years ago, in Lanzarote, as I disembarked my plane noticed an A300 from Monarch, far in the distance....quite a catch...

Brussels Airlines

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Another nice catch I made at Porto was this Brussels Airlines B737. The only other time I had caught a Brussels Airlines plane was a couple of years ago, in Barcelona, and the plane was a lot more interesting than this one (a BAe 146...check it HERE ) but this one was a lot more closer and anyway it's allways nice to get different stuff... OO-VEG taxiing to the runway (through the terminal windows...)

EH-101 Merlin busy day

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It's been quite a long time since I last saw the PoAF EH-101 around here... The bad thing about military traffic is that you never know when are they coming... Anyway, last monday it was a national holliday (April, 25th - the celebration of the end of Dictatorship  and beggining of Democracy, back in 1974) but the guy's of sqn.751 detached at AM3 (neighbour island of Porto Santo) were at work. Don't know exactly what were they doing but looks like it was related with Natural Area of Desert islands as they made a few flights in there in during the day.... The first arrival I got, in the morning...passed high and landed far, in order to enter taxiway Charlie After a while, 19605 taxied to runway 05 Gear up....and there it went...  It then returned before lunch for a break and, after lunch made another flight before returning the drop some passengers ...before returning to Porto Santo....

A Brazilian Transavia

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One the hightlights of last monday was the Brazilian Transavia : PH-GGZ, leased by Transavia from GOL for the summer season, it was a nice catch,despite the dull weather. Check the plane's info at Airfleets Also you may want to check another entry, with pics taken a couple of years ago of another Brazilian Transavia, the PH-HSS ...check it HERE PH-GGZ, former PR-GGZ, from GOL Nice touch, maintaining the original winglets and also on the tail it's noticeable the orange underneath Transavia colors.

Ryanair at Porto

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I guess that in the days I was Porto airport (or as the english say...don't really know why...Oporto....) the most usual airline was Ryanair...on the day I got the car and in the day of my departure Ryanair traffic was quite a lot... Anyway just managed to shot 2 or 3 of them and, behind the glass of the terminal only this one went ok (and was lucky enough to be one with Comunitat Valenciana titles...

Tiger!!

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Two of the nicest Tiger liveries I've seen were dressed by PoAF G.91's Last week, when visiting the small Museum at AM1 had the oportunity to see one of those... This was a double pleasure: the Tiger livery plus the Fiat G.91, one of my favorite jets that served on PoAF... (I know it's not much of a fighter but really enjoy the looks of it...) Fiat G.91 5452 cockpit  My little spotter also loved the Tiger ....and was quite interested in the cockpit That air entry really suits the big Tiger mouth.... Once again, a big thanks to Rui Ferreira ;)

Air Explore by Night

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Last Saturday we had a couple of flights from France made by Air Explore. It's not the first time it's been here but it's quite rare. Couldn't manage to go to the first flight (was also a crappy weather....) and was thinking on going for the night flight. Had already caught it once during the day (check it HERE ) so, it would be nice to get it on some night shots... When the night came, wasn't in much of a mood for going to the airport but then, another spotter gave me a call and decided to go...wifes and kids would get along while we were in the pics... It came earlier than schedulled so, had to step on it... OM-AEX just arrived to the stand (Alpha 07) At night, more than during the day, handling operations look nice on pics... ....specially with the movement of the cars and lights... with no other traffic but a couple of TAP's and a couple of Sata's A320 and Q200, went for some experencies on the B737 of Air Explore, like this one

enter air Premiere

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Today we had a premiere around here: enter air Yesterday noticed the ENT835 flight at Madeira Airport pag e. Had never seen it. According to Airframes.org it was enter air...really? something new? Well, this morning went all over the "radars" and confirmed SP-ENC coming in... Saw it arriving from my moms balcony. On a family Easter lunch, right after the dessert went to the airport for the departure and almost didn't get it... when I got there it was already linning up on runway 05... Departing to Warsaw after the premiere flight (arrived from Prague) Simple but nice livery Only managed to get this acceptable shot which wasn't that bad, considering that I had been the previous night at the airport shooting some pics at Air Explore and the camera still had those settings, when I arrived at full speed... (Next post will be on those Air Explore at night....)

Inflight

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A few days ago was complaining that most of my inflight shots were quite crappy, for several reasons, dirt, the photographer (...), etc... This week, on the return flight to Madeira, got a really nice seat for some shots and this time managed to get some pics that aren't any work of art but didn't turned out that bad... The plane was CS-TTS, a A319 from TAP. The flight: OPO-FNC after take-off, the view was really nice with also those fields colored by different tones... After a regular flight...passing behind Porto Santo... After passing Rosário, the winds, oposite to previous day, were calm... This was the right side of the plane for the landscaps but the wrong side for the sunlight... down, on the left the Aquapark Passing by the City of Santa Cruz, on final. Pointing out, Vila Galé Hotel. In front of it a small platform were I took a few days ago some ND filter shots. Check them HERE Landed....spoilers up and passing by the wild life controller

New Photo of the Week - A-7 at AM1, the rest of the Warrior

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Like I said on the last post, last week had the oportunity to be at AM1 at Maceda, Ovar. Went to visit the small Air Museum located on that Air Force Maneuver Airfield and the first view I had there was this fantastic A-7 at the main Entrance. The A-7 was the first PoAF fighter I had the oportunity to see in flight and for that won a special place on my passion for planes... Back in the beggining of the 90's (1991) due to the Gulf War, PoAF detached at least (not sure on the number...) 5 A-7P's to Porto Santo. It was the most amazing summer I had there in vacations (regarding planes...) Everyday I would get to see the A-7's in action performing flights over the island and specially, over the beach. This one ocasion, in special has allways stayed in my mind: while lying in the beach a couple of A-7's suddendly apeared over my head, from the trees in the back on a low (very low...) level... The view...the sounds...unforgetable... Now the warrior rests....

