Tag Archives: aircraft

nature, Photography

Lens-Artists Photo Challenge

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Many thanks to Beth at Wandering Dawgs who is hosting this week’s lens-artists photo challenge: wings.

Arctic flying: Yellowknife, Northwest Territories.

As a pilot, wings have obviously been a large part of my life, something that started with watching birds when I was very young and wishing I could fly like them. So herewith are a few of my favourite “wings” photos – of both aircraft and birds.

A juvenile yellow-headed blackbird.
Royal Canadian Air Force’s military aerobatics flight demonstration team.
Swans. I didn’t capture their landing, unfortunately.
As the sun rises, takeoff from Yellowknife, Northwest Territories over a frozen Great Salve Lake.

I very much enjoyed this challenge; I had fun looking through my archives and then finding photos I had all but forgotten.

If you want to know more about the Lens-Artists challenge, please click here.

Photography

Snowbirds

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We recently watched a Snowbirds air show: the Snowbirds are the Royal Canadian Air Force’s military aerobatics flight demonstration team. The show was delayed by a thunderstorm, but once it passed, they took to the air. Here are some highlights.

Seven of the team’s nine aircraft against a clearing sky …

… doing their close quarter, high speed passes …

… punctuated by fabulous starburst maneuvers …

… including a heart-shaped aerial attitude that I wasn’t able to capture as I wanted to watch the show as well as take pictures …

… among other fantastic maneuvers that are a wonderful demonstration of flying prowess. Here’s a short video.

It was a great show and brought a big smile to the face of this old pilot.

Happy Sunday.

nature, Photography

The Landing

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I took this very short video of small twin engine passenger plane on final approach into Penticton Airport over Lake Okanagan.

As it came closer, I took another photo as J wanted to capture the reflection of the landing lights on the water. The colours in the photo are more blue than I thought they would be.

It’s not a great photo but I like the reflection on the lake.

Happy Friday and happy landings.

Commentary, musings, Photography

Ice Runway

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When you work in the north, lots of things are different. Since you’re surrounded by snow and ice for many months of the year, you learn to make tools of them.

Northern ingenuity.

So, what is this? It’s a frozen lake runway. There is another nearby airport (quite a large one, actually) that’s on dry land, but here, summer float planes can become winter ski or wheel planes just off Latham Island on Great Slave Lake.

Happy Wednesday. 🙂