Some pics from airports everywhere! (title changed)

[DeltaVII]

I already wanted to go home, but there were two guys I caught coming out of nowhere. The first one was one of two flights from the regional airport Heide Büsum (EDXB /HEI), a Cessna 172 with the registration D-EOSG (the other was D-EFLL), registered to an aviation club and flight school called "Hanseatischer Fliegerclub Hamburg e.V." which is residing at HAM and connected to Lufthansa.

The other one was a Cessna Citation Latitude (C68A) flying for NetJets Europe (a Portugal-based subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway and a sister company to NetJets - probably better known with their callsign "EXECJET", while this European airline's callsign is "FRACTION"). This one was registered "CS-LTA" and came from Bern (LSMB / BRN).

The following aircraft were nothing out of the ordinary - two A319s from Austrian (OS173, OE-LDA from Vienna / VIE) and Swiss (LX1056, HB-IPU from Zurich / ZRH), a Eurowings B738 (EW7657, D-ABKN from Heraklion / HER) and a Lufthansa "Star Alliance" A321 from the Tower!3D world out of Munich (EDDM / MUC), flight LH2070, registration D-AIRW.

The only reason for me to stay was this last one that I don't see too often when I'm away from the keyboard: An Embraer 190, registration "PH-EZN", this time in KLM Cityhopper livery (flight KL1781 from EHAM / AMS).

After this one, I went home for an hour to relax, until I had to leave again. Because at 16:25 was the scheduled departure time for the A380... The first departure from runway 33, however, was this Ryanair Boeing 737-8 (EI-DYF) operating flight number FR7184 to Palma de Mallorca (LEPA / PMI).

Another GA aircraft, a Cessna 525 Citation Jet CJ1 (D-ICEY) going somewhere in Swiss canton Ticino or northern Italy, as far as I could find, then a Eurowings A320 (D-AEWF) to Pristina (LYPR / PRN) and the Speedbird A320neo (G-TTNF) that I mentioned earlier (now back to Heathrow with flight number BA965) departed, before Emirates made their way back home to Dubai (EK60).

It's quite something to see, hear and especially feel this fat baby take off. Because 30 seconds after it passed my position behind the fence about 50 or 60 meters from the runway, a storm caught me off-guard that went as quickly as it came. I couldn't believe that the wake turbulence from this beast was so strong! WOW!

 

[mike116119]

C-FLHE, operated by Flair airlines departing CYYZ for CYWG Winnipeg, departed RWY 23 ON Apr.2/19, much better livery than their newest mint green that was released a couple months ago

 

C-FYJD, operated by Sunwing Airlines departing CYYZ for MKJS Montego Bay, Jamica, Departed Rwy 23 on Apr 2/19

[jonas243]

Very nice pictures @DeltaVII!!

[DeltaVII]

I was back at my home airport today, because there was also someone coming back to EDDH: the good old Emirates A380, after 19 months of pandemic. Let's say: a lot of people had the same idea. So, while I was waiting for the big one, I caught a few other beauties...

Like this one, KLM flight 1777, a Boeing 737-8K2 from the year 2000, registration PH-BXI, which was scheduled to arrive at 9:30 and landed two hours delayed. (Please, no "too much pot" jokes...) The Pilot Flying was a softie - the landing gear didn't even give the usual smoke signs to indicate having touched down...

The following TAP Air Portugal flight 568, an Embraer 195 that was delivered to Azul Linhas Aereas from Brasil in 2011 and is now registered to PGA Portugalia Airlines under CS-TTX, had a bit firmer of a touchdown.

Since we had winds of 12 kts coming from 140°, the runway configuration was a bit unusual, landing on runway 15 (instead of the usual runway 23) and departing on runway 23 (instead of the usual runway 33), so to minimize taxiing after landing (and the GA apron being on the right side while the only parallel taxiway is on the left, crossing the departing runway in front of lined-up traffic in this configuration), General Aviation aircraft were landing long, as demonstrated by this Piper PA-46-M600 floating inches above the runway, an aircraft registered as OK-CHD to Czech OK Aviation Group outside Pribram and arrived from Riga (RIX / EVRA) in Latvia under the flight number NTF68A. Not the ideal photo - but still a nice ass...