Old Beauties...

Hi, no photos this time...just a small post to let you know that I'm still alive... :)) This morning had the oportunity to visit some old beauties...it's not everyday you get to be that close to a T-38 a G.91 cockpit...or some old beauties like the A-7 or Asas de Portugal's T-37, among others,,,, Photos....well, soon... For now, just a a big thanks to Rui Ferreira ;)

New Photo of the Week - Though the window

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Usually I can't manage to get any decent shots trough the windows...it's either dirty, or the glass distortion, or just simply fault... Anyway, this was one didn't turn out that bad and it's a good one for this week's photo.... Sata's A320 CS-TKL passing by TAP's A330's CS-TOE and CS-TOF at LPPT - Lisbon Probably won't be posting on the next days... (maybe tomorow, I'll make another post...) See you!

La Lys...

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Há dois dias atrás, a 9 de Abril, celebrou-se em Portugal o Dia do Combatente, assinalado anualmente neste dia por ser o aniversário da Batalha de La Lys ,  combate que marcou de forma indelével a participação Portuguesa na I Guerra Mundial . Infelizmente, tal como tantas outras épocas da nossa História e em particular, da nossa História mais recente (coisa que acho particularmente incompreensível....) penso que as obras que versam a temática e a sua divulgação necessitam de mais atenção e sobretudo interesse por parte das pessoas.... Um livro que recomendo particularmente sobre a temática da participação Portuguesa na Grande Guerra (e que permite igualmente conhecer a realidade do país em geral, na altura) é " Das Trincheiras, com Saudade ", da Isabel Pestana Marques, especialista em História do Sec.XX. Outro livro bastante interessante nesta temática mas, já na esfera do romance, embora, como é hábito do autor, com particular atenção e rigor aos acontecimentos hist

Amsterdam Airlines Premiere

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With the new Summer season, the french flight are increasing a lot... Europe Airpost returned last week and today increased its flights for 2, Aigle Azur added another flight for tomorrow, Air Mediterranée also increased its flights for 2 last week (although looks like tomorow isn't coming....) Anyway, today we had a premiere: like stated on the title Amsterdam Airlines....coming from Paris - Charles de Gaulle.... (that's why all that talk about french flighs...) The arrival of the plane got a bit delayed due to comunications problem with the Aeroclub's plane that was on air but everything went ok. Like allways on these ocasions, the usual spots were crowded... ;) PH-AAY, Amsterdam Airlines, one the company's A320 (they only have 2 planes)

Fotografia Macro

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Há muito que gosto de fotografia. Comecei por gostar simplesmente de apreciá-la. A partir de 2004 juntei o gosto pela fotografia à aviação e comecei a dedicar-me ao "plane spotting" fotográfico... De qualquer forma, confesso que ultimamente o interesse por outras áreas da fotografia tem sido maior, assim como a vontade de experimentar, muito também por influência de outros, como no caso do Miguel Nóbrega, nos ND's.  Também ele me começou a espevitar o interesse pela fotografia macro mas, só decidi partir para a experiência após ver os resultados obtidos por um outro entusiasta da fotografia, o Vítor Sousa, com uns simples (e baratos) acessórios....os tubos de extensão manuais ... Não sendo tão práticos como as verdadeiras lentes macro, (nem são lentes de todo...são apenas pequenos tubos que se colocam entre o corpo da máquina...) e sendo manuais, obrigam a esforço extra, na focagem e controlo da luz mas, consegue-se resultados verdadeiramente interessantes com um custo

Good bye Pumas...

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Today, at 10am, the Pumas from Sqn.752 terminated their last mission that it's now fully delivered to the hand of the EH-101 and its crews.... It's been many years of duty with the Portugal Air Force. Since 1969 it has seen both war and peace, both death and rescue of lifes and a big part of the more than 2500 lifes saved by PoAF were done by the Puma and its crews... Stored, after the arrival of the EH-101, the events gave a second oportunity to the Pumas to keep on the job for a few more years.... It looks like now it's the end but....you never know... A big thumbs up for the crews (both land and air) that kept this one flying over the years, sometimes with a big sacrifice and love to the mission... The best moment for me, regarding this helicopter? One day was getting back home, the saw it "jumping" over the hill after a take-off from local Army base, and it came (very) low level down the hill, passing right over me, on the road into the sea ....

New Photo of the Week - Thomson

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Even considering that I usually refer to Thomson livery as "boring blue", decided that this week's photo would be dedicated to this airline, after all, they rule mondays at LPMA - Madeira and I can't forget the impact it has on local economy... Thomson's G-OOBJ taking off from runway 23

ND filters at Santa Cruz

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Today had an early wake for a trip to Santa Cruz but...oposite to usual, this time the camera wouldn't be pointing to the planes.... :)) It was another session for practising photography with ND filters, together with MN... I'll let you judge the results.... :)) The fresh paint on the handrail helps on the final result... Thanks to the city painters... ;)) My ND "mentor" at work...   After this, was time for a coffe and back home for some more sleep.... ;)

ND's at Porto Moniz

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Yesterday had to go Porto Moniz, after the professional duties, took my half-an-hour to try out some more shots with ND filters at local natual pools... Oposite to  Funchal, the wheater there was dull, cloudy and windy and with not much time, only took few shots.... These two are the ones that, in my opinion turned out best.... (Anyway, Porto Moniz is definitely a place with lots of possibilities for this kind of photography....)