Mensagens

A mostrar mensagens de julho, 2011

À Esquadra 401 da Força Aérea Portuguesa...

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No próximo Sábado, a Esquadra 401 (Cientistas) da Força Aérea Portuguesa irá comemorar o seu 37º Aniversário, numa celebração que assume um cariz muito especial por ser, muito provavelmente, o último ano desta mesma Esquadra, bem como da operação do C-212/100 no seio da FAP. Nestas coisas nota-se bem as desvantagens de ser ilhéu, com um vasto mar a separar a minha presença física numa última homenagem ao Aviocar e aos Homens que o operaram ao longo destes 37 anos. No entanto, fica aqui a minha pequena homenagem, reflectida em algumas das imagens que registei ao longo destes poucos anos de spotting fotográfico ...Bons Voos! 16504 a regressar ao Porto Santo (PXO / LPPS / AM3), após uma Medevac 16517 a regressar ao Porto Santo, após uma Medevac (saída da 05 de LPMA / FNC) Os 2 modelos operados pela Esq.401, a versão 100 e a 300 (16506 e 17201) Evacuação nocturna do Porto Santo para a Madeira (16505) .palavras para quê?....em prol da vida... Entrega do testemunho no

Engine damage

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EC-JXZ Looks like despite everyone was mentioning a birdstrike on the Air Nostrum, that's not confirmed... It was with some engine (one or two blades) damage but it's still to confirm what caused it....

The Nordic British Airways

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The last time I saw British Airways around here was when GB was sold to Easyjet... GB was the British Airways representation at Madeira and with that sell no more those colors were seen around. It seemed like it would stay like that for many more years but after all, the BA blue and red colors came earlier than expected and being weared by a quite unexpected plane... With a Danish registration, operated by Sun Air of Scandinavia and bringing the Swedish soccer team   BK Hacken with an overall coat of the BA colors,  it's definitely what I call a Nordic Brithish Airways... The Dornier 328 (Do.328)  is not a usual plane here at all. We probably get one or (in a good year) two of those around here and usually Air Ambulances from ADAC, so you can understand all the rush around this traffic...  The Swedish team is coming to Madeira to play the first hand of an European Football (Soccer) competition with regional club C.D.Nacional over runway 05 treshold with some nice refle

Birdstrike: Air Nostrum

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Pois é...parece que houve mais um birdstrike, desta feita no CRJ-900 EC-JXZ da Air Nostrum que efectuava ontem o voo a partir de Valência (VLC / LEVC) Report Madeira Spotters

New Photo of the Week - Air Luxor's Eujet

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Found this pic during the weekend, when browsing for something diferent for the Photo of the Week... Well, I guess I pretty much found it... EI-DBE taxiing to the stand trough taxiway Bravo with some historic traffic on background: A couple of Aigle Azur's , from when they still were operating Boeings and a couple of Short 360, from Aerocondor that, back then made the Madeira-Porto Santo flights.... Usually the only Fokker 100 we have at Madeira are the Portugália (PGA) ones and if I recall correctly, back in 2004 they weren't even common here... Anyway, this Eujet plane was making some flights to Air Luxor , on the Lisbon-Madeira route. Can't recall the exact events that led to this but for us it was a great oportunity for shooting at some diferent planes and airline...(Blue Line also made some of these flights...) One shot that seemed specially interesting for this entry... A couple of Air Luxor flights taxiing for departure...

The blue Belgium...

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Another of the catches I made while waiting for the Air Nostrum was OO-JAS, the B737 from Jetairfly . Haven't made any pics on this airline for a very long time but then again, it's one of the boring blue airlines with absolutely nothing special and diferent from a numerous of other Tui airlines...so was never really in the mood to go at the airport just to photograph it.... On this ocasion I was there anyway so.... This summer, Jetairfly is also coming to Porto Santo (PXO / LPPS), our neighbour island, so I'll probably be getting it there during vacations.... (This is being a very nice season for the traffic and tourism at Porto Santo, unfortunatelly, most traffic is already known around here....and it's nothing really exciting....maybe the best thing there, will be the Privilege flights that are being made by a Swiftair MD....let's hope it remains like that....)

The Piper

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Last Friday, while waiting for the CL-900, from Air Nostrum , took the time for some shots on the Piper CS-AIC , from Aeroclube da Madeira that was departing to a local flight to Funchal bay. The most interesting shot, despite it's not a sharp quality pic, was this one.... taking off from runway 05, passing by OE-LEH, from Niki and another TAP

The Return of Air Nostrum

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Yesterday we had yet another return: the spanish airline Air Nostrum, aka Iberia Regional... that made its first flight of the season from the spanish city of Bilbau. The weather was a bit crappy, dull and cloudy for this return so, looks like this still wasn't the day I got one of "those" pics that makes me feel like the trip is really worth it... (it's been hard to get one of those, with Air Nostrum....) EC-JTT over runway 05 treshold... The Canadair CRJ-900 had a little touch of difference with the "Castilla Y León" titles Today (saturday) we had another flight from Air Nostrum, this time from city of Valencia, Spain but I didn't go there.

