DFW Founders' Plaza (planespottin' in Dallas/Fort Worth)

[Sentinel Chicken]

It's official. Mother Nature hates my guts. Last week hasn't been a good week for spotting as each time I have the free time, the weather has been atrocious...and of course Saturday they were doing inbound traffic on the 31s with a flow delay and I couldn't make it out to get some shots of a relatively unusual event at DFW......Grrrrrrrrr...oh well, try to make the best of it, I got to play with just about every darn aperture and shutter setting from here to BFE experimenting with how to get a decent shot in probably the crummiest weather I've ever decided to go planespotting in...........


^Sure doesn't have the makings of a good day when the ceilings are so low the cabs of the control towers are in the muck. You can't even see the top of the West Tower in this shot of the UPS ramp.


^Ooooooooh. Looky. Pretty lights. It was bone to be thrown to this hapless spotter on this day. Interestingly I noticed that as the fog closed in and the ceilings dropped even further (to the level of the roof of my car, apparently....), some of the departing traffic started using 18R instead of the usual departures on 18L and arrivals on 18R. I'm not sure if that is some sort of procedure for really lousy days like this particular day of if there was something going on on the far end of 18L that precluded its use when I was at Founders' Plaza.

Visual conditions were bad enough that ATC was reporting the RVR to each arrival (runway visual range) so that they could judge if they could make the landings by their procedures.


^Holy crap, I've taken a picture of a Ubiquitous-80. The atmospheric moisture content made for some interesting vapor clouds above the wings of the arriving flights. This is N413AA, a 22 year old MD-80 that's flown for American its entire life.


^This North American 767-300 arriving on a regular military charter had a pretty impressive vapor cloud that streamed back from the wings, but I didn't quite catch it in this shot. This is N760NA- she's owned by International Lease and Finance but has had quite a career flying for European charter airlines before landing to roost with North American's fleet.


^Figures. The one rare time a Delta MD-90 is sent to this side for departure the weather blows.


^Some improvement in the weather conditions came a bit later when this American 767-300 arrived. This is N384AA, a 16 year old -300 that's flown for American its entire life so far.


^KLM's graceful A330-200 arrives on its daily run from Amsterdam Schiphol while a Korean Air Cargo 747-400F taxis up Taxiway E to depart on 18L. This KLM aircraft, PH-AOD, is christened "Piazza del Duomo-Milano" and has been with KLM since 2006. If you look closely, you can see the vapor cloud hugging the wing closely...


^Touchdown! The A330-200 with the GE CF6 engines is one of the more graceful commercial airliners out there. Not my best shot, but I like the graceful sweep of the wings at touchdown.


^Korean Air Cargo 747-400F, this is HL7434 and she's been flying for Korean since 2002. Holding short of 18L awaiting clearance for takeoff while the NW hold pad fills up with a whole lotta 'Merican.


^Let's race! The Korean Air Cargo has started its takeoff run on 18L while an American MD-80 (the official bird of DFW Airport, if we were ever to have one) sails in on 18R.

Enjoy!

[Sentinel Chicken]

One of the Chicklets didn't have school this past Monday so that meant more time than usual for some spotting. The early morning times after I drop off the other Chicklets at school had some low scud moving through the area and I did manage to get some interesting shots, but she and I were able to spend 2 hours after lunch at Founders' Plaza seeing what was to be had in the afternoon traffic. I have about 20+ shots to post out of what I took, but I wanted to share the special catch of the day:





I thought something was odd as there was a flight on the flight tracking websites that was listed as "Blocked". Sure enough, I think this is the one, it was using the callsign "Star 11". A small crowd of spotters had started congregating about 215pm to catch this bird.

This particular aircraft, 73-1683, was one of three VC-9Cs delivered in 1975 to the 89th Military Airlift Wing at Andrews AFB. One was upgraded with extensive communications equipment in 1982 to serve as Air Force Two and in 1995-1996 this particular aircraft as well as the third C-9C was upgraded to the same communications suite standard.

