Planespotting: 25 - 26 Nov 2006

Last week while I was planning this spotting trip, I decided that TPA would be a better place for Mito's debut, since it is one of the few airports where we are allowed to take pictures on top of the parking lot. I will be very sad if this privilege is revoked in the future.

Part I: Battery Powered Car

Sunset, taken from the emergency roadside on I-4.

I was approximately 47 miles from Tampa when Schroeder started to sputter and decelerate. I pulled over to the emergency lane, and immediately the car died before I could turned it off. Schroeder is a car that I have had a love hate relationship for the last five years. That day, he decided to become an electric car when his alternator broke en route. Trouble is, he is a 1989 Toyota Celica. He does not run on battery.

Within minutes of breaking down, an I-4 Road Ranger pulled up behind my car and inquired about my problem. He decided to test out the battery to make sure that the alternator was the issue. While he was running tests, I stood there staring at the horizon, and like an idiot, went into the car and took out my camera. There is no safer place to take photographs than standing on the interstate a feet away from traffic moving at 130 km/h. Everytime a car passed by my car moved a little due to the strong wind.

The Road Ranger accessed that by the time a tow truck comes and take my car away, all the auto repair shops will be closed. So he drove me to the nearest Pep Boys, I bought some oil and a brand new alternator, went back to the rest stop and performed the transplant right there. Many thanks to the one I-4 Road Ranger who helped me get back on the road to Tampa.

Part II: Tampa International Airport - IATA:TPA

A model of 787 on display at TPA with Continental livery

Weather in Tampa couldn't have been more perfect. There was no cloud in the sky, a rare occurance in the bay area. I drove by MacDill Air Force base and stopped on the side of the road to take a few pictures of Tampa Bay, which connects to the Gulf of Mexico. Not surprisingly, this is also one of the dangerous places for hurricanes. Nonetheless, for that day it was a very peaceful and beautiful.

As a quick summary of this spotting trip, here are the statistics:

• 120 - number of photos taken during spotting
• 10 - number of photos of ok, but not great quality
• 0 - number of photos good enough for Airliners.net

Air Canada

Model: Airbus 321 (Tail No.: C-GJVX)
Flight No.: 903, Destination: Toronto Pearson (YYZ)
Departure: 1320h
Runway: 36L

Air Canada visits Tampa only a few times a day, around five arrival/departure flights total as of 26 November 2006. They come from Denver, New York City, and Toronto, Ontario. On December 15, Air Canada will add direct routes to Montreal and Seattle.

AirTran

Model: Boeing 737-700 (Tail No.: N268AT)
Flight No.: 122, Destination: Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta (ATL)
Departure: 1110h
Runway: 36R

AirTran is a frequent visitor at TPA. Often one does not fly international (or even across the US) without being transferred to ATL with this little Orlando-based airline.

Southwest Airlines

Boeing 737 with new Southwest livery

Originally called Air Southwest, this fairly young low-cost airline is now almost 10 years old. Southwest can be sighted at all times at TPA, sometimes taking off in sequence. One particularly amusing hour was when five Southwest 737s took off within 30 minutes. I overheard a plane watcher say "Oh, it's just Southwest again. This is getting boring."

Southwest is currently an all Boeing 737 fleet.

Boeing 737 (Tail No.: ?)
Flight No.: 250, Destination: Chicago Midway (MDW)
Departure: 1110h
Runway: 36R

Boeing 737, old Southwest livery (Tail No: N650SW)
Flight No.:1576, Destination: Fort Lauderdale (FLL)
Departure: 1335h
Runway: 36R

JetBlue

Model: Airbus A320 (Tail No.: N632JB)
Flight No.: 65, From: JFK
Arrival: 1338h
Runway: 36L

I jokingly call JetBlue the "Airbus counterpart" of an all-Boeing Southwest Airlines, since its fleet consists of only Airbus A320s and Embraer 190s. The principles behind the two companies are very similar, but JetBlue is a younger airline and currently more generous of the two in terms of customer service. One of my friends rode JetBlue a few months ago and came back with the words: "Food! They served REAL FOOD on the plane!!! And it was FREE!!!" From what I've heard, JetBlue is a really fun company to work for.

Unusual Finds

Spirit Airlines, Model: Airbus A319 (Tail No.: N157NK "Spirit of Orlando")
Flight No.: 341, From: Atlantic City (ACY)
Arrival: 1115h

Spirit Airlines is another Florida-based company that provides direct flights to tourist places like the Bahamas and Atlantic City, NJ. I like the livery on the plane, the monochrome steel grey against red gives the plane a very retro-futurist look.

There is only one regular flight with Midwest Airlines, and that is flight no. 805 direct from Milwaukee, WI to TPA, arrival at 1105h. Tail no. for this MD-82 is N814ME.



I also saw a cute, sunny little propeller plane landing on 36R. The livery is eye catching with its liberal use of Caribbean blue.

Conclusion

Photographing planes is not easy. At least with with my camera which has a digital viewfinder, it was hard for me to continue tracing the path of a plane taking off when the viewfinder was still on the previously snapped image. That is the advantage of the SLR, so while the image is being stored, you can still follow the plane with the viewfinder until you are ready to take another shot. Another problem with Mito is that his burst shooting is not very good, but I knew that from reading dpreviews. I used continuous autofocus for this trip, and looking at the results that might not have been the best idea. Most of my plane pictures came out blurry, and even the clearest ones do not look as sharp as some of the plane photos from Airliners.net. It is either the autofocus or my shutter speed was not fast enough.

Hopefully with practice I can take better pictures on my next spotting trip. May be next year I will produce something that I feel worthy to be submitted to Airliners.net. Any suggestions are welcomed.