Alaskan Adventure - Lotsa pictures!!! (Day3)

[tipek]

Hi All,

Last week myself and 3 other guys from WashBalt Spotters went to Anchorage for some heavy metal shooting. We spent there 4 days (shooting 3 full days).
Every day we were at the airport at 8am and one day we've stayed until 11pm!!! Yes, we had still light at 11pm for pictures. The other two days we've cut our shooting early and wraped our stuff at 10pm :) We've run into LAX spotting group as well people from Holland and Belgium. There were also local spotters shooting with us.
If you think that JFK gets the most 747s, you are very wrong. I haven't seen so many 747s and MD-11s on the ground at the same time in my life! At any given time you had 15 MD-11s parked and 10-15 747s. The thing was that two MD-11 would depart and shortly after we would get two other MD-11 (or 747).
I can say that I was sick and tired of taking pictures of DC-6s and DC-3s. They were flying back and forth every 30 minutes :)
ANC airport has very beautyfull scenery and spotting locations. Police stopped us twice.
First time when we were right next to the fence (legal spot for runways 7R/L - 25R/L). Officer asked us for IDs and wrote our names down. I guess he was bored :)
Second encounter with police was on the hill right in front of the approach to runway 14. Different officer stopped and asked if somebody important is coming to ANC. After we've told him that we take pictures of every plane he said that he had never seen so many cameras at the same time :) (There were about 15 people taking pictures). Worry free spotting.
I took over 1500 pictures (each day 1500 to 1800 pictures), and I'm very confused what to post here. I would love to post every one of them but it would take me few weeks to work them over and upload :) I will just post few pictures from each day.

Anchorage, AK May 3rd 2008

http://home.comcast.net/~tipek/airchinaca74anc3.jpg
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http://home.comcast.net/~tipek/nwtails.jpg
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http://home.comcast.net/~tipek/up11manc3.jpg
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Spotting location on approach to runway 14
http://home.comcast.net/~tipek/1belgianwaffle.jpg
http://home.comcast.net/~tipek/1tripod_karatekid.jpg
http://home.comcast.net/~tipek/1karatekidlaxgroup.jpg


Take care,
Rafal

[MarkLawrence]

DAMN...awesome stuff Rafal!!! What a great mixture!

[cancidas]

wow! the comco 757 and a DC-6 in one day, i'm impressed!

[tipek]

Indeed very cool stuff at ANC. Just wait until I post shots from second day (hint Black Hawk, F-22, C-17 etc. ) :)

Rafal

[SengaB]

Should I say again how awsome the shots are?
I will . Great shots there! :)
Senga

[mirrodie]

Nice stuff but holy cold!

[lijk604]

Rafal, that Canada C-130 is just friggin' awesome! All the shots are great, but that C-130...mmmmmm.

[Iberia A340-600]

Damn, Rafal! Some awesome, awesome, awesome shots. :shock:

You have highly sparked my interest in visiting ANC.

I can't wait to see more pics.

[ngreed]

Nice shots, looks like it was a great trip!!

[PhilDernerJr]

Thats China Eastern Cargo is my fav, and I love the Canadian and Lynden C-130s.

Great shots Rafal!!

[stuart schechter]

Now I gotta get up to ANC to do some spotting and fishing trip! In august, I'm going through JNU and not ANC :(

[Chris102]

Great shots! The scenery in the background is beautiful!

Are those Comco 757's government flights? I remember reading somewhere that they're C-32's owned by the government, and they change the registration on them to make them look like airliners?

[wunaladreamin]

All I can say is...WOW!!

[eric8669]

Rafel,

Great shots! Looking forward to seeing more.

[lijk604]

Looking at these again from home 2 things stand out

1) Great catch on the three different NWA tails all lined up.

2) Cathay has more than one "Silver Bullet"!

[tipek]

We've got at least 12 different Cathays 747s in silver scheme.

Rafal

[Gerard]

Absolutely beautiful pictures with totally stunning background scenery!! Please show us a thousand more!! :lol:

[T-Bird76]

DROOL!!!!!! Awesome stuff Rafal!

[JZ1]

Simply beautiful shots, well done!

Would anyone comment on why ANC has so much cargo movements? Is it simply that the heavy ladden 747s don't have the range to reach their North American destinations and have to refuel there? Would Cargo version of the 777 change that situation?

[HLF_B737-8K5]

Damn... awesome shots!!!! I think ANC will rank on my own "next-airports-to-visit"-list on top!!!


rgds from germany / hannover

[Matt Molnar]

Is it simply that the heavy ladden 747s don't have the range to reach their North American destinations and have to refuel there?
Correct.


Would Cargo version of the 777 change that situation?
No.

[nwafan20]

Wow! Awesome shots!!! I really want to go to ANC now!