One thing I've always loved to do is sit and watch aircraft fly over. It sounds incredibly boring, and it very well could be provided you're not in the right spot, but if you get the right spot you're set. My favorite spot, as well as a favorite for many others in the area, is Gravelly Point Park, which is right under the final for Runway 19 into Washington National (DCA).
When I was a kid, my parents used to take me up there to sit and watch the DC9s, F100s, 727s and MD80s land for hours at a time. The size of the aircraft has gotten a little smaller on average, but going there is still a lot of fun.
My friend Melissa suggested it during the week last week, and it was supposed to be nice out, so I definitely didn't object. We aimed to get up there at 2:00 because that's when FlightAware's graphs showed the highest arrival rate for the day. The weather showed that they'd also be in South Ops, meaning aircraft would be landing on Runway 19.
In an attempt to grab better pictures, I preset my white balance, which made for some great pictures when shooting away from the runway, but towards the runway you'll see color washing in some of the pictures that follow. I tried to correct it in Photoshop (CS2 if you're curious - yes, I know it's old), but it is what it is.
The first aircraft I got a shot of was an AirTran Boeing 717. Unfortunately, both the airline and the aircraft are nearing extinction. The airline is being absorbed into Southwest, and the Boeing 717 will likely die with it in the United States (mainland anyway, as Hawaiian will continue to use them), as Southwest has said they will not be keeping them in its fleet. It's not the prettiest plane, but I'll miss it. It reminds me of all of the old tail-engined aircraft that used to fly in here all the time. The Boeing 727 (although a tri-jet, still tail-engined), the McDonnell-Douglas 80s (which still fly here, but not as much as in the past), the Douglas 9s and the Fokker 100s all had tail-mounted engines. The design of the 717 actually has its roots in the MD90-30 (and was actually named the MD95 until Boeing bought McDonnell-Douglas), which had its roots in the MD80, which all began with the DC9. Now you know everything you didn't need to know about the 717.
The next shot (that I decided to keep anyway), is a Canadair Regional Jet with Piedmont (flying as US Airways Express) ready to depart Runway 19. I used to work with these when I worked the ramp at Dulles (IAD) with Independence Air and Air Wisconsin. Some people will argue they ruined the industry (one guy who said this is mentioned below). I'd argue they weren't the best choice for Independence. Others probably have other claims, but you can't argue with the fact that they're just about everywhere, flying regional routes across the globe. The houses in the background, by the way, are the base houses for Bolling AFB across the river.
Here's one of the old timers for the field. It's an American McDonnell-Douglas 80. American and Delta flew them heavily in the past, and there are still some of them around with both airlines. Delta actually liked them so much that they bought as many of the upgraded MD90-30 version as they could before McDonnell-Douglas went out of business, and then bought a few more recently from airlines in the Pacific region. I can't say much else about it other than the fact that it's nice to still see a few aircraft around that I grew up seeing. It's a good looking plane done up in the American polished metal, too.
A few seconds later, I snapped this as it touched down on the runway. The sky got washed, but I like everything else about it so I kept it around. The smoke is of course from the wheels going from zero to about 140 miles per hour in less than a second. Visible to the left of the plane is the Airport Surveillance Radar (ASR), which feeds Potomac TRACON with aircraft positions around the field, and the communications antennas for air to ground radio communications. To the right, you can see the Runway 19-1 sign (red), with a stop sign next to it (which is for airport vehicles, not the planes).
This US Airways Airbus 319 is similar to the A320 that ended up in the Hudson River a while ago (it's just shorter). I also worked with a few of these at Independence Air, but not very often. These are getting more and more popular with the airlines, and have taken over the market for this size of jet. Where you used to see 737s everywhere, you now see the Airbus 320-series (319, 320, 321).
Speaking of the 737, they're still around. This one is a Boeing 737-700 flying for United. To be honest, I like the plane, but the new United livery looks weird to me. Since United and Continental merged, they kept the United name and used it on the Continental livery so there was a little of both that carried through. The 737-700 is a newer model as part of the Next Generation (NG) series. One of the optional upgrades is the blended winglets on the end of the wings that reduce drag and fuel consumption. The original version of the 737 flew back in 1967. That itself shows how strong Boeing's hold on that part of the market has been.
