Friday, May 10, 2019

A Pleasant Surprise While Planewatching

Mondays and Thursdays are 787 nights at Detroit Metro Airport.  Since I try to do other things on Monday nights, I have designated Thursday as my planespotting night.  On each of those nights there are two airlines that fly 787s into Metro, Royal Jordanian and Air France.  Unfortunately, the Royal Jordanian 787 arrived early and I got to watch it come in as I was trying to get my normal spotting spot.  So I didn't get any pictures of that one.
 so the first plane I caught was an A320 arriving from Boston.
 It was followed by an A319 arriving from Philiadelphia.
 As I was waiting for the next plane, this guy flew almost right in front of me.  Since I don't get many flying geese pictures, I had to take this one.
 Since I liked how this one turned out, I had to get it.
An A350 arriving from Peking.
 I kind of wish I could have gotten the seagull in focus because it looks like a pretty big one.
 One more of the A350 coming in.
 I decided to head over to the other side of the airport.  There were a couple of planes that I wanted to catch over there and I had a feeling that the other 787 would be arriving this way.
 This 757 was arriving from Minneapolis.
 I liked the clouds behind it, plus I like this angle for the 757.
 And it turns out that I was right.
 A beacon shot.
 Another beacon shot plus I liked the clouds behind this.
 Another beacon shot.
 I couldn't pass up on this beacon shot or the clouds.
 And one more.
 A Spirit Airlines A320 arriving from Atlanta.
 It was followed by a Delta A319 arriving from Mexico City.
 I actually like this livery.  It provides some color in a sea of white planes.  This particular A320 was arriving from Seattle.
 A 717 arriving from Grand Rapids.
 This is the plane that was the pleasant Surprise for me.  American Airlines has a handful of planes in heritage livery.  Some of them are A319s and the others are 737s.  This is the third 737 I've caught in heritage livery.
TWA was originally formed as Transcontinental and Western Airline in 1930 and it operated a route from New York to Los Angeles via St. Louis and Kansas City using Ford Tri-Motors.  In 1939 it was acquired by Howard Hughes and after World War II he led the expansion to serve Europe, the Middle East and Asia.  It would become the second unofficial flag carrier of the United States after Pan Am.  It was at this time that the name was changed to Trans World Airlines.  In the 1960s, Howard Hughes gave up control of the company.  After a series of bankruptcies, it was acquired by American in 2001.
 It was followed by a United A319 from San Francisco.
 This plane is still wearing United's old livery.  Recently, they released a new livery.  It is basically the same as this one minus the gold accents.
 And the other plane I was waiting for.
 It is Fed Ex Flight 505 from Memphis.
 My favorite angle of it.
 I don't normally like stern shots but I got another plane in this shot.
 A JetBlue E190 arriving from Boston.
 An American Eagle CRJ-900 arriving from Memphis.
 A 717 arriving from Portland, Maine.  Not to be confused with Portland, Oregon.
 Another 757.
 This one was arriving from Orlando.
 And my favorite angle.
 An A321 arriving from Los Vegas.
 the clouds were just about perfect last night.
 Another beacon shot.
And I finished the night with an A330 from Amsterdam.

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