Its summer already?

Lockheed_C-130_Hercules-8040, originally uploaded by rob-the-org.

I realized the other day - that May was over - and June is almost half over. May just flew by. The good included my daughter finishing another year of school, advanced another rank in her Karate for Kids class. There was drama with family hospital visits (everyone is alright) and I flew back to the East Coast for a day and a half vendor meeting (in NYC which was new to me).

And with all of that activity - I still got out a couple of times to take picture of airplanes (and even that will start tapering off for the summer - since 100+ degree temperatures isn't the right time to stand around at airports).

The picture above - was taken at the monthly Coolidge Breakfast fly-in. As the fly-in was winding down - one of the corporately owned C-130 Hercules returned from being 'elsewhere' conducting some drop tests. Some of the other photographers were braver than I in their choice of locations to capture the landing.

The crew was nice and let us climb on-board and take pictures once they had finished unloading their personal gear (their 'gear' included their personal trucks - the joys of having your very own air lifter).

Then - on the way back to town - the Honeywell 757 engine test bed was doing touch and go's at Phoenix-Mesa Gateway (aka ex-Williams AFB). I had never actually seen it flying - only parked at Sky Harbor. Unfortunately it only flew one direction (so you can't see the small bizjet engine mounted on the right side of the fuselage).

Not to be outdone by Honeywell (who is actually providing components for the Dreamliner) - Boeing brought one of their brand new Dreamliners (787 #4) for some low altitude hot weather testing late in May.



Now the weekend that Boeing was in town - there was a cool front going through Phoenix. So we learned that Boeing's 'hot weather' temperature was only 80 degrees (Phoenix normally hits 80 in April). So the Dreamliner had to wait for the temperature (and a mechanical issue) before they could fly. Both the airport and Boeing were very tolerant of the curious visitor as well as the aviation photographers (incl me). The airport opened up one of their overflow parking lots to allow a relatively unobstructed view of the airplane on the tarmac.

Hopefully Boeing will bring the new 747-8 (a stretched 747 w/ highly efficient engines) to town some time soon to test it as well.

And I will try to do a better job of posting on a regular basis.

Most Viewed Pictures for May 2010

Most Viewed Pictures for May 2010, originally uploaded by rob-the-org.

Another month gone - and another set of pictures.

It has been a very busy month - and nothing has jumped out as being worth of blogging.

Must be the heat getting to me.