YYZ trip summary April 8/9

[tipek]

Hi Guys,

I took weekend trip with Blendi to YYZ. We've got some great stuff including AN-12 from Vega Airlines and AN-124 Volga Dnepr.
Local spotter Malcolm was asking if we knew anybody from NY area, especialy Josh Akbar :) That world is very small :)
Here are some pictures that I took last weekend at YYZ and Hamilton Airport. (BTW - Hamilton airport had 8 727s on the ground with 6 of them shootable. The only problem was the heat haze in the afternoon)

Hamilton April 8, 2006

Some Cargo
Boeing 727-100F
N251FL
http://home.comcast.net/~tipek/cargo100.jpg


CargoJet
Boeing 727-200F
C-GUJC
http://home.comcast.net/~tipek/cargojet.jpg


Ex-All Canada Express
Boeing 727-200F
C-FACA
http://home.comcast.net/~tipek/exallcanada.jpg


FedEx
Boeing 727-100F
??? Nose number 112 - stored right next to the museum.
http://home.comcast.net/~tipek/fedex100.jpg


Purolator
Boeing 727-200F
C-GJKF
http://home.comcast.net/~tipek/purolator.jpg


Few pictures from YYZ April 8-9 2006

Vega Air
AN-12
LZ-VEC
http://home.comcast.net/~tipek/an12vegaair.jpg

Volga Dnepr
AN-124
RA-82074 - landing over Airport Road next to Wendy's
http://home.comcast.net/~tipek/yyzmahobeach.jpg

Lufthansa
D-ABTB Soccer nose - picture taken first day at Fedex Hill
http://home.comcast.net/~tipek/secondbounce.jpg

Canadian Air Froce (or Government?)
CL-600 (don't know exact model)
615
http://home.comcast.net/~tipek/canadagov.jpg

Canadian Navy
P-3 Orion
140121
http://home.comcast.net/~tipek/canadiannavy.jpg

Air Canada Jazz
CRJ-705 (CRJ-900)
C-FUJZ Star Alliance cs.
http://home.comcast.net/~tipek/jazzstara705.jpg

PIA
Boeing 777-200LR
AP-BGZ
http://home.comcast.net/~tipek/pia777lr.jpg

Skyservice
Boeing 757-200
C-FTDV First Choice colors
http://home.comcast.net/~tipek/skyservice757.jpg

Skyservice
Airbus A320
C-GTDG First Choice colors
http://home.comcast.net/~tipek/skyservicea320.jpg

The entire trip was very nice, but damn cold :)

Rafal

[T-Bird76]

Fantastic pics Rafal!! It had to be great seeing all those 727s in one place! Nice post!

[Mellyrose]

Darn you and all of your 727's! Makin me jealous. :(


Great shots though, of course!!!!

[Alex T]

Nice shots, fantastic ones of 727's.

How was the trip on SWA, did you fly them to BUF?

Alex

[tipek]

Hi Guys,

Hamilton is ORGAZMIC!!! All we needed to grab those 727s was 10 minutes drive around the airport :) Advice for anybody going to YYZ in the near future - YOU MUST visit Hamilton airport. That airport is only 30 miles South of the Pearson airport. They have also lots of military planes at Hamilton. Mostly vintage, and some jet fighters from Canadian Air Force. On the way from Buffalo I was telling Blendi that I will be very happy if we get at least 2 Boeing 727s there. Instead we've got 6!!! :)
Also, next to FedEx bird there is De Havilland Buffalo waiting restoration. Again, you just need 10 minutes of your time to get most of the stuff at that airport - and importantly, most of it is shootable.

Alex - I took Southwest for the very first time in my life :) I'm not that impressed with them. Flight from BWI to BUF was on N414WN 737-700 with winglets in new colors, on the way back N349SW 737-300 in old colors. Our flight leaving from BUF was late over an hour, so we were stranded at that airport for total of 3 hours :)

Next will be day-trip to DTW at the beginning of May. Anybody wants to join us?