This Cessna Citation CJ1 is registered to a UK company called Southern Aircraft Consultancy, which offers their customers outside the USA operating an aircraft under an "N" registration. Who ever came from Mönchengladbach (MGL / EDLN) doesn't want us to know who he is, but he's probably from the sunnier side of life...

If you own EDDF, EDDS, EDDM or LTFM in Tower!3D, you might recognize this livery. It's Sun Express flight SXS170 arriving from Antalya. The Lufthansa-Turkish joint venture got this Boeing 737-8AS registered as TK-SPD from their German sister Sun Express Deutschland (ICAO: SXD), which seized operations last year during the pandemic. The first operator of this aircraft was Ryanair, which might explain why the wheels produced some significant smoke on touchdown...

This fella from Czech company Time Air, based at Vaclav Havel Airport Prague (PRG / LKPR) probably didn't get the memo for landing long and touched down on the numbers. But, to his credit, the pilot kept the nose wheel up far down the runway to keep the speed up.
If you're wondering, it's a Nextant 400XTi from 2015, a modified and modernized Hawker 400XP (a. k. a. Beechjet 400, a. k. a. Mitsubishi Diamond/Diamond II), registered as OK-PPP.

On the other hand, this pilot coming from Dortmund (DTM / EDLW) took "landing long" to another level, given that he was already a good third down the runway and still this high when I took this photo. This Pilatus PC-12 is owned by Munich-based Air Independence, one of the many companies of German media manager Thomas Haffa's. D-FGAG was originally registered to his wife Gabriele, who tragically died last year (unrelated to aviation).

After switching to the departure runway, I saw this. Does this photo of Eurowings Airbus A320, registered D-ABDU, operating flight 7316 to Kos, Greece, make you uncomfortable, too?

[DeltaVII]

DeltaVII cleared for takeoff, no further delay - the guest of the day:

FINALly, there he was... (okay, that pun is bad.) Flight EK59/UAE60 from DXB/OMDB, the Airbus A380-861, registration A6-EEU, delivered to Emirates in 2014 from Hamburg Finkenwerder, so, basically, the baby came home to mama...

The pilot put it on the numbers and set it down so softly that there were two independent clouds of smoke, either from the back tyres and from the front tyres of the main landing gear touching down on the runway. Talk about buttering the landing with a 360-ton monster! (Notice how the reversers are already open while the nose gear is still in the air!)

The aircraft got its colorful livery only in September. It has been repainted several times throughout service. From December 2017 until January 2019 it flew with "Year of Zayed 2018" livery, honouring the president of the United Arab Emirates, Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan. From June until 2019, it was painted "Rugby World Cup Japan 2019".

Since Hamburg's runways are still concrete, despite being refurbished anually, the "Verkehrsaufsicht" (lit.: "traffic supervision") has to perform a runway check every time an A380 has landed in or departed from EDDH.

The big brother next to his little siblings - two A320s that landed earlier coming in from Palma de Mallorca (PMI/LEPA).

After EK59 had arrived at the gate, I switched to the departure runway 23...

Where's Waldo? Can you spot him?
In this case, "Waldo" is a small Cirrus SR-22 going by the registration N53297, registered to another business registering aircraft with "N" numbers to customers outside the US - this one's official owner is an Aircraft Guaranty Corp Trustee from the company's headquarter in Onalaska, Texas.
(You can spot the Cirrus left from the anenometer.)

The Emirates' A380, flight EK60/UAE60 to DXB/OMDB, was already lined-up, but there was a Hawker Beechcraft Premier - registration D-IEMO - on a 5-mile final, so to avoid any problems with the departing A380's wake turbulence, ATC let the Middle-East guys sit there for a few minutes and gave the Cirrus the clearance for takeoff first, then let the business jet cross runway 23 in front of the Airbus and go to the GA apron first via taxiway T. As you can see the guys in the big bus weren't too happy waiting for the small guys - they were impatiently flashing their red top light...

