Top 5

Today had a photo that managed to get to at least the #2 at Airliner's Top5 of last 24H...
It's allways nice and even best when it's a pic of the kind I really like

Luxair 's LX-LGR taking off from runway 05

Skyphotos

After an email from a UZB Spotter, decided to start uploading to the Russian photo database Skyphotos.ru

The first pic I uploaded was in order to honor the nationality of the database and a very recent premiere at Madeira: The Russian Transaero that made it's premiere around here last Friday (check more pics HERE)

EI-EDZ landing on 05

Another Grey...

Looks like there's another PoAF C-130 in the new grey livery: the 16806

Haven't seen a C-130 around here since last year's PoAF Celebrations....
With at least 16803 and 16806 in the new livery it would be nice to see (and photograph) one of those....

16806 on a low-pass at runway 23

The old house...

Some times a little bit of a change on the spotting locations can make you get some really nice angles...
The good thing about Madeira airport is that those kinds of places are everywhere, if you just have the patiente and mood to look and try....(which many times I don't...)

Also, looks like it's the first time I publish CS-TTC pics at the blog...(but have two published at Airliners, one with old colors and another with the new livery... check HERE

New Photo of the Week - Spanish AV-8B

This one was choosen for no really special reason other than it's a rare sight around Madeira and a really nice catch for someone who enjoys military aviation...it's defnitely not everyday you spot VTOL plane, specially at Madeira...

Too bad I never had the oportunity for seeing one of these in action...

Stationed on top of "Príncipe das Astúrias" carrier during a stop on Funchal

The Russian Premiere: Transaero

Today was finally the day to see around here an airline that was on my wishlist: Transaero.

Unfortunatelly, they only brought the 737...a 767 would be a lot more interesting (and a Moscow-Madeira flight in 737 must be a very looong flight...)
Anyway, maybe we can still get a 767 from Transaero, some of these days...
They'll be coming until October, 3rd in a series of 15 charter flights from Domodedovo Airport.

The time of the day isn't the best for photography...around 1p.m. and with the strong sun and heat of today, wasn't sure on where I'd go.
Anyway, thanks to ANAM and to MN...

After a windy approach...for the very first time....

Transaero...

EI-EDZ

Vacation spirit by air

No...not on vacations yet...
Anyway, remembered to share a couple of pics this beautiful bird....

EC-INQ, leased to Futura by Binter had a very nice livery that already made you feel like in vacations just by looking at it...

Had the oportunity of making a few flights in it (3, if I remember correctly) on some vacations at Lanzarote.
Made the FNC-LPA flight and the ACE-LPA-FNC flights on this plane...

waiting for us, early in the morning, at Arrecife/Lanzarote Airport (ACE/GCRR)

Unfortunatelly, a month later, Futura shut down and the plane was stored, with Binter using just their ATR's for the trips to Madeira...

Sata birdstrike - 1º relatório GPIAA

O GPIAA (Gabinete de Prevenção e Investigação de Acidentes com Aeronaves) emitiu hoje o seu primeiro relatório acerca do incidente com o CS-TKJ da Sata, no Aeroporto da Madeira, no dia 20.

É apenas um pequeno resumo dos acontecimentos mas, fica o registo do relatório, que pode ser acedido AQUI

Air Méditerranée

I'm getting the B735 from Air Méditerranée a lot...
Just once got the A321 (Check HERE)

Anyway, diferent angles for this one....

F-HCOA  on short final to runway 05...
Was too hot (and with heat waves) for the pics I was trying so, after the landing of this one, moved closer to the runway 

The departure, also from runway 05.
A windy and early departure

Windshear and a go-around

Like I mentioned on the Condor from Hamburg entry the winds on that day (Jun.16th) were quite bad.

The Condor had managed to make a safe landing at first atempt but the same didn't happened with Air Berlin (Belair) A320 from Zurich.

Was distracted inside my car when I heard a plane coming in for a land with loud engine noise, struggling its power againts the wind...
Grabbed the camera and got outside just in time for a some shots of HB-IOZ, from Air Berlin, pulling up, for a go-around...

it made a go-around straight into circuit for another try on runway 05...

The second atempt was busy....

but sucessfull...

Sata's Birdstrike

This morning, Sata's CS-TKJ, making the S4 680 flight from Madeira to Copenhagen suffered several birdstrike impacts from a flock of birds during take off, affecting both engines (that kept working) and a cargo door, that opened in flight.

