Spotter's Log - 27, 31 Dec 2006, 7 Jan 2007

Note the markings on the ground denotes how far for the plane must park at the terminal, depending on the model of the plane. (TSA)

Taiwan (especially Taipei) was dark and grey and wet 90% of time during winter. That was bad news for my camera, who is happiest when the sun is out. I have actually been processing/re-processing a lot of images the past few weeks--even while I was in Taiwan. Since I got back I haven't had a lot of time to work on the photos, and I'm writing this entry right now at the risk of falling asleep at work tomorrow.

So I will start off this tour of Taiwan with planespotting. Hopefully I will have other plane/non-plane related photos by the end of next week.

Preamble - Registration Number

Besides photographing the metal birds, I have also started collecting used boarding passes and aircraft registration (or tail number, since it is almost always located near the tail cone). Tail numbers are especially interesting because they are unique, and the first few letters indicates which country the plane belongs to. You can search Airliners.net by the tail number and see the same plane (sometimes with different liveries) being photographed by different spotters. For the U.S., the letter prefix for registration is 'N'. So if you see an aircraft with the registration number N420UA, you will know that it is a U.S. aircraft (and in this case, United Airlines, as indicated by the last two letters of the tail number).

Most of you probably know about the never ending debate on whether or not Taiwan should be independent from People's Republic of China. It might be worth noting that aircrafts from Taiwan use the same letter prefix, 'B', as the ones from mainland China. The only difference is that Taiwan uses a five digit registration, whereas mainland China uses only four.

高雄國際機場 - Kaohsiung International Airport, IATA: KHH

Kaohsiung Airport is neat in that there are no jetways for the domestic terminal. You get to walk outside next to the planes before you board, which is really cool. Unfortunately, both times I was outside, we were rushing to go somewhere else or to board the plane. And of course the sky was cloudy. So these two Uni MD-90s are the best I could do.

Tail No.: B-17922
Airline: UNI Air (domestic version of EVA Air)
Model: MD-90
Taken: 7 Jan 2007
Spotted 22 times.

Tail No.: B-?????
Airline: UNI Air
Model: MD-90
Taken: 31 Dec 2006

臺北松山機場 - Taipei Songshang Airport, IATA: TSA

The airport is situated at the heart of Taipei City. However, there are discussions regarding the fate of Songshan. With the implementation of the bullet train in Taiwan, people are taking the train and flying less out of Songshan. Also with Taoyuan International Airport located about 30 minutes away, people are grumbling that Songshan is redundant and the jet engines adds to the noise pollution. The city's tall buildings are also potential hazards for planes. With high fuel prices and the inability to fill seats, it looks like Songshan may be on its last leg. I remember when I was little, Songshan was actually a busy little place that one could almost mistaken it for an international airport. The last time I went there, there were only a few people sitting in chairs. There was no line at the security.

So, looking out at the sunless scenery, I pulled out Mito and started to shoot...

TransAsia Airways

Tail No.: B-22306
Model: Airbus A320-231
Taken: 31 Dec 2006
Spotted 26 times.

Tail No.: 22607
Model: Airbus A321-131
Taken: 31 Dec 2006
Spotted 46 times.

Mandarin Airlines (domestic version of China Airlines)

Tail No.: B-12292
Model: Fokker 100
Taken: 31 Dec 2006
Spotted 35 times.

Far Eastern Air Transport (FAT)

Tail No.: 28011
Model: MD-82
Taken: 31 Dec 2006
Spotted 46 times (very popular...probably because of the special livery...).

UNI Air

Tail No.: B-17919
Model: MD-90
Taken: 31 Dec 2006
Spotted 23 times.

Scenes From Above

Taiwan is a very mountainous island with fertile soil but not a lot of land mass. Because of these factors, Taiwanese people live on a mostly pescetarian diet.

The Tainan Airport (TNN) airport, en route to Kaohsiung.

Last, but not least...

Tail No.: B-22606
Model: Airbus A321-131
Airline: TransAsia Airways
Spotted 19 times.

Because of the weather, I didn't get very many takeoff shots of the planes. I stood near the cargo area at Songshan (a lot of people stared at me) for a good 40 minutes before the rain chased me inside. But I did manage to get this shot of TransAsia A320, flying into the unknown...