Tag Archives: bombardier

Global 7500 Sketchy Takeoff

For the longest time, I struggled to photograph a Bombardier Global 7500. Over time I have seen a few of them but that initial drought makes me still feel as if it is something special when I catch one. They have sold really well and there are loads in service so they really aren’t something I should be so excited about but apparently my brain hasn’t worked that out yet. I was happy to get one at Boeing Field when it was taking off.

It taxied out and headed to the north end of the field for departure. I was not expecting a lot because they have good field performance and are likely to be well airborne before they get near where I was going to be standing. Sure enough, they did get off the ground quite quickly but, as they rotated, there was quite a roll that developed. Not sure whether it was a big gust or that they weren’t anticipating the crosswind, but I imagine it must have spilt a gin and tonic or two. They quickly recovered the situation and climbed out without any further problems, but I hope there wasn’t much clean up required onboard.

Stored Airtankers Awaiting Their Turn

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Quite a while back, I made a trip to Abbotsford. In more recent visits I have created posts of their Q400 based airtankers out on some test flights. However, before they became tankers, these were all airliners that had been retired from passenger service. Conair buys up these older airframes when the price is right, and they come to Abbotsford to await their time in the conversion program.

A few of them were sitting on the ramp when I made my visit. Some were being worked on while others were just waiting for some attention. Various bits were missing – often the expensive bits like engines. It is possible that some of the airframes might only be acquired to provide a source of spare parts and they will never fly again. I have no idea whether that is the case for any of these. Hopefully they will have since made it back into the air and are now being used to fight wildfires somewhere.

Isle of Man Registered Global

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I seem to be having a burst of photos from back when Seafair was on in Seattle. In a previous post I mentioned that there was a gap in the show schedule when Boeing Field opened up for movements. One such movement was a Bombardier Global 5000 that taxied out and took off. It came down the Bravo taxiway so very close to us. It took off using a decent amount of the runway so rotated in a good spot for photos. It was registered in the Isle of Man so I’ve no idea where it is from since that location has done a good job of encouraging people to register their planes there.

Intelsat’s CRJ Thwarts Me with Weather

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Testbed aircraft are the sort of thing I like to see and, when Intelsat brought their CRJ to Seattle, I was hoping to catch it. Sadly, its arrival and some initial flying were not at good times, so I didn’t get to shoot it. Then it was due out when I was heading to SEA for a trip of my own. However, the conditions were awful, and I could barely make it out in the gloom as it got airborne. Cameras – even with really modern tech – struggle to focus on something that is barely visible in the mist. I did have one last chance when it was taking off, but I was at the terminal at the time and could barely get some shots of it as it taxied and took off. After that, it left. I was frustrated throughout its time here. Will it return?

A Development Dash 8

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I may have a soft spot for testbeds, but development airframes are also something that will interest me. While driving around Tucson International Airport, we were looking at the various airframes at one of the schools based on the field. There was a Dash 8 sitting in the yard. It had Series 200 markings on it and seemed to be a development airframe. With Mark being a Canadian, he was definitely pleased to catch this but I was too. It looks in surprisingly good shape.

A Black Challenger 850

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What do you do if you have built a large fleet of 50-seat regional jets and now no one really wants a 50-seat regional jet? You take that jet and refit it into a corporate configuration and change the name to match your other bizjets. That is the way a CRJ200 suddenly transforms into a Challenger 850. It’s a bit ironic because the CRJ was developed from the original Challenger jet anyway so maybe the reverse process is not a big deal. Anyway, it finds a second life for some jets.

I wouldn’t have gone out specifically just to get a Challenger 850 (you might ask why that is when I go out for any number of other aircraft of niche interest), but this one was painted all black and I am partial to any jet that doesn’t look like all of the others. A glossy black finish is definitely worthy of some attention and, if the light is going to play ball, it should look pretty good. In the event, it did come out rather nicely. I don’t know whether the operator will be back here on a regular basis, or this will be counted as a limited time offer but good to have had the chance!

Comparison of Two Globals

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When Bombardier launched the Global 7500, I was quite keen to see them. My friend was the engineering director on the project and, despite me giving him crap at every opportunity, I think he probably did a good job on this one. Sadly, I haven’t shot as many 7500s as I would have liked. Global 6000s, on the other hand, I have shot plenty of. There have been a few, though, so I decided to see what the obvious visual differences would be.

With some bizjets, counting windows is the way to know. That rarely helps me out as I can never remember what the appropriate numbers are. For the 7500, though, I think the windows look very different. They seem to be a lot larger and squarer. That is a bit of a giveaway. Then there is the fin top. The 7500 has a more angular top to it which actually looks a bit like some of the CRJ versions. Last, there are the flaps. The 7500 flap system seems to be more complex than that of the 6000. I have included images of NetJets and VistaJet examples of both types at similar angles for comparison. See what other differences you spot.

Playing With an Old CRJ Moon Shot

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For some reason, I recently came back to an old photo I took of a Delta Connection CRJ900 as it climbed out of O’Hare. It had climbed right by the moon as it was rising in the eastern sky towards the end of the day. I had liked the photo at the time but now I was thinking about how to do a better job of editing it. Now I have been using the masking tools in Lightroom a lot more, I figured I could take different approaches for the jet and the background. The results were a lot better than my original efforts and I quite like how it now looks.

The Old Horizon Fleet

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The departure of the Q400s from Horizon’s fleet means that they are now fully equipped with Embraer E175-E1s. I know some people didn’t like the Q400 but I actually found it to be perfectly fine when I flew in them. Not a ton of space but not the longest flights. Certainly nothing as long as I have done in the Embraers! However, before the Q400s, there were other aircraft in their fleet. I was scanning through some shots for some other reason and came across shots of Dash 8-100s and CRJs. I figured I would remind people of some of the older times that Horizon operated when I was shooting stuff. Of course, there are far older types that they would have had but they are before my time.

Other Sunny Sunday Bizjets

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One Sunday earlier in the year, I was up at Boeing Field for the arrival of an old Gulfstream. That proved to be a successful encounter and has been on this blog already. However, that was not the only bizjet traffic that day. I ended up with a variety of corporate aircraft movements.

There was a Canadian Challenger as well as some NetJets examples. A Falcon 7X was on the move which is a cool looking aircraft. There was also a Falcon 50 parked near the road alongside a Hawker. An Excel came through which isn’t that special but then we got an Eclipse which certainly is. It was a fun time to be out photographing with a lot in a short space of time. Here are some shots of those planes.