CS-TKJ at Madeira with the remains of another birdstrike (with a lot less consequences) back in 2005

The plane managed to return safely to the airport.
The passengers were put on a replacement A320 a few hours later.

The plane is at Funchal for damage evaluation

New Photo of the Week - Luxair

One of the plane I got last monday was LX-LGR, from Luxair.
It's one airline I haven't photographed in quite a long time and definitely one that I really like the livery.

Looks like many people (spotters) don't really like it but, althought I tought the old one was nothing special, the "new" one looks rather nice, specially the tail.

I find this to be a particular nice angle for this plane as it allows to have a look at the top of the plane, and the detail of the tail livery.

landing on 05

departing also on 05 with the eastern part of the island on front of it...

Memories - Fischer Air

Today (or yesterday...) RM published an entry at Asas Madeira regarding the virtues of the Czech and specially of their airline, Travel Service.

Reminded me of this other Czech airline that, back then I though it had a very nice livery...
Talking about Fischer Air...

OK-FIT

OK-FUN

OK-FIT

Unfortunatelly ceased operations in November 2005.
Later, in 2007, its Polish "sister" operated to Madeira...(will be posting those pics some other day...)

Meanwhile, you can check some more pics of Fischer 737 planes at Madeira HERE

The Condor from Hamburg

Yesterday's afternoon traffic was nothing really special but the Condor 486 flight, from Hamburg, was beeing flown by a captain that had exchanged a few emails with me so, decided to go for some photographs.

Despite the sun and quiet day at Funchal, the weather at Santa Cruz (Airport) was completely diferent: the sun was shinning at the airport but the approach from east was completely covered with low compact clouds and rain.
Also the winds were blowing quite hard and in an erratic way...for some time there was tail winds in both runways or also some crossed winds.
ATC was informing planes to expect to be visual to the runway on the downwind (usually they come visual to the  runway much sooner...)

When the A320 came for the landing, the winds on the runway looked ok but they came all the final to 05 with strong tail wind, getting suddendly head wind, with positive windshear over the runway treshold...

Anyway, they managed to hold it...

...and make a very nice landing...
(The Air Berlin, from Zurich, that came after them, although warned for those conditions, had to make a go-around before landing on second atempt)

For the departure, I went to another spot, for some overviews of TAP and Sata landings and the Condor (D-AICG)  departing, from 05 to Hamburg...

Novo Governo

Pois é, parece que já temos novo Governo.

Por agora, resta-me desejar um Bom Desempenho ao novo Executivo...todos nós precisamos e, ao contrário de alguns comentários que já tenho lido por aí, não considero que a idade de alguns Ministros, nomeadamente o dos Assuntos Sociais (Pedro Mota Soares) e da Agricultura (Assunção Cristas) sejam handicaps...

Espero que possam representar sangue novo, com novas ideias e formas de fazer as coisas...
Tempo é um luxo que neste momento o País não tem mas, antes de começar a criticar e apontar defeitos e dúvidas, teremos de deixá-los começar a trabalhar...

Guerra Santa....

Estava há pouco a ler a notícia do Público (aqui) referente ao suposto novo líder da Al-Qaeda e das suas declarações acerca da continuidade da guerra santa...
Epá...mas há alguma guerra que seja santa??? Já viram bem as desgraças e as barbaridades que se têm cometido ao longo de toda a História da Humanidade tendo como desculpa a religião (e atenção que aqui, incluo todas, Islão, Cristianismo, Judaísmo, etc....)

Cada vez me convenço que a melhor "religião" é a de viver o melhor possível a sua vidinha e deixar os outros viver a sua...
A melhor filosofia de vida...não faças aos outros o que não queres que te façam...
Será assim tão complicado?

The French Palmtree

Air Méditerranée has been coming to Madeira for some time but until last monday I still hadn't caught any plane other than the B735 F-HCOA...

On monday, the planned model was an A321, so an extra, besides all the other planes I wanted to get...

When it was coming on the downwind leg to runway 05 noticed a diferent tail...it was an extra on the extra....red tail with the palmtree...

Despite the all white fuselagem the tail looks real nice

F-GYAQ

Touchdown was a little bumpy...

Snoopy and Peanuts fans...

Looks like there's a lot of Snoopy and Peanuts fans around...
The entry regarding the the arrival of Condor's D-AICE to Madeira's runway 05, despite the recent publication (May.22th) quickly became the most seen entry of the Blog...

Check it HERE

Second place goes to the Flying over Porto Santo entry, that surpassed the entry regarding the Fantastic Transavia Crew.