And so the short visit to Hamburg came to an end not even three hours after landing... *sigh*
If you're wondering what the signs below say:
"STOP - CAT II/III SERVICE"
"Free passage after permission from DFS Tower"
(DFS = "DFS Deutsche Flugsicherung", the company owned by the state to run air traffic control)

Bye-bye, big bird...

Edited November 1, 2021 by DeltaVII
Tiny correction regarding the business jet.

[rmcglew]

I loved looking through your photos. Thank you for sharing.

[corrigancr]

This special livery Hainan Airlines 787 just arrived at Terminal 3 in CYYZ from ZBAA

[DeltaVII]

Hey guys!

I made a short, spontaneous stint to my home airport again. This time I went up to the viewing balcony on top of Terminal 1 (the one in Terminal 2 is closed, unfortunately). Not a grateful spot on a late December afternoon, but I have a pretty good camera and there's still Photoshop to make the best out of it, right?

One of the first operations to observe was the pushback of Swiss flight 1057 (LX1057/SWR109A), an Airbus A320 registered HB-IJJ, onto the blue line of taxiway Z1. This was something I noticed pretty soon: except for Heavys and Supers, jets were pushed onto Z1 blue while arriving jets took Z1 red to get to their gates. This is, of course, so departing traffic still in ground handling doesn't block the taxiway. There's enough wingtip clearance for a medium jet to pass left of another.

As you already know: Hamburg is an Airbus city. Unsurprisingly, you see many Airbusses, and most of them are the A320 kind. Here you have three in one picture (even four, if you count the tail of Lufthansa A320 with the registration D-AIZF in, which left us a little later as flight LH2067/DLH6RF to Munich). The Spaniard and the Austrian had to wait for the French guy to arrive. After AF1710/AFR1710, an A320 from Paris Charles des Gaulles (CDG/LFPG), had landed, the next to go was the Vueling A320neo (registration EC-NCS) departing to Barcelona (BCN/LEBL) on its second flight of the day under flight number VY1825/VLG2CC, which was followed in the evening by a turn to Palma de Mallorca (PMI/LEPA). Two minutes behind the Vueling, the Austrian A320 (OE-LXC) departed to Vienna-Schwechat for its third flight out of Hamburg this week, with flight number OS174/AUA4DP.

My position on the balcony gave a great look onto what happened on the apron. One of the first tasks for the ramp agent when the French A320 registered F-GKXT had stopped at its designated position: plug in the head set and establish communication with the pilots. I don't think they talked about this, but the aircraft returned to the Air France fleet in 2019 after the airline shut down the doors of its subsidy Joon after not even three years of existence.

Another interesting observation for me to make were the cones being put up at the end of the tail, in front and behind of the engines as well as in front of the nose. Still from the Frenchie who has two incidents on record: a near-collision with a drone on approach into CDG in 2016 and a flight cancellation due to fumes from de-icing on the stand in Budapest prior to boarding gave all four flight attendants a headache.

I wonder what was in those containers... probably just more luggage, since this Paris flight was a real globetrotter, carrying passengers from six other flights according to the code-sharing:
CZ7168 (China Southern Airlines), DL8472 (Delta Air Lines), KQ3850 (Kenya Airways), MK9182 (Air Mauritius), UU8710 (Air Austral from Réunion) and VS6412 (Virgin Atlantic).

 

[DeltaVII]

On the other side, I discovered this Bombardier Challenger 300 (well known in Tower!3D by its IATA code "CL3"). It had just landed landed on runway 33 (a very rare occasion, for noise abatement reasons!) and turned from taxiway E1 onto runway 23. Turned out that runway 23 was inactive due to wind. I checked the METAR:

EDDH 191420Z 31015KT 9999 BKN022 08/04 Q1022 TEMPO 30015G25KT

We had 15 knots coming out of 310 degrees, temporarily even gusts of 25 knots, which is why using runway 33 as the only active runway definitely made sense. And on a December sunday afternoon, this really doesn't turn out problematic in any way.

