DTW - 7.19.07

[nwafan20]

Well, I made it out to DTW on Thursday, unfortunately the forecasts called for t-storms all day, every hour, but I decided to go anyway because I don't get to go out that often. If you read from my "Galley" post, my power was out (and is out, just got cable back) due to a small tornado that swept through my town.

Anyway, weather wasn't as bad as expected, but still sucked.

They closed down the airport 4 TIMES, longest for about 2 hrs, they diverted traffic, held traffic, did ground stops, some flights were delayed on taxiways for 6 hours, it amused me when the controller said "Northwest 54 heavy, welcome to the line, you are number 46 for departure". They were having airplanes taxi out of the line to let airplanes not departing East leave (because East departures were being held due to the weather) The weather was really bad at points.

Anyway,

They closed down the best spot for arriving heavies because they were resurfacing it, that made me pissed, there is no other place to catch 22L arrivals on property, I could go off property but I didn't have a car...

Caught some shots that I wanted to, but for the two planes I wanted to catch most, didn't get the correct shots off.

Missed the Royal Jordanian A340 arrival, but caught the depart (PROOF TO JOSH MAY THAT RJ DOES IN FACT FLY TO DTW), unfortunately I was on the whole other side of the airport getting a soda... I saw the Lufthansa arrival, but got a HORRIBLE shot of it on a taxiway since I couldn't catch it at the normal shot. It is cropped severely. ALMOST caught the Lufthansa departure but they switched runways AS SOON as they cleared him to taxi... So it was a mad dash to the other side of the airport via the airport shuttle, didn't make it in time.... Darn.

Also, another treat for us, we got TWO Star Alliance schemes today! An A320 and a E175!

But other than that, some good ones some bad ones, 500 shots in total, this is only a few, not the best, but it will do till I edit the rest.

Enough talking, on to the pictures:

Weather shots (progression):
http://i125.photobucket.com/albums/p75/nwafan20/SpottingDTW719.07187.jpg
http://i125.photobucket.com/albums/p75/nwafan20/SpottingDTW719.07188.jpg
http://i125.photobucket.com/albums/p75/nwafan20/SpottingDTW719.07189.jpg
http://i125.photobucket.com/albums/p75/nwafan20/SpottingDTW719.07197.jpg
http://i125.photobucket.com/albums/p75/nwafan20/SpottingDTW719.07198.jpg

Dedicated to Josh May who demanded I get photo evidence that Royal Jordanian flew to DTW, he didn't believe anything published on the internet:
http://i125.photobucket.com/albums/p75/nwafan20/SpottingDTW719.07219.jpg

A special treat! Lufthansa subbed the normal A330 for an A340! (which is actually quite common for them at DTW, its usually about a 50/50 split ;)) But it was far away so this is cropped like crazy!
http://i125.photobucket.com/albums/p75/nwafan20/SpottingDTW719.07251.jpg

And on to more bad weather shots!
http://i125.photobucket.com/albums/p75/nwafan20/SpottingDTW719.07001.jpg
http://i125.photobucket.com/albums/p75/nwafan20/SpottingDTW719.07013.jpg
http://i125.photobucket.com/albums/p75/nwafan20/SpottingDTW719.07017.jpg
http://i125.photobucket.com/albums/p75/nwafan20/SpottingDTW719.07055.jpg
http://i125.photobucket.com/albums/p75/nwafan20/SpottingDTW719.07078.jpg
http://i125.photobucket.com/albums/p75/nwafan20/SpottingDTW719.07080.jpg
http://i125.photobucket.com/albums/p75/nwafan20/SpottingDTW719.07101.jpg

Star Alliance represented at DTW that day!:
http://i125.photobucket.com/albums/p75/nwafan20/SpottingDTW719.07129.jpg
http://i125.photobucket.com/albums/p75/nwafan20/SpottingDTW719.07436.jpg

Another one I wanted to catch:
http://i125.photobucket.com/albums/p75/nwafan20/SpottingDTW719.07142.jpg

A small hole opened up in the clouds to allow some interesting lighting effects for these two departures:
http://i125.photobucket.com/albums/p75/nwafan20/SpottingDTW719.07161.jpg
http://i125.photobucket.com/albums/p75/nwafan20/SpottingDTW719.07168.jpg

http://i125.photobucket.com/albums/p75/nwafan20/SpottingDTW719.07226.jpg

A330 departure, it may look like good light, but it was only a small opening, behind and to both sides were very dark clouds.
http://i125.photobucket.com/albums/p75/nwafan20/SpottingDTW719.07481.jpg

[Alex T]

Good report man! I love the pics of the NWA birds...

One of my favorite schemes to catch.

Alex

[hiss srq]

Great stuff there man. Some dramatic stuff with the rain too! Oh and BTW. My ESP powers told me you would be at the airport so I willed and sent the star alliance birds to you. JK ;p Good stuff man!

[PhilDernerJr]

The NW Saab and A330 are two planes I'm eager to get one day! Nice stuff.

[AirtrafficController]

Great stuff dude, I have never saw a NW Saab 340 before.

[JZ1]

Excellent shots, were at least some of the shots taken from the parking lot? Did anyone give you trouble for spotting there?

Given the large Middle Eastern population in Detroit area, it's not surprising to see Royal Jordanian flying to DTW. Actually, in the old days when TW still flew to Saudi Aribia, they had a connection JFK-DTW flight scheduled to allow connecting passengers to transfer to DTW. I was on this particular flight, which was filled with Middle Eastern people, to DTW once.

[nwafan20]

Great stuff dude, I have never saw a NW Saab 340 before.

Visit DTW some time, we get one at least every 2 minutes...

[nwafan20]

Excellent shots, were at least some of the shots taken from the parking lot? Did anyone give you trouble for spotting there?

Given the large Middle Eastern population in Detroit area, it's not surprising to see Royal Jordanian flying to DTW. Actually, in the old days when TW still flew to Saudi Aribia, they had a connection JFK-DTW flight scheduled to allow connecting passengers to transfer to DTW. I was on this particular flight, which was filled with Middle Eastern people, to DTW once.

Most were taken at the McNamara deck, a few were taken else where. No one ever gives us trouble anywhere at DTW, the most I have gotten was actually on Thursday, I was in the terminal waiting for an elevator, and I forgot to turn my scanner off, and a TSA guy was next to me and he asked "What's that?" and I told him it was an aircraft scanner, and photographing airplanes is my hobby, he said "Oh ok, just some people might get freaked out about it"

Yeah, I tried to explain to Josh about Dearborn, Michigan (HUGE Middle Eastern population), but he was still in awe ;)


Well, thanks for the positive comments guys, I didn't think they turned out all that well...