Sqn.401

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Today got a phone call about some pics I took on the C-212 Aviocar... The only time I managed to get some night shots of this plane was during a nigth Emergency mission they've made, from Porto Santo... Check (or remember) that entry HERE

The little Sata

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On the day of the Ukraine Airlines premiere , and while waiting for their B737, decided to make a few shots on the Sata Q200, departing to Porto Santo ... The other guys didn't even bothered but, with very little light, the low shutter speed might get me some interesting shots on a propeller plane.... CS-TRB entering the runway Taking off from 05 with a light efect on the props....

Ukraine International Airlines Premiere at Madeira

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Today we had an unexpected (for me) premiere at Madeira. If it weren't the other spotters calling my attention for this, I wouldn't even knew they were coming. (The good think about not beeing many... we can allways sms to each others for this stuff and allways warn each other) Anyway, Ukraine International Airlines (or as P.O. would write... Международные Авиалинии Украины)   was schedulled to arrive from Kiev on a bad time, in the beggining of the evening... Luckily, it got to our island just a little bit earlier than that. The light wasn't that good but, at least there was some light.... The circuit was made on a unusual and short way...with the last rays of sun  on the 737 while on final to runway 05 over the runway, there wasn't any sun already....ISO400 and trying a balance of speed/aperture.... UR-PSD smoking it's landing, but a very nice landing, considering the kind of approach it made... For the take-off we went to the terminal balcon

CS-TKJ landing on 05

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Last Thursday, on the same afternoon the  Condors had a bit of a trouble with the winds , I photographed CS-TKJ , the Sata that had the birdstrike last month at LPMA  for the first time after that incident. It landed right after the last Condor  and despit some corrections it managed to make a nice landing (although a little bit later than usual) short final to runway 05 passing by the Fire Dept. HQ almost there....

New Photo of the Week - The White Travel Service

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Was expecting to have a pic of the take-off of the A318 for this Week's Photo but, unfortunatelly didn't manage to get it...it departed before time. (Looks like it was a rather nice take-off...) Anyway, no pics on that from me, so decided to select THIS ONE  that was acepted at Airliners , yesterday. It's indeed one of my favorite pics, in the quality, framing and colors. Despite the the white of the fuselage, it looks really nice with those big Travel Servive titles (and the red antennas give a little bit of a great touch).... OK-TVP on short final to Madeira's runway 05 You can check a few more pics on that plane at Madeira HERE

A rough afternoon for the Condors...

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The day after the arrival of the A318 went to the airport for finally take some pics before it went away. Only managed to get to the airport by the end of the afternoon, which was rather nice because I just love the light of that time of the day and it's something I haven't done in a long time... After the pics of the A318 went to the playground with my kid, planning on returning to the airport for the landing of the last Condor and the Sata . M.S. had told me that the first Condor of the afternoon had only managed to land on the third atempt and with the strong wind, it looked like would be worth to get the landing. The Condor arrived earlier than expected and I was still on my way to the car, at Santa Cruz, when saw the Condor on short final to runway 05....missed it, I tought... Well, right after passing by, heard full trothle on the engines and saw Condor climbing out of the mountains.... Headed to the airport for the second atempt...it still took a while, supose

Split second on the Austrian...

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Last Wednesday went to the airport with the target on the first A318 , schedulled to arrive around 5pm. The Austrian was schedulled to half-an-hour earlier than that, so, despite it still wasn't the retro A320 (come on Austrian ....!!!!) it was allways a nice catch as this airline livery is one of my favs. The approach was a bit windy and the touch down was made with one wheel at each time with the extra of getting that split second where the strobe is on as the first wheel smokes down on the ground.... Second touch from the right gear a couple of shots later The OE-LNS 737 looks rather nice but how about bringing the retro A320 to Madeira???

The first A318 at Madeira

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Sometimes, a spotter life is not an easy one... ;)) This A318 was a much expected plane as it's the first A318 at Madeira and it got me 2 days to get it.... First schedulled to arrive from Faro (LPFR) at 5pm of last wednesday the F#$%"... plane got delayed and only arrived here 4 or 5 hours later, when it was night already...so no pics of the arrival for anyone... Not knowing when it's shedulled to depart, decided to go to the airport for some shots before it went away. Still planes are not my kind of favortie photos but in this case, definitely better a still pic than no pic at all... Despit the sunny and hot day at Funchal, the weather at Santa Cruz was the frontier into another completely diferent weather....a nice late afternoon sun at Santa Cruz (and runway 05) and a dark rainy sky to the eastern part of the island (and runway 23) VP-CKS, from National Air Services, a Saudi Arabia airline with big bizjets... The wind blowing at the airport was noticeabl

Fokker 100 situation...

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CS-TPE , landing on runway 05 at Madeira. Looks like there was some kind of issue with flight TP1739, from Lisbon to Porto Santo... Anyway the plane landed ok at Porto Santo... More details, probably tomorow....

Flying Legend.... the Stearman

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One of the Airshows that's definitely in my wishlist is the " Duxford Flying Legends " that took place last weekend. This was not the year yet, but felt like publishing something that fits rather nicely on the theme.... Aerofenix Boeing Stearman.... N62TS during Portugal Air Show 2009