"Star 11" after landing went to the DFW general aviation area to park. Anyone know who this might be visiting?

[Sentinel Chicken]

More pictures from Monday:


^American Eagle's breast cancer awareness jet, N640AE, just seconds from touchdown.


^A US Airways 737-300 bound for Phoenix holds short on 18R awaiting takeoff while an increasingly rare at DFW ERJ-135 lands. The US Airways plane is N154AW, built in 1987 and delivered to America West while the ERJ-135 is N737MW and interestingly enough I caught it again landing in the afternoon. The 135s aren't very common as they used to be at DFW.


^Holy crap, I took a picture of an American MD-80! Actually this was trying out a new vantage point on the east side of the field- on the corner of 12th Street and 27th Avenue just a block west of Freeport Parkway and Royal Lane, north of Carpenter Freeway. Good spot, out of the way and good morning lighting. I went over to this side with the intent of catching the ERJ-170 arrivals, which of course landed on the west side of the field. Bastards.


^If DFW had another "official bird" it'd be an American 737-800. Funny thing is that the skies weren't that ominous. The low scud and early morning lighting just seemed to make the skies look more ominous than they really were.


^And if DFW had a third "official bird", it'd be an American 757. Actually I dig 757s, I always seem to have to take a few shots of them when I see them, even if they're American's.


^Back to Founders' Plaza. Got sick of seeing interesting things land on the west side of the field that usually land on the east side where I happened to be that day. Must be spotters' curse or something. The weather was getting better- this is N253UP, an MD-11F freighter that before getting picked up and converted by UPS flew for Varig as PP-VPM. UPS has an MD-11F fleet exclusively made up of second hand MD-11s, some have the prominent exhaust spike here indicating GE CF6-80C2 engines and other UPS MD-11Fs have engines that lack that spike, indicating Pratt & Whitney engines.

[Sentinel Chicken]

More Monday pics:


^This particular Frontier Airlines A318, N805FR, was the second prototype A318 before it was refurbished for delivery to Frontier. On the tail is "Ollie" the Great Gray Owl. In the background you can see downtown Dallas in the muck.


^Here's N737MW once again. I seem to catch this particular ERJ-135 at least once a week on my spotting days.


^This particular Cessna Citation Excel, N370M, belongs to the Murphy Oil Corporation.


^Now departing, USAirways A320 Flying Boat Service for the Hudson.....okay, so sue me, I couldn't resist. This aircraft, N660AW, was built in 2000 for America West.


^Here's a United sliding on in...it seems that every United A319/A320 I've seen at DFW in the old blue/gray colors has engine nacelles from the new color scheme......N815UA is a just over 10 year old A319 that has been flying for United its entire life so far. Kinda weird seeing all those ATR72s in the background at Terminal B using jetways!


^There was a nice break in the clouds and this American 737-800 arriving from Chicago got caught in the bright sun against the darker skies of the day. N936AN is a nine year old 737-800 that's always been flying with American. In the background you can see a Mexicana A318 taxiing out.

[Sentinel Chicken]

Last group from Monday:


^An American 767-300 (N347AN, a relatively young 767-300 that's only six years old) seconds from touchdown on 18R while a Delta Connection/Skywest CRJ700 starts its takeoff roll on 18L.


^Ahhhh, that's much better. The sun's coming out now. Overview of the UPS ramp in the afternoon sun with the "Share the Dream" sculpture in the foreground.


^N432NM, a Cessna Citation 550, hustles it on short final after flying in from Hobbs, NM.


^You don't see many 737-800s at DFW these days that don't have winglets. And it's equally uncommon to have Delta arrive on this side of the airport. Meet N389DA who celebrated nine years with Delta last month.........


^"American 71 Heavy, cleared to land 18R." I think this flight came in from London Gatwick. N755AN, she was built in 2001.


