IAD Rainbow Approach

If you’re reading this, surely you know by now that aviation is in my bones.  A fun fact that’s less obvious about me is I like rain, especially thunderstorms; I find rain relaxing and thunderstorms exciting, beautiful, fun (though I’m notably more fearful of being struck by lightning than my stormchaser friend).

Living in IAD’s airspace is charming to me, so after a rather severe Summer storm last year, when a rainbow developed and the groundstop lifted, I was able to capture numerous aircraft in line to finally get on the ground, with the vibrant colors providing an unforgettable backdrop.

The rainbow only lasted maybe 10-15min, so only a handful of aircraft were lucky enough to dart across the perfect scene.

T. F. Green Airport

Foreward in 2021

These photos in this post are from 2018; long before SARS-CoV-2 was a concern or worldwide problem.

As with the photos I recently posted from my 2017 trip to Rhode Island, the following is a collection of photos shot in 2018 which I’ve had in my personal backlog to edit and write about for several years.  I only recently finished editing and composing this post alongside others from the same trip due to the sheer volume of images.

T. F. Green Airport

In 2018, I went on a roadtrip to visit with my friend Alyssa and explore more of her home state of Rhode Island.  Normally I’d fly, but due to variable timing it made more sense to drive, and it allowed me more freedom to change plans on the fly.  As it would happen, my chance meeting with a firefighter based at T. F. Green Airport would benefit from this flexibility.

Early in my trip, after a morning of exploring downtown Woonsocket and introducing me to some Rhode Island staple cuisine, I spotted an antique fire truck parked in front of a fire station while driving back to Alyssa’s; I had to stop and get some photos.  While checking it out, the owner came out of the fire station; turns out this fire truck is privately owned - it’s not owned by the fire department.  The owner is a firefighter who bought and restored the 1972 Maxim F ladder truck, which is an especially unusual sight today with its open cab.  In talking with the owner, it turns out he is stationed at T. F. Green Airport (PVD), so we had lots of aviation stuff to talk about.  As it became clear we could easily kill half a day chatting, we traded contact information and talked over the next few days.

During my chance meeting the firefighter, we’d discussed my connections to IAD and DCA, such as my multimedia roles, and interfacing with the airport police and fire departments for various projects.  Since then, we’d arranged time to meet up once again, while he was on-duty at PVD’s airfield rescue and firefighting station so he could give me a proper airfield tour from airside.  I love airports, and I love airport people!

I arrived at the ARFF station and met up with my new firefighter friend who was very eager to see me again.  Unfortunately part of our plan fell through, because due to other duties going on that day he was left without a service vehicle (beyond an ARFF truck, which you can’t exactly take out without a full crew in case there’s a call).  But no biggie; we still hung out airside for a few hours trading stories and watching aircraft taxi and take off.

T. F. Green’s airfield is interesting because its ATC tower and ARFF station are located on the opposite side of the passenger terminals; this is common (and normally necessitated by response time requirements) for ARFF stations, but although not unheard of for ATC, less common.  This location opposite the passenger terminals gave a much wider, different perspective of the airfield than one would normally get while simply catching their flight.

At mid-day, this was a slow time between banks, when most aircraft were in the sky between destinations; this was on purpose so the likelihood of a call was lowest.  Just after I arrived, one of the New England Patriots’ private aircraft landed after performing practice maneuvers in preparation for an upcoming aerial display; you can see it taxiing back to its hardstand.

DCA Planespotting - May 25th, 2018 - Summer Sunset Planespotting

I've been sitting on a huge backlog of personal photos I've been working through; this set of plane spotting photos from Gravelly Point were edited and completed within a week of me shooting them, but somehow I forgot to get them online.  So here are some highlights for you to enjoy - some Summer sunset planespotting for you.

Etihad Airways 787 Dreamliner Inaugural Flight to IAD

This evening marked Etihad Airways' inaugural flight of their new Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner beginning service from Abu Dhabi to Washington Dulles International Airport.  Etihad Airways Officials were joined by Dulles Airport Manager Chris Browne to celebrate the arrival of the new, energy efficient aircraft, embarking upon the Dreamliner's longest non-stop flight path.

Lufthansa 747-8i at Dulles

Lufthansa recently became the first carrier to add Boeing's new 747-8i, the newest and largest variant of the legendary 747 jumbo jet, to their air fleet.  Washington Dulles International Airport and the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority invited fifty lucky guests to welcome the historic, first commercial flight to the North American continent from a vantage point aside the runway.  Guests were thrilled to see airport operations from the closest safe threshold on the active runway. The entire set of photos can be seen on my Flickr, here.

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