October 7-12 in PBI, FLL

[PhilDernerJr]

As some of you know, Mel and I spent several days in Florida.

On approach into FLL, I got these two airports from overhead, and I have NO IDEA which ones they are. Can anyone help me out?





Just before touchdown, I saw these P-3's whch I understand are hurricane chasers.



At some point during my trip, I got these other planes at FLL, all seemingly Miami Dolphins' fleet.





On the 11th, Mark Lawrence grabbed us up and took us to PBI, which was a fun day of spotting. We got all kinds of stuff, but I was most excited about some of the bizjet action, which I've been wanting to get more of.





We also saw this 727 that was damaged during Hurricane Wilma.



There was a lot of helicopter traffic, too. The most interesting was this West Palm Beach chopper that they were carting around.



That was a great day. Thanks Mark!!

It was a fun trip for both relaxation and aviation. I'm eager to get back to Florida and explore more soon.

This was one of my last shots of the trip, taken at FLL a few hours before we boarded.

[MarkLawrence]

Phil

From looking at some location maps - the top one is KLNA - Palm Beach County Park Airport (otherwise known here as Lantana). KLNA is unfortuantely famous for some of the the 9/11 hijackers training there.

The second one if KFXE - Fort Lauderdale Executive.

[LGA777]

Phil, nice report and photos but those P3's are actually former Airbourne Express (and Piedmont) YS-11's. I believe they are just in storage.

The Miami Dolphins painted aircraft belong to Dolphins owner Wayne Huizenga who made much of his fortune founding Blockbuster Video which I believe he recently sold. In addition to the three aircraft you where fortunate to be able to photograph as they are often inside his hangar he has a Helicopter and a Twin Otter on floats, a great fleet indeed

Cheers

Ron Peel

[Mellyrose]

Great day at PBI. Thanks so much to Mark!

This was my favorite plane of the day....too bad for heat haze!


And Phil's favorite.




Shamu!


There was a lot of similar traffic to LGA, but the different angles and backgrounds made it a totally different experience.












As mentioned in the trip report, we got to the airport early to relax and try and take some shots....it was gloomy and started pouring no more than 15 minutes after we arrived, but I managed to shoot a couple fun photos.

Song at the gate...Fort Lauderdale's skyline in the background.


The construction worker decided to strike a pose for me. I just wanted as much of the Avianca as I could get!


I don't think we're in NYC anymore....


Senga style. Too much foreground clutter? Note the orange dumptruck piggybacking, too! ;)


Ted and American at the gate....just before the storm clouds opened up.


Phil forgot to mention that while go-kart racing in Boca Raton, we were (unintentionally) alongside a private airport and its runway....about 200 feet from arrivals and departures of private jets - was very cool to have some unplanned spotting! :D

[PhilDernerJr]

Yeah, we saw some private Dash-8 land there. Really awesome. Mark, what was the name of that place?

[MarkLawrence]

The was Boca Raton - KBCT.

[Tom_Turner]

Great catch with the YS-11s... and Phil, thats a recent model Schweitzer..not too many around (at least in our parts) although they are manufactured up in Elmira New York. They're owned by Sikorsky now, but the Schweitzer operation is mostly the same AFAIK....

Interesting feature of that chopper if its the model I am thinking of ..if it loses power, the blades keep going for a time, and you get about a minute or so to find a spot to land.. (beats dropping like a rock...)

Tom

[mirrodie]

nice pics guys! looks like you had a ball! And nice catching the Miami Dolphins jets. The smaller one was at FRG some months back.



we saw Shamu as well, at LAS and LAX, but I have to see which one it was :)