^American 757-200 on short final while the KLM A330-200 flight heads out for the east side of DFW for departure back to Amsterdam Schiphol.


^Last shot from Monday's spotting session, Regional Approach usually likes to bring Southwest traffic from the west "over the top" of DFW on an eastbound heading and then turn to the SE to line up for 13L or 13R at Dallas Love Field.

[Sentinel Chicken]

This past Thursday last week was an epic spotting day at DFW for myself. I was already out and about early in the morning as I had to shuttle two of my kids to their school and had some time to kill before I took my third kid to her preschool. Since her preschool is in Grapevine, that means our usual routine is for some Daddy-Daughter spotting time at Founders' Plaza until it's time to drop her off at her pre-school.

Since I had already been planning to spend most of the day spotting the crosswind ops at DFW that day off Runway 31L, I thought I'd see how things were shaping up at Founders' Plaza as the airport was about to gear up for the crosswind operations. The winds were already starting to pick up out of the west after being southwesterly most of the early hours of the morning after the front passed through.


^Nice early morning shot of an MD-11F freighter at the UPS ramp with the American Airlines line maintenance hangars in the background as well as the West Tower.


^I've been trying to catch a silhouette shot of a landing at DFW with sunlight coming through the aircraft cabin windows, this one is the closest I've gotten so far, the morning Sun Country 737-800 arrival from Minneapolis.


^A few seconds later, here she is about to touch down with International Terminal D in the background. After the Sun Country 737-800 landed, a Cessna Citation VII was the last arrival from the north to get in before the airport got turned around for departures to the north for a brief period before crosswind operations would begin. Both the Sun Country flight and the Citation that followed it were already crabbing sharply into the wind to land on 18R.


^Only a handful of departures were able to make it out on the 36s and 35s before the crosswinds from west kicked in. This is a Northwest DC-9-30 outbound, there was a lot of noise in the shot but I really liked the angle as the flights came off 36R, they veered off to the west and came right over Founders' Plaza making for some unusual photographic angles.


^US Airways 737-300 departing for Phoenix. I was trying to get the rising sun glinting off the fuselage, I sort of got it. Kinda.


^This American 767-300 was one of the last off the 36s and 35s before the long conga lines started forming to use both 31L and 31R as the westerly winds started to kick up.

I wasn't able to get a good shot of the morning Convair 580 departure...again....but they used the radio call sign "Trans Auto 1310" and their destination was El Paso.

[Hawkeye]

I thought something was odd as there was a flight on the flight tracking websites that was listed as "Blocked". Sure enough, I think this is the one, it was using the callsign "Star 11". A small crowd of spotters had started congregating about 215pm to catch this bird.

This particular aircraft, 73-1683, was one of three VC-9Cs delivered in 1975 to the 89th Military Airlift Wing at Andrews AFB. One was upgraded with extensive communications equipment in 1982 to serve as Air Force Two and in 1995-1996 this particular aircraft as well as the third C-9C was upgraded to the same communications suite standard.

"Star 11" after landing went to the DFW general aviation area to park. Anyone know who this might be visiting?

It more than likely had a call sign on the order of "SAM" (Special Airlift Mission) and the mission number assigned to it. SAM 683 possibly. VC-9s are used to support DoD, VIP and Congressional support missions. It could even have been called upon back in its early career to fly POTUS into small regional airports not capable of supporting the then VC-137. A 707 needs more runway than a 747, especially the ones used to haul POTUS around. Bush 1 used to use smaller aircraft to get into the airport that serviced his "vacation" home in Maine. Now that airport is capable of much larger aircraft. There is no Air Force Two...the Vice Pres rides under the call sign SAM just as any other VIP would, it helps protect him. If there were an AF 2 then Pelosi's aircraft would be AF 3 because she'd demand it! ;-)

My dad used to flight follow these SAM missions while working at the Command Post at HQ MAC...now known as AMC. SAM missions supported Congressmen and VIPs in all sorts of aircraft...from T-39s to VC-135s. The two VC-137s were reserved to support the President or former Presidents when they traveled to represent the US.

