The AN22 arrived early in the morning so it was on the ground parked on Apron F on the north side of the Runway when I arrived at 10am, word was it would be departing about 5pm or so and I had decided to make a day of it with the weather forecast looking good.
The crew bus came out in late afternoon and it looked good for the expected departure time but some problems had to be sorted out and it eventually started up for departure at 6-15pm.
At this time of the day the sun is quite back angled but he was requested by the Tower to enter the main Runway for taxi and that was really good because he had to come off the Runway at the end link (my first thumb below) so it gave an ideal side on to sun view before turning to the left and entering again to lineup for departure.
It is such an unusual sight to see the three counter rotating props on each of the four engines in action and a unique noise that you won't hear from of any other aircraft.
Antonov Design Bureau AN225
The biggest attraction of 2003 at Prestwick Airport was the visit of the only flying Antonov 225 originally built for the Russian Space Program and I counted over 40 cars here at various times of the day.A number of people had travelled up from England just to see the Worlds largest Cargo plane with the bonus of it flying later in the day.
The AN225 had positied into Prestwick at 10pm during the previous evening and it's purpose here was to uplift some Electrical Pumps and take them to New York's JFK Airport.
Weather conditions were good in the morning but as forecasted it deteriated in the afternoon so by the time it left at 4pm there was solid cloud overhead and it was rather dull.
Where to go to shoot it was the next question and the answer was an obvious for me, most people stayed on the mound to watch it taxi from it's parking spot (the third thumb above) then lineup for takeoff on Runway 31 but some of us went to the other end of the Runway to get an action shot, you really want to shoot something special like this in the air rather than firmly on the ground.
Most of us stood on the Railway embankment on the other side of the main road for the extra height it gives and waited for it to appear and with it's six engines I expected quite a loud noise but it was surprisingly quiet and also airbourne a lot earlier than I expected but it was still low enough to get some good background in the shot so despite the poorish conditons I was pleased with the results of my photos of it's departure.
C-GJKZ CL415
Croatian Air Force
(Glasgow 26-2-03). |
N451PA 747-400
Polar Cargo
(Prestwick 2-3-03). |
SX-BVN 757
Air Scotland
(Glasgow 25-3-03). |
N924FT 747
Polar Cargo
(Prestwick 31-3-03). |
CS-TMR Tristar
YES
(Glasgow 10-4-03). |
Croatian AF CL415
The winter of 2002-03 was the best for many years with long spells of high pressure resulting in lots of cold dry and sunny days just what we "shooters" want to see to get out and about for those occasional goodies that turn up during the short daylight hours.
There wasn't much out of the ordinary to shoot in January 2003 although it was good to be out with my camera catching some of the regulars in very frosty conditions when it was -5 and -6 Centigrade, the Lauda 737 ski charter was the only one that I made sure to get when it was sunny that month.
My first decent one of the year was the Croatian Air Force CL415 that popped into Glasgow for fuel, the weather wasn't too clever that day and I had a tipoff after it landed so when I got out to the Airport the crew were just starting it up.
As it was leaving from Runway 05 I had a go at getting from one end of the Airport to the other before it left for better shots and as lucky had it he taxied rather slowly to the holding point for 05 so much to my surprise I got this one above, I was totally knackered after that and took about 20 minutes to recover from it (getting older I suppose).
Polar Cargo 747
I bought my Canon D60 DSLR in Febuary 2003 and now having unlimited photo use available (and longer lense capability) I have included this Polar 747 because it was the first time I took a two in one shot from the "mound" at Prestwick.
When you have a Digital camera there are more oppertunity to experiment by doing things like this thanks to the ability to multi shoot and select the one with the best composition, I know it's only a regular Polar 747 but I liked it and it had over 1000 hits on Airliners.net last time I looked.
Air Scotland 757
New airlines based at your local Airport don't come along very often when you live in Scotland so I was determined to shoot the new Air Scotland 757 and was on the lookout for it as soon as it arrived so when it positioned in about 9pm at night parking I was all set for an early look the next day.
It was rather foggy this morning when I got out and well below the light levels good enough to shoot it so when I came back 30 minutes later (still not good enough) I noticed photographers were out on the ramp for a photo shoot however I waited more than another hour until it brightened up a bit before taking this one above.
My three Air Scotland photos were the first ones on Airliners.net and the Airline linked to this one above on their web site without the courtesy of asking first.
Later on in the year I happened to notice the Daily Record had printed one of my photos of the Air Scotland 757 at Glasgow in connection with a flight to Edinburgh that was delayed a day so naturally I phoned up the paper to tell them they had published it without my persmission.
After a few "no it's not yours we wouldn't do that" I finally got an answer out of them that Air Scotland had sent out a media package to the newspapers including photos and mine was amongst them, the Airliners.net copyright wording and my name were even still on the bottom of the photo. I got my publishing free from the Daily Record for it eventually.
