View from the tower

I never get tired of this

2012-01-27T21:57:00.000-08:00

You just gotta love the view from the tower!

Looking out east at the finals: Landing all four runways; all those "stars" are airplanes

Buncha Heavy Jets

2012-01-20T23:26:00.000-08:00

When I arrived at the tower yesterday, several of my coworkers pointed out the Air New Zealand B777 parked at Terminal 2. I've shown you an A320 or two with this paint, but I didn't know we were going to get to see it on anything else. While I waited in vain for the aircraft to push off the gate, the opportunity for this group photo of four B777s (and an A346) arose. New Zealand ended up not pushing until after dark, so I'm glad I at least got this shot. In the meantime, this happened:

Gratuitous heavy jet photo:

Our new taxiways

2012-01-12T22:07:00.000-08:00

Not quite a year ago, LAX got a brand-new taxiway: Romeo, which runs North-South past several of the maintenance ramps west of the terminal complex. At about the same time we got Romeo, we lost Quebec and later Sierra, which also ran North-South, but along the west side of the International Terminal. Quebec is gone forever, lost to the remodeling of the TBIT, but the relocated Sierra opened up last month, somewhat west of its original location. Here are a couple of aerial photos of our new taxiways. The opening photo is shot from the Southeast; that's Terminal 4 in the foreground. The thing that looks like a checkerboard in the lower right is the main entry hall of the TBIT, where the check-in desks and Customs facilities are located. You can also see how close the west end of the airport is to the shoreline: that's the Pacific Ocean at the top of the shot.

This shot was taken from the Northwest, and shows the taxiways themselves. Sierra is the wide one on the left, while Romeo is the narrower one on the right. Right in the middle is the Qantas maintenance ramp with two A380s and a B747. On the right side of the picture, adjacent to Romeo, can be seen a pair of Virgin Australia B777-300s and an American B777-200; those parking positions are known as the "Romeo gates." The white-roofed building adjacent to the Romeo gates is the Coast Guard station; one of their helicopters can be seen on the ramp. On the left side of the photo is the International Terminal, which is having gates added along the west side. Eventually, the aircraft parked on these gates will push onto taxiway Sierra, creating a bottleneck for the ground controllers.

I don't have a new airport diagram handy, but here's how the new taxiways appear on our ground radar:

North is at the top of this presentation, so we're looking at the entire northern part of the airport, and a bit of the southern side; Romeo and Sierra are right in the middle of the picture.

From their positioning behind the terminal and maintenance hangars, you might surmise that we can't see aircraft on much of these taxiways from the tower, and you would be correct. We can see a bit of each end of Romeo, as well as a section in the middle:

The north end of Romeo: A US Airways Airbus turns from Delta onto Romeo

A retiring American B777 captain receives a salute from the LAX fire crews at the mid-point of taxiway Romeo (this is about the location of Checkpoint 2, which is the frequency changeover point on the South Route)

Sierra is going to be just as bad, or maybe even worse:

Now you see it . . .

. . . and now you don't. And that's the biggest airliner around.

The north end of Sierra: a United Airbus turns from Sierra onto Delta

There are two aircraft on Sierra in the following shot: an American and a United. Can you spot them?

About that standoff . . .

2012-01-10T08:43:00.000-08:00

While the Standoff! entry produced a gratifying number of comments, I have to admit that both shots were photographic sleight-of-hand; neither was an actual "Golden Towbar" moment. Several of you correctly noted the tugs on the B757s in the first photo; both aircraft were inbound to gates while the Great Lakes Beech 1900 held at the bottom of the alley - for about ten minutes, as it turned out.

The second photo was a matter of timing; had I snapped another one ten seconds later, it would have been clearly visible what was happening. Alas, I didn't. I did, however, take a number of other shots about the same time. Some earlier, and some a few minutes later, and the Hawaiian Airbus happens to appear in a few of them. The sequence starts with the opening shot (above), which shows the Air France B777 pushing out of gate 25. Because of its size and the position of the gate, the aircraft is not pushed into the D-8 alley, but instead out of the alley onto taxiway Delta. The ground controller, knowing that he has Hawaiian inbound to gate 27, has the Air France jet push all the way past that gate so that Hawaiian can get in while Air France disconnects:

Hawaiian taxis by on Echo as Air France pushes on Delta, adjacent to gate 28, which is where the catering truck is parked; you can see the lead-in line for gate 28 underneath Air France's right engine

Hawaiian makes a right U-turn at D-8 . . .