Here's another flying with American taxiing to depart, while the United in the last shot is about to lift off.
Controllers here have a reputation for pushing the limits of how many aircraft and take off and land at DCA. It takes a lot of skill for the controllers both in the TRACON and in the tower at the airport to do that and keep it safe. Despite that story that came out a while ago where a controller had fallen asleep, on the whole these people are using a skill set most could only dream of having, handling hundreds of lives at a time. These last two shots somewhat capture that, as the A319 (US Airways) is on short final, with one aircraft about to lift off, and one holding short of the runway waiting for it to land. My friend Melissa is in the foreground.
Here's another CRJ flying with Air Wisconsin (for US Airways Express). If you look carefully, you can see another CRJ being vectored for the approach, which is called the River Visual Runway 19 Approach and it's somewhat of a legendary approach in the United States.
Smaller aircraft going into the airport can land on the other two runways: Runway 15-33 and Runway 4-22. The aircraft is an Embraer 170 (Shuttle America as Delta Connection) crossing between me and the buildings of Crystal City to land on Runway 15. To me, the plane looks like the short bus of planes, but I might be influenced to say that because they're a bear to service. I had to deal with them when I worked at Air Wisconsin. They need a jet bridge or portable stairs, whereas the other regionals I worked with had stairs built in to the door. The bag bins were also pretty difficult to work in. Whining aside, they're pretty successful in sales, so I can't argue with that.
This is another aircraft you don't see much anymore. Earlier, I mentioned the 737 is a design that's been around for a while. Since it first came out it went through a few design changes, and the pictured aircraft is part of the series that sported the first major changes. This aircraft in particular is a Boeing 737-400 flying for US Airways. The first in the series were the 737-100 and -200. The pictured generation is the 737-300, -400 and -500 (oddly enough the 737-500 is shorter than the -300 and -400). The current generation is the 737-600, -700, -800 and -900.
The longer version of the earlier EMB170 is the EMB190, which JetBlue uses in addition to its A320s. I still think they're weird looking, but this one has a nice tail, and I managed to catch a bird in the shot.
US Airways, in an attempt to break the monotony of the same design across all of its aircraft, has painted some of its aircraft in unique liveries. Some of them are sports teams like this one, while others are what they call heritage liveries. The heritage liveries are basically the paint jobs of past airlines (that were at some point integrated into US Airways), on the current planes. This one (an A319) is painted up in the colors of the Philadelphia Eagles. Each of US Airways's hub cities has an aircraft painted for its football team.
Earlier I mentioned Delta's love of the MD80s and 90s. This is definitely an example of that. Like I said earlier, they're going as far as Asia to pick more of them up because they're no longer in production.
As the Delta plane left, I ran into a local spotter who was equipped with a camera with a giant telephoto lens, a scanner, no less than three binders of information (which I later found out was the flight schedules printed in several sorts), and a bunch of other information to hand out to people interested in the hobby. For those of you who don't know, spotters are people who take pictures of aircraft or those who log aircraft types and tail numbers as a hobby. I guess I'm a casual spotter in the picture-taking sense, but some of these guys get serious. He spots with the WashBalt Spotters group (linked below), so if you're interested in photography and aircraft, it might be something for you.
If you're at all interested in spotting in the area, there are a few web pages that might be of interest to you:
http://washbaltspotters.net/
http://www.spotterswiki.com/index.php?title=Category:Virginia
I used a Nikon D60 with a 200mm lens, and it's decent at DCA, but you're better off with a 300mm if you have one or can afford it, especially at Dulles.
Controllers here have a reputation for pushing the limits of how many aircraft and take off and land at DCA. It takes a lot of skill for the controllers both in the TRACON and in the tower at the airport to do that and keep it safe. Despite that story that came out a while ago where a controller had fallen asleep, on the whole these people are using a skill set most could only dream of having, handling hundreds of lives at a time. These last two shots somewhat capture that, as the A319 (US Airways) is on short final, with one aircraft about to lift off, and one holding short of the runway waiting for it to land. My friend Melissa is in the foreground.