By the way: The aircraft with that funny tail number belongs to Windrose Air Jet Charter in Berlin and is one of three Challengers in their fleet. Another one, D-BUBI, is also a regular customer in Hamburg.

And then, of course, there was my big friend: 7-year-old Emirates Airbus A380-861, registered A6-EOE. This year, it flies with a special livery honoring 50 years of the United Arab Emirates' independence from the United Kingdom which formally happened on December 7, 1972. The livery is called "Year of the Fiftieth". My buddy was not the reason to come to the airport, but as always it was a nice-to-have.

The dimensions still amaze me. Just look how tiny the ramp agent looks compared to the massive aircraft body! Even the super tug looks like a miniature...

What a fat ass, huh?

My camera kind of messed this up and accidentally still made a great photo of EK60/UAE60 lined up on runway 33 in front of the tower after waiting a few minutes. It had to give way to two arrivals, Aeroflot flight SU710/AFL710 from St. Petersburg Pulkovo (LED/ULLI) and Easyjet flight U21841/EZY76RW from Manchester (MAN/EGCC). Even the sun peeked out under the clouds to take a look at this A380...

And there it went again jetting to another nice night Dubai (DXB/OMDB), landing close to midnight local time at 23°C / 73° F. Wish I could join. Well, one day I will. Only to fly on the A380. I just have to.

[hexzed]

It's no Hamburg, but a few quick pics from Wellington airport in New Zealand

[DeltaVII]

And I was out again at HAM / EDDH. Nice day, 35° C (95° F), and a friend of mine and his family returned from vacation in Greece.

Unfortunately, the tower decided to make a runway change just five fricking minutes before the landing, leaving me stunned when this Cessna 680A Citation Latitude operated by NetJets Europe (callsign "Fraction") under flight number NJE731R coming from St. Gallen (ACH / LSZR) in Switzerland landed on runway 15 and a single-prop plane departed on runway 33 immediately after the Citation had evacuated the runway...

So, standing some 3,000 ft from the threshold of runway 15 when the aircraft with my friend in it landed on runway 23 left me some 6,000 ft away from the action. I was not happy and didn't even catch the touchdown.
Don't be surprised about the blurry picture of the Aegean Airlines Airbus A320 (SX-DVS) with flight number A3508 / AEE508 approaching HAM from Thessaloniki (SKG / LGTS) - that's not a crappy camera, it's the heat. And my friend described approach and landing as "bumpy", which makes sense when you remember that the hot air goes up and causes air pressure to change quickly.

At least, I caught these two buddies: An Eurowings A319, registration OE-LYV, coming in from Salzburg (SZG / LOWS) on flight EW4344 / EWG4344 in front of it's younger, yet super-heavy brother, the Emirates A380, registration A6-EUC, lined up and waiting on runway 33 for it's flight EK60 / UAE60 back to Dubai (DXB / OMDB). The latter had two turns to Hamburg in the last three days with 48 hours on the ground at Dubai inbetween and, as I'm writing this, is serving flight EK7 / UAE7 to Heathrow.

Isn't it beautiful, yet kind of brutal, how much thrust these engines produce? It amazes me every single time...

And while a thunderstorm approached the area to cool us down from 35° C to 21° C (70° F) within an hour, these two low-costers met at the runway crossing for the last picture of the day: the pilots of Pegasus Airlines flight PC1045 / PGT1045 from Istanbul Sabiha Gökçen airport (SAW / LTFJ - named after Mustafa Kemal Atatürk's adopted daughter who was the world's first female combat pilot!) in a 10-year-old Boeing 737-800 named "Maya" touched down right on the 1,000-foot marker while the pilots of Vueling flight VY1821 / VLG4YQ sat in their less than three-year-old Airbus A320neo (EC-NEA) waiting for their departure clearance to Barcelona (BCN / LEBL).

But however unfortunate that runway change was: I had to give it to the ATCs that the wind had definitely changed, now coming from the north, and made it necessary to switch from a configuration with departures on 23 and arrivals on 15 to departures on 33 and arrivals on 23. Safety first!