One day I got a nice square on shot of the 757 on a sunny day touching down on Runway 05 with lots of smoke showing so I emailed a small version of it to Air Scotland mentioning that they had been using my photos already by linking to one on the Internet and giving out another in their media package without asking so would they like to buy this one but they didn't bother replying, what a charming lot they are.
N168AA DC10
Federal Express
(Prestwick 15-4-03). |
SU-BLA Beech 1900
Egyptian Air Force
(Glasgow 19-4-03). |
N2758B T-6A Texan 2
Greek Air Force
(Glasgow 19-4-03). |
149676 P3 Orion
US Navy
(Glasgow 26-4-03). |
N360NB A319
Northwest Airlines
(Prestwick 9-5-03). |
Federal Express DC10
Quite a few Federal Express DC10's having came through Prestwick to night stop while on their way to Venice for Cargo conversion or to have Digital cockpits installed and this one was recently bought from American Airlines so had the old American titles and tail logo removed.
Egyptian Air Force Beech 1900
Five Egyptian Air Force Beech 1900's came through Glasgow enroute to the Staes for refitting and I managed to catch most of them either on the outbound leg or coming back again.
Northwest A319
This Northwest A319 on delivery through Prestwick was the first one to come through in the new colour scheme and was also the first time the new scheme was seen in the UK.
Someone must have linked to this photo on Airliners.net because the hits on it rocketed up not long after I uploaded it, never did find out who it was though.
N360NB A319
Northwest Airlines
(Prestwick 9-5-03). |
N68061 767-400
Continental Airlines
(Glasgow 20-5-03). |
F-GSUN 747
Corsair
(Glasgow 20-5-03). |
5B-DBW 737-800
Eurocypria
(Glasgow 20-5-03). |
G-BDXF 747
European Air Charter
(Glasgow 20-5-03). |
Northwest A319
It was only after I got home and downloaded my Northwest photos that I noticed the A319 had went right through a flock of birds on takeoff and a couple of them appeared to have been hit so I had a fair bit of interest from this photo, later on I had a request for using this photo from an Aviation Company for highlighting bird prevention on Runways.
Continental 767-400
The aircraft type that takes up most Runway to get airbourne at Glasgow is the 767-400 that Continental Airlines use during the summer here, they have a slow rate of climb on liftoff so are really good for photos at the other end of the Runway when they leave about 1pm each day.
Corsair 747
The Celtic Football team had a great run in the UEFA Cup this year reaching the Final and these matches provided added interest at Glasgow with the huge travelling support that follows their team.
One of the highlights for me was this Corsair 747 departing for Seville taking their fans to the UEFA Cup Final, I managed to shoot it just as it appeared from behind the Loganair building and the Ops vehicle gives a nice size comparison.
I like using this spot for takoff shots but it requires a long lense and lots of the smaller aircraft can be a lot higher than this missing the nice background so it is better for widebody types.
European 747
One of the Football Charters I was looking out for was this European Aviation 747 taking Celtic Football fans to Seville for their Cup Final match against Porto, here it is parked on Stand 30 and I used a long lense to get this shot of it.
For the summer of 2003 and the previous one European Aviation operated four 747 flight during June and July to Orlando but due to Financial problems they have now grounded all of their 747's only operating some 737-200's now so we won't see these back here again in 2004.
G-OJMC A330
Thomas Cook
(Glasgow 6-6-03). |
LZ-HMQ TU154
Hemus
(Glasgow 9-6-03). |
N377AN 767-300
American Airlines
(Glasgow 9-6-03). |
MT-211 Casa 212
Mexican Navy
(Glasgow 16-6-03). |
C-GZUM 767-300
Zoom Airlines
(Glasgow 29-6-03). |
Thomas Cook A330
In 2003 Thomas Cook extended their Orlando flights program up to 6 months so each Friday it would depart about midday and return again on the Saturday morning about 9-30am so giving lots of chances to shoot action shots of it like this one.
Balkan Holidays TU154
Balkan holidays had four flights a week at Glasgow during high summer in 2003 and they are always a highlight each year listening to the high pitch whinning noise and smokey engines but their days are numbered.
This year Balkan leased their first A320 and another two have been added since then bringing them up to three now, rumours are they will be replaced by Tupolev 204's and if so that will be something special seeing this type at Glasgow particularly as there has never been one of that type here.
Balkan Holidays TU154
The best Military movement of 2003 at Glasgow was probably the two Mexican Navy Casa 212's that night stopped and departed the following morning, for a Military scheme this was a really good colourful one and just what we want to see.
9A-CBD MD80
Air Adriatic
(Glasgow 30-6-03). |
Click on an image to enlarge
Air Adriatic MD80
This airline did a flight to Dubrovnik and on this day it came in empty from Dublin so i was able to keep a close eye on when it departed from there using Dublin departures on the Internet, it returned again a week later but on a very dull day so glad I got this one of it about to depart from Runway 05 in the early evening.
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