St. Maarten 10/19-10/23

[eric8669]

As a Birthday gift to myself I have booked a trip down to St. Maarten. I will be flying down on U.S Airways Thursday 10/19 and returning Monday 10/23. Staying at the the La Terrasse Suite Hotel at Maho Village. Room Rates are pretty cheap if anybody is interested in coming down. please let me know.


Eric

[hiss srq]

maybe i will bum aride on down.... I will keep you posted. First let me buy my camera and I will let ya know I have always wanted to go down for VACATION purposes anyhow.

[dbudd]

Eric..

I just got back and I have to say it was wonderful. Seasonal weather brought afternoon rain showers but the times in between were grand. I didn't get any of those great heavies over the beach shots as I arrived Saturday on the 2 pm flight from EWR(757 winglet!) and had to get to my room and missed all but the Air Transit flight. I did get some great 757 departures and some Winair and ATR-72s landing. I was only on the island for 20 hours as my FA girlfriend stole me away for the weekend. I ended up flying something like 18 hours for one day on the island. But I'm not complaining!!

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v193/dave_budd/NYCA/sign.jpg

And it seemed like the whole island showed up for the AF A340 departure. Some were hugging the fence behind the aircraft and some like me stayed off to the side for pictures.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v193/dave_budd/NYCA/afbutt.jpg

And if you go over the weekend look up a fellow JP.net photographer Robert J Cijntje . I met him on the fence and he was a really nice guy. Ex-pilot that now lives in SXM.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v193/dave_budd/NYCA/robert.jpg


None the less I had a great time....

Dave

[Iberia A340-600]

I'm going to St. Marteen for the second time since I was 1 next Thursday and I'm pretty pschyed about it! I'm going to be there for 9 hours and I'm planning to spend all of it on Maho.

[dbudd]

Nine hours only??


If you only have nine hours spend some time at the Royal Islander across the road from the runway threshold. Go in past the front desk and take either the elevator or stairs to the second floor pool deck. Past the pool and on the jacuzzi deck is a observation platform that overlooks the runway end.

http://www.redweek.com/bigphoto/P15574

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v193/dave_budd/NYCA/obdeck.jpg


I spent only a few minutes there was I had to run for my flight home. I can't imagine leaving SXM without a picture of a heavy landing from that spot.

Dave

[Iberia A340-600]

Thanks for the tip Dave. I will def. head up there for a little while. I'm planning on standing under all the heavies for their landings but maybe for take offs it would be an ideal spot?

I'm going to be in Puerto Rico for six days and was able to convince me dad into takening my to SXM for a day on American Eagle since it's a lot cheaper then flying from New York. I was sopposed to visit SXM for a day in March when we were in Puerto Rico but I was really sick so we couldn't go.

I visit Puerto Rico frequently since I have family there so hopefully I will be able to visit SXM again for longer in the future.

[hiss srq]

where in Puerto Rico?

[Iberia A340-600]

where in Puerto Rico?

My Abuela lives in Salinas on the south side of the island, near Ponce.

[hiss srq]

My ex Fiance is from San Sebasitan we used to go every other month normally. I love that island

[dbudd]

I tried a few wide angle shots with just the little guys landing and I can't imagine the timing you'll need to capture a heavy full frame in the picture without cutting something off standing 20 feet below. Have fun

Stand off to the side and try some shots first. There is so many angles and few heavies. The local guy there Robert told me they are the second busiest airport in the Carib with 200 flights a day. Course 80 percent are probably commuters.

Look here.. http://www.airlineroutemaps.com/Latin_A ... ndex.shtml (http://www.airlineroutemaps.com/Latin_America/index.shtml) under carib and you can see how many airlines fly into SXM.

Dave

[Iberia A340-600]

Quick SXM question. Anybody suggest taking a tri-pod?

[dbudd]

I case somebody didn't see these..

http://www.flightlevel350.com/Aircraft_ ... -3296.html (http://www.flightlevel350.com/Aircraft_Airbus_A340-300-Airline_Air_France_Aviation_Video-3296.html)


http://www.flightlevel350.com/Aircraft_ ... -2227.html (http://www.flightlevel350.com/Aircraft_Boeing_747-400-Airline_KLM_Aviation_Video-2227.html)

Great site.....explore it!!

Dave

[mirrodie]

DAve , are those yours?

[Iberia A340-600]

Well, I had an awesome day today! I dedicated the day to Maho and enjoyed every minute of it. I've got a terrible sun burn on my neck but it was worth it!

Spend the day watching all the planes come in and stood behind a Dash 8 once and thought the jetblast was strong but I accidently got caught behind the Corsair departure and oh my god!

When I get back to New York I'll post a thread with my photos from SXM as well from EWR and SJU.