Unplanned photos are the best

My major project at work is starting to wrap up - so I have some more free time to get out and take pictures. There were rumors of a unique plane coming through Phoenix on the 2nd, so I took the day off to take pictures at the airport.

The rumored plane didn't show - but I stuck around to see what else went on during a weekday (since normally only get out to the airport on weekends or in the evening).

I was rewarded almost immediately when one of the Air National Guard KC-135's took off - right past my vantage point in the Terminal garage. [click any of the pictures below to see the image at full size].



Then I caught the daily Hawaiian Airlines flight to Honolulu (this is the 2nd largest passenger airplane that regularly operates in and out of Sky Harbor).



But the airplane I was the happiest to see flying - was the Honeywell 757 Engine Test bed. It took off and flew racetrack patterns for a couple of hours before returning to Phoenix.



I had gotten fleeting pictures of this plane before - but never its right hand side - where the extra test engine is mounted. The slideshow includes some of these older pictures - as well as pictures of the Boeing coming back into its parking place (directly off the runway).



Definitely a great way to spend a day taking pictures.

My number is.....

34 1/2. That's the number of vacation days I have to use (or lose) by the end of the year.

I better get busy ;

Just an ordinary Air Canada Airbus A319

Air Canada Airbus A319, originally uploaded by rob-the-org.

This is another one of those ordinary looking airplane pictures - but it obviously got someone's interest. Because in less than 24 hours - it has over 300 unique views from outside of Flickr.

(reminds me of this photo of a Delta Airbus from last Fall - that got over 400 views in a very short period of time)

Most Viewed Pictures for July 2010

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

The end is in sight for my work project - so I have started to venture out and take pictures again.

The large central picture - was of a Royal New Zealand Air Force Boeing 757 transport heading back down under - after being in England for the Farnborough International Air Show.

And this is why I won't use Facebook

Details of 100 million Facebook users were published the other day on several file sharing sites - including Pirate Bay.

Link to BBC story

Old Time Memories

The other night my wife and I were having root beer floats after dinner and I got out some old glass mugs that my family had picked up when I was a kid in the mid-70's. At that time we were living in the Seattle area. As I was making the floats - I realized that these mugs had survived a couple of coast to coast moves and four different teenagers, and were actually older than my younger brother.



I don't know if Farrell's still exists up in Seattle (another photographer told me that there used to be at least one Farrell's in Arizona).

Of course Murphy had to strike after these memories - and he did. As I was taking another glass and one of the mugs to the sink, I dropped the mug. It bounced twice on the tile floor and I thought it might survive - but on the 3rd contact w/ the floor - it came apart.



Oh well - I still have two left. But it maybe a while before I pull them out of the cupboard again.

Most Viewed Pictures for June 2010

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

Another quiet month for airplane photos (busy with everything else) and the Most Viewed photos reflects that. Only a few of these pictures are from this year - and even those are from back in March.