LAS 05/07/2011

Well, I finally got to spot at LAS! After years of visiting Sin City, I never had even the inclination of officially spotting there. I once stayed at Mandalay Bay with a terrific view of the field and while I got a few shots, I never liked the heavy gold glazing on the windows. Anyway, these are from the official observation parking area next to the landing zone on RWY 25L. The Sun in the engines is hard to get tired off...

First, this guy was waaaaay above us while we were at around 34,000 feet.

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Somewhere over, somewhere LOL. I figure maybe Colorado?

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As we land, both Alaska (Southwest special livery) and this guy were at the gate...

http://manny.smugmug.com/Airplanes/S...d3g_5978-L.jpg

and now the rest...

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If you're wondering, this next image is heavily processed... LOL. I liked it and wanted to save the fact that it is now heavily backlit at this time from this location. The left side of the plane is almost totally dark to achieve proper exposure of the bg :-(

http://manny.smugmug.com/Airplanes/S...d3g_7592-L.jpg

George said this guy would come in under darkness... nice surprise!

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That's it for now... I took in excess of 500 images in 3 hours... Traffic at LAS is NON STOP!! I say more than JFK lol. But mostly Southwest who just pwned the rest of the carriers here. They have at least one southwest taking off or landing every 5 minutes or less sometimes. Amazing. So I won;t bore you with the colors... :-)

Nice set Manny!!!!.

Really good shots Manny, well done.

Nice Manny! Good to see George is still making the rounds!

Great shots, Manny !!! Nice catch on the Blue Man group, pretty cool and awesome light on the BA !

Nice set Manny! I bet you $20 that the space shuttle lands there......LoL! One of these days I need to spot at LAS as well, and like yourself, I've been there a bunch of time.......go figure.

Nice stuff Manny! Keep it coming. Can't wait to see more!

Very nice Manny ! I can;t wait to see LAS again. Hope to be there for Aviation Nation 2011 !

Thanks all... today was not a great day as the morning was very cloudy and it even rained a bit. When the clouds gave a little, it was around 3:00pm Then it got REALLY windy with gusts at 40 - 60 knots at 220 degrees which made for serious cross winds. Regardless everyone but a lonely Southwest who went around. I had a really tough time on top of my rental. I could not find a cheap collapsible ladder so I just used the roof of the Jeep Liberty (I got it on purpose)

Nellis has stuff going on NEXT week :-( this week it is dead.

Manny, I am not sure which one i like more.... The AA MD83 or the BA 772ER.... Good thing you werent driving around for the rain. That city damn near shuts down weather it's a drizzle or a beer piss... People don't know how to drive in rain out there which is something I find astounding.

Thanks Ryan. My favorite landing of the day was the BAW 777 ... as for departures, watching the Queen in Virgin colors kick up mega dust on rotation against the gold of the sunset is a real treat!

http://manny.smugmug.com/Airplanes/S.../D2X3778-L.jpg

Well, I have experience from that same effect in Los Angeles... I guess they're just not used to water on the road while driving LOL. In contrast, I visit Florida about three or four times a year and I must say, there it is the opposite. Drafting at 120MPH in blinding rain is nothing on I-95 ;-)

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:)))

Hehehe... thanks Chris! ;-)