Check it HERE

Spoillers, reverses and smoke on...

Today, got accepted at Airliners a couple of pics and one of them is really nice...

Allways had a preference for action shots and also allways prefered the aviation photography rather than the video precisely because this kind of shot where you can freeze some nice details of aircraft operations...

G-OOAR, A320 from First Choice (Thomson Airways) just landed, with spoillers and reverse on  and on the right moment to get the litle smoky touch of the front wheel...

Actually, really enjoy the pics I've taken of this plane....check the airliners published pics  HERE

Great afternoon of Spotting

It's been quite a longe time since I last went for an afternoon of spotting and honestly lately, Monday afternoons have been quite boring.
Today it seemed like it would be an interesting afternoon with some nice traffic that I haven't photographed lately and with some new stuff...
I wasn't wrong...

Probably the best shots were taken at OK-SWU, the B735 from Smartwings, making a Travel Service flight, from Prague...

Taking off from runway 05....

 On the landing, took some nice pics...regular ones...

short final to runway 05

 But for the take-off decided to go to another place.
With the strong winds, probabilities of a good shot were big....

Ponta de S.Lourenço on the background....

Will be posting a few more pics of today on the next days...Monarch, Luxair, Travel Service and a diferent one from Air Méditerranée...

Indiana Jones...

Pois é...parece que faz hoje 30 anos que estreou o primeiro filme da série Indiana Jones.
Tal como muitos miúdos da altura, quis logo ser Arqueólogo... :)) , até porque o Indy personificava um tipo de historiador bem mais interessante que o Prof.José Hermano Saraiva...lol

Dos quatro filmes da  série, os meus preferidos (e aqueles que realmente gosto...já que dispenso os outros 2) são: Os Salteadores da Arca Perdida, que é o primeiro da série e o terceiro, o a Última Grande Cruzada, com uma participação fantástica do Sean Connery.

Pensando bem, um par de filmes a rever na próxima semana...

Airport balcony back to business

After some time closed due to maintenance works, the Madeira Airport terminal balcony opened partialy a few days ago. 

Definitely great news due to the conditions it offers to the practise of spotting, specially in the morning and night...

I made the return to that area with a couple of night pics of Heliportugal Hawker 900XP CS-DGZ, that was in night-stop....

A small area is still under work...
Far on the distance, the B737 from Agroar / Safair ZS-SMJ

A Quicky for the French and the local...

Yesterday had to go to Santa Cruz so, made a quick stop at runway 23 to get the arrival of the Air Méditerranée...

It's allways nice to get some runway 23 landings on the afternoon...unfortunatelly looks like summer (and sun) still didn't find the way to Madeira...

Short final to Med'air B737

smoke on on F-HCOA landing

Just before the landing of the Air Méditerranée, still managed to get the landing of local Aeroclube Tobago CS-DCH....

passing high by the wind indicator....

Portugal!

Today is Portugal's National day (you can check some of our more than 900 years history HERE)

It's also Luís de Camões Day, he was one of our greatest poets who wrote the great Epic Poem "Os Lusíadas"...
You can check more on him and his work HERE

Anyway, for this, decided to antecipate next week's photo of the week to share one of my favorite pics with national colors:

TAP A310 CS-TEI landing on runway 05

Eyes on - Azores Jet Photos

A new photography site has just came online last month.
It hightlighs the aviation photography and vídeo on the Azores islands.

It's still on the beginning but it looks like it's a really nice project.
Check it:

http://azoresjetphotos.com/pt/

the best of lucks!

Comemorações da Força Aérea Portuguesa 2011

A Força Aérea Portuguesa comemora esta ano o seu 59º Aniversário como ramo independente das Forças Armadas.
Após o ano passado termos passado uns dias fantásticos com as Comemorações a decorrerem na Madeira e Porto Santo, este ano, a honra de receber essas mesmas Comemorações coube à BA1, em Sintra.

Por agora fica o site que a Força Aérea criou especificamente para este evento e que vale realmente a pena, já que está bastante bem conseguido e repleto de actividades e informações:

http://www.emfa.pt/www/po/diafap/

A couple more unpublished...

Took the moment I was with my hand on last year pics on Porto Santo to share a couple more unpublished pics...

This time for the most usual visitor of that island....the Sata Q200 that makes the route Madeira-Porto Santo-Madeira...

unusual view from high above...CS-TRC arriving at the stand

Taking off to Madeira, early in the morning...