Rafal

[eric8669]

Rafel,

Nice shots, makes me want to take another trip up to YYZ. Hope you hit all the spotting locations that YYZ has to offer?


Eric

[tipek]

Hey Eric,

Here is the text describing our stay at YYZ airport. I posted it on our local DC group.

From Hamilton we drove to Pearson airport. When we arrived there,
they were using runways 05 and 6L/R. There is not many decent spots
for those runways. We've ended up on the Fedex hill shooting for
about 2 hours whith high sun. Around 4pm the sun was finally behind
our back. We were shooting there until 6:30pm because we couldn't
stand the cold weather and strong winds anymore :)
On Sunday we drove around 50 miles going back and forth making big C
around the airport. At 8:30am we started spotting near runway 24R
(behind Aviation World store), then they switched runways to 15L. We
spent 30 minutes searching for best spot for that runway. We finally
found it and spent there only 30 minutes because they switched back
to 24R!!! Of course we went back to spot at runway 24R. When we were
there Blendi called one of the local spotters who told us that Volga
Dnepr AN-124 will land in about 20 minutes on runway 23. So we left
the spot and went to Wendy's to catch it. Sure enough, that bird
came on runway 23. Two planes later ATC decided to switch runways to
15L again!!! This time column of about 8 cars went to Skycharters
parking lot. We've got there PIA 777LR, AC A340 and couple of small
AC airplanes before they switched runway back to 23!!!!!!!!!!!
This time more like 10 cars hit the road back to Wendy's. Everybody
parked cars, took pictures of few airplanes and guess what? ATC
decided that runway 24R is much better for arrivals. This time only
5 cars went to spot at runway 24R. We've got there Alitalia 763, few
AC Airbuses and Westjets Boeings. We stayed there only 20 minutes
because runway switch was in effect again!!!!! Back to Wendy's for
runway 23 arrivals. We had enough of driving already :) At Wendy's
we've got KLM 744, AF 343 and few AC heavies. That day we've missed
easly 20-25 birds by moving from one spot to another. We've missed 2
Air Canada Jetz A320s :(
Finally our time came to leave fabulous Toronto. We've made few
short rides around Wendy's to say good bye to local spotters, and
they gave us directions to Midfield Cargo area to get that Bulgarian
AN-12 from Vega Airlines. When we arrived there that beauty was
parked in shootable position :) 30 frames later we were on our way
back to Buffalo to catch our flight back to BWI.
The only airline that didn't dissapointed us at YYZ was Westjet.
We've got at least 15 Boeings 737-700 with winglets :)
We arrived at BUF airport about 2 hours before our scheduled
departure at 8:05PM. Lines for check-in and security were non-
existent. When we arrived at the gate we found out that our plane is
delayed, and our new departure time was moved to 8:50PM. So we had
almost 3 hours to kill at BUF airport :) All I can say is that I
feel sorry for BUF local spotters. :)
We departed from BUF at 9:10PM (N349SW 737-300 old cs.), and arrived
at BWI at 10:10pm.

[SengaB]

Nice shots Rafal,
That AN-12 would have been my Golden Child.....I asked you to NOT make me regret joining you at YYZ...But I see you have failed miserably LOL! :D

I now bow down to the Mastah......

Senaa

[Alex T]

Alex - I took Southwest for the very first time in my life :) I'm not that impressed with them. Flight from BWI to BUF was on N414WN 737-700 with winglets in new colors, on the way back N349SW 737-300 in old colors. Our flight leaving from BUF was late over an hour, so we were stranded at that airport for total of 3 hours :)

Next will be day-trip to DTW at the beginning of May. Anybody wants to join us?

Rafal

Well they got you there safe and sound. What was the reason for the delay at BUF?

Did you like the interior seats? i love the leather quite comfortable, at least for me.

and for onc ein my life, i know nothing about those registerations on SWA hahahaha (since i normally know all about them haha)

Alex

[AC777LR]

Next time you come to YYZ, try Air Canada lol. is anyone coming next week to YYZ, there is a huge meet going on and spotting, though the weather looks like pure crap, but its anyones guess right now.