KIAD- 7/17/2013 (Image HEAVY)

[NickPeterman]

Hello All,

Finally managed to bag my first big spotting outing while back here on the East Coast. With winds at Dulles expected to be favorable I decided to bite the bullet and do another 19 hour spotting marathon. It was an incredibly successful day, afternoon moreso than morning, and it was great to meet back up with Fasil, whom I hadn't seen since the SQ A380 inaugural at JFK.

Seeing this beauty was scheduled in to Dulles from Johannesburg was a major factor in my decision to go. While I am sure she is old hat for you JFK regulars, she is easily among top catches for 2013 thus far for me. Sadly she arrived a full 20+ minutes before sunrise, with a cloudy sky to boot, so pardon the poor image quality, ISO 1600 on a 7D isn't pretty when you underexpose to boot.




Sadly things weren't much better for this North American 767 about 10 minutes later





Things were a little more successful from over at the airport itself, however








had never caught one of these in the new livery, so that was certainly a nice surprise
















This time of year makes for impossible shooting at IAD after about 10AM, as is true with most places. The afternoon departure bank was pushed back and stretched out due to frequent (but unexplained) ground holds throughout the evening.





These UAL 763's with winglets certainly look nice!




Getting rare to see a tulip nowadays



















And the star of the show (bad pun intended) departed nice and late, making for some great light!











Saudia's new 777-300ERs was a new catch for me




The A332 never looked small to me, but slotted right after a 77W and an A346 tends to do that I guess!




Not a livery I have seen in person in close to 3 years, so this was a nice surprise




Lufthansa was kind enough as to send a 747-400 in lieu of the scheduled 747-8i, allowing me to finally catch one departing runway 1R. It's funny, having last seen the 748 here, the 747-400 also looked positively small in comparison.




The low sun really makes Virgin's livery pop, my first time catching their new A330s




IAD still sees a ton of 757 movements, and having gotten so used to the AA 757s at DFW, seeing some P&W powered birds was nice too (they also bank amazingly well)!







The first Speedbird flight was back to being a 747 from my last visit, which was a nice surprise.




And finally, after months of the Star Alliance bird showing up every day (I know, the horror ) SAS sent a normal A340!




Hope you enjoyed!

Cheers,

Nick

[deltaA330]

Funny my brother flew through IAD that day too!! He was taking tons of pics of South African at the gate- he too was super excited!! Awesome set my man!!

[AA757]

Excellent group of shots.....

Rich B

[Zee71]

Nick ..... Hats off to you on you spotting marathon and glad to see the success you had! Sweet images.

[Roush6NY]

Great work as always Nick!

[skyteam18]

That B764 in the turn during the afternoon bank is a good catch! I don't hardly ever see the 764 go out around that time of day. Must be a recent schedule change. Also really like the CB clouds in the background. Nice touch to an already crisp photo! Great stuff Nick.

[megatop412]

Very nice Nick, those clouds make a great backdrop. Great catch of the rare tulip livery

[Kiffy]

Great catches with the Star Alliance SAA and non Star Alliance SAS, nice set!

[NickPeterman]

Thanks all, it was a great day, and the clouds really did help!

Skyteam18, the 764 is new to IAD since my last trip up there. Seems like there are 4 of them per day to and from Hawaii, Rome, Munich (I think) and IAH for fleet rotation. Was nice to catch them somewhere other than IAH though!