03-09-2011 - SWR14 San Francisco A340

[gonzalu]

Of all the days she comes in, she comes when the skies are totally gray and the air quality horrible and lots of moisture in the air, and to top it off, JFK on a weird 4R/13R arrivals and 13L departures (with an odd departure here or there on 13R)

Oh well, pardon the poor quality. We were shooting from almost 3.3 miles away.



This is about 1.5 miles away

[eric8669]

This was a 13R arrival? You were at Bayswater?

I was out for a bit, just drove around, didn't shoot anything.

[gonzalu]

Yeah, we expected her on 4R like all the other foreigners were using... well, a few got vectored to 13R which was being used by mostly domestics... Etihad came in after Swiss.

I was not going to come out today due to the weather but Mark gave me the heads up and figured, what the heck, I may make it (barely, 1.2 hours to JFK today )

Never saw anythign like this... 4R, 13R and 13L for departures.

[Zee71]

Manny ..... here is my image .... I was better off staying at home and I would have got it from the backyard. Instead you and I were at Bayswater going WTF???? The Air One and Austrian images below were taken from the backyward as they were on short final for 13R.



From the backyard

[gonzalu]

[gonzalu]

Mark with a backyard view like that, who needs Bayswater? :-)

Thanks for the heads up buddy. My D2Xs is sadly not as good as the latest sensors. I was at ISO 640 and the pics were poor to begin with, add heat shimmer, air quality blah blah. Yours looks great by comparison.

Interestingly, I was listening to the tower when I hit the entrance to JFK and figured ehh, I won't have to listen to ROBER/CAMRN as it sounded like foreign heavies on 4R and domestics on 13R so I blindly headed to Bayswater. When you told me as I arrived that they vectored her for 13R, I knew we had about 12 minutes... but from Bayswater's edge to HoBE it would be about 1/2 hour at best given the distance and traffic... With school out and the morons on Rockaway gauntlet between Costco and Brookville, no way to get close... 13L [MAYBE] .. at least on 13L one could at least pull over and get shot from Iceland Air cargo area or under the lights.

It is about 13 miles from Bayswater to Hobe via the long route around JFK/Rock Blvd/Belt/Cross Bay. If all highway, no lights, @ 60 mph is 13 minutes

The short way is around 8.8 miles if you go around through Rockaway Beach but that has lots of lights too and then there is the toll, and the single lane and more school bus traffic... maybe takes less time but also not guaranteed. One advantage would be the opportunities to get out and shoot and get a shot would be greater but only once you are at HoBe parking lot itself.

[Zee71]

Your welcome for the heads-up......I know both of us are on a mission when it comes to catching some of these birds. By the way, we move the clocks ahead an hour this weekend (yeeha.......more light!!!). Maybe we can finally catch the Starcraft......unfortunately I'll be in Dallas next week teaching, but not spotting.

[cowens727]

I feel your pain, I saw her in Zurich last august and the light was crap, rainy and just ughhh....but what can ya do, take the shots and hope for the best. Sooner or later all of us will get the chance to shoot her (as well as all the other special shcemes we chase) the right way....

[gonzalu]

Yeah, the funny thing is once you get one in good light, it seems to come in when you least expect it, under perfect conditions on 31R while you're relaxing at panera in your car LOL.

[steve1840]

Manny ..... here is my image .... I was better off staying at home and I would have got it from the backyard. Instead you and I were at Bayswater going WTF???? The Air One and Austrian images below were taken from the backyward as they were on short final for 13R.



From the backyard

Mark, if you ever want to sell your house, let me know. I would find a way to come up with the cash and find a new job to get a view like that!

[megatop412]

The day I caught this one last year, it was of course, completely unanticipated. It was probably the best dumb luck I ever had behind catching the Il-96 from the Rockaway Blvd bypass a few years ago and the Jordanian 707 I caught at Costco in '99. So all the days I grumble about nothing "good" coming in, I remind myself that the Gods have already been more than kind to me, and I try to relax and enjoy the turbofans.

[Zee71]

I'm hoping she pops in again under better conditions and that ATC doesn't mess with the runways. For whatever reason today was very odd as Manny mentioned. It seems to me that the west coast arrivals were getting vectored for 4R, and all the flights coming in from Europe were getting vectored for 13R, while departures were leaving from 13L. Very odd setup. Hope to hear more on this from one of the forum members.

[Roush6NY]

Great effort guys ! That is a funky looking bird, very nice !

[Zee71]

As Austin Powers would say ........... shagadelic!

[flyguy1]

I'm hoping she pops in again under better conditions and that ATC doesn't mess with the runways. For whatever reason today was very odd as Manny mentioned. It seems to me that the west coast arrivals were getting vectored for 4R, and all the flights coming in from Europe were getting vectored for 13R, while departures were leaving from 13L. Very odd setup. Hope to hear more on this from one of the forum members.

This configuration has been used before, you will see it mainly when there are strong winds from the E/SE, and JFK wants to use 2 runways for arrival (kinda like 13L, 22L in reverse) Another odd thing that day was, many European arrivals were coming in over CAMRN, which placed them SE of the airport, and usually means a 13 arrival under normal circumstances. Plus everything is to the South of the airport in this configuration, which probably makes the runway assignment more random.