[Sentinel Chicken]

Continuing where I left off above, this particular day in April was one of those rare days at DFW when they have to do crosswind ops and that entails shoving seven runways' worth of operations into just TWO. I then headed over to Minters Chapel Cemetery to see if the crosswind ops had started yet and while early mornings aren't great for spotting from there, it does put you practically under short final for 31L. I noticed the long conga line of about 12 American and American Eagle jets forming for takeoff on 31L and I hauled arse over to the China Air Cargo lot as there's a nice knoll there that overlooks the end of 31L...and already found two spotters there.


^This particular ERJ-170 was supposed to be PT-SZO (Embraer test bird?) but it wasn't taken up and instead the aircraft went to Chautauqua flying as Delta Connection. Since about 2007 or so it's been flying in this ad hoc scheme that has traces of the Delta Connection livery, only now it's flown by Shuttle America.


^How close was I? This close. The neat thing about crosswind ops off 31L is that anything that lands there has to pass back in front of you on Taxiway B to get to the ramp. So you get twice the fun- a landing and a close taxi-by. I was shooting well under 200mm for this shot. Even at 55mm an American 757 like this one was still bigger than the frame.


^Here was some of the supreme awesomeness that made that Thursday epic spotting. This EVA Air Cargo MD-11F is just seconds from touchdown (you can see the American MD-82 holding short for takeoff) and look how it's banked as it fights the gusty west winds.


^Of course if it's going to land on 31L it's gonna taxi right in front of this geek's face and oh did it in its three-engined glory. This particular aircraft, B-16109, was a purpose-built MD-11F for EVA Air that first took to the air in 1997. In the background, one of the uber-many American MD-80s heading down Taxiway A to the hold short point.


^United's 757-200 in the new color scheme takes position at the hold point to await its turn for takeoff. Built in 1990, N532UA has flown its entire life to date for United Airlines.


^I didn't realize that American Eagle has several ERJ-145s in the special Susan B. Komen Breast Cancer scheme. This one, N909AE, was the first one of the flock, unveiled at a special ceremony in August of last year.


^Check out the bank on this UPS 767-300F! This was during a particularly gusty part of the morning when there were several go-arounds. This freighter was literally bucking its way down the glideslope and there was a UPS employee watching the show who was muttering "Holy crap, go-around!" N318UP has been flying with UPS since it first took to the air in 1997. In the background are two fire trainers the DFW fire department uses.


^More E-Jet action! This ERJ-170 belongs to Republic Airways flying as US Airways Express. Prior to that, M801MA flew for Mid-Atlantic but still as a US Airways Express bird.


^This is that UPS 767-300F that I pictured above as it taxis by on its way to the West Cargo complex.


^Last shot in this set (but not from this day), this was one of several go-arounds I'd seen. N133UP is an Airbus A300-600F that's been flying for UPS as a new build coming up on eight years now. There were multiple windshear alerts being issued at the tower by this point in the morning and it was going to get crazier........

[Sentinel Chicken]

It's been a while since I added to my DFW area planespotting thread- here's a panorama I did several months back:



This was back on 28 January. Bizzaro day that was pretty much the only spring-like day for most of the winter. There were some rain showers from earlier in the day but a squall line from a frontal boundary was fast approaching and I thought it'd make an ominous backdrop for a panoramic shot of the UPS ramp.

Believe it or not this was about 3pm in the afternoon when the UPS flights all start heading out. There are usually two A300-600Fs off to the right of that Boeing 767-300F, but they'd already headed out and the MD-11F is being pushed back. Right after that MD-11F taxied out, a torrential downpour with tons of lightning stopped airport and ramp operations temporarily, but one of the 757 freighters still managed to taxi out.

Tripod mounted set of three shots were taken for this panorama- f/5.6, 1/100 sec at ISO 800.