. . . and prepares to pull into gate 27. You can see the lead-in line for gate 27 just to the left of the pair of light poles in front of Hawaiian. Alternatively, look at the catering truck on the access road and then drop your eyes straight down towards the corner of the terminal, where you can also see the stowed jetway

A few minutes later, while Air France takes the runway for departure, Air New Zealand does the same thing from gate 21 that Air France did from gate 25: pushes out of the D-8 alley onto taxiway Delta

Mere moments afterwards, while Air France starts down the runway and New Zealand continues to push onto Delta, we start to see Hawaiian now parked at gate 27

And here, some minutes later, we get a better view of Hawaiian at gate 27 while New Zealand waits for Eva to taxi past. Just for fun, here's a similar shot from another day:

Hawaiian again is on gate 27, but this time New Zealand called first and has pushed onto taxiway Delta. Subsequently, Air France called for push and the ground controller made an unusual (and gutsy) decision to have Air France push onto taxiway Echo. Until one of these two is ready for taxi, they constitute a road block, since there's no way for the ground controller to get another aircraft past them. One other interesting thing: Compare the old Air France livery in this photo to the new one in the earlier shots. Apparently Air France is now one word!

The C-1 ramp

2012-01-08T04:10:00.000-08:00

In an entry last month, I mentioned that the C-1 ramp had been re-marked to accommodate two heavy jets. Here are a couple of additional views; one aerial and the other as seen from the tower. In the aerial shot (above), there's an Air New Zealand B744 on its layover. It will be towed to a gate at Terminal 2 later in the evening for its subsequent departure to Auckland. At the top of the shot, you can see a UPS B763 parked on the B-1 ramp. The following less-than-ideal shot from the tower shows a Cargo King B772 and a Cathay Pacific B744, and is so far the only shot I've been able to get of two aircraft on the C-1 ramp at one time (it happens more often at night). Beyond the Cargo King B772, you can see a Delta A332 parked on the B-1 ramp, awaiting its turn to be towed to the terminal.

Standoff!

2012-01-05T03:59:00.000-08:00

Fun with fog III

2012-01-03T15:40:00.000-08:00

The previous fog postings have been at night, but we get fog in the mornings too.

Looking west over the TBIT

Looking down Century Blvd to the east

Southeast: The top of the LA County courthouse, recent home of Lindsay Lohan.

Looking to the north

Fun with fog II

2012-01-02T03:20:00.000-08:00

Last time, I showed you some views looking east from the tower. This time, we'll look west just after sunset. The fog is moving in from the beach, and has reached the TBIT.

Fun with fog

2011-12-31T22:41:00.000-08:00

We've ended 2011 and started 2012 with a return of marine-layer fog. The last couple of evenings, the weather in San Diego got to the point that aircraft were forced to divert into LAX. A number of them subsequently got stuck on the ground here, waiting for our visibility to improve to the point that they could take off again.

I've talked about the fog and marine layer before, but one of my coworkers pointed out this interesting vantage point. We're looking down at the LAX Theme Building, which is adjacent to the tower. As you can see, the visibility deteriorates to the point that the lights on the building virtually disappear.

And here's how it looks on a clear afternoon:

Shot of the day

2011-12-28T04:22:00.000-08:00

Bi-polar? Or perhaps, thanks to global warming, they're now semi-polar!

Last of the Continentals?

2011-12-26T03:59:00.000-08:00

Since the United-Continental merger was announced in May, 2010, there has been a gradual shift from the Continental name. For most of the intervening time, we've had Continental aircraft showing up more and more frequently with the United name on the side, but still using the Continental callsign. Meanwhile, United aircraft have been appearing with the new hybrid livery: Continental paint scheme with United lettering. As of the first of December, Continental no longer exists as a separate air carrier. I talked to my last Continental flight on the 28th of November; when I came in a few days later, the transition was complete and all flights were using the United callsign. Except that a few Continental aircraft have yet to be re-lettered; I caught this B738 about a week later. Will it be the last?

Merry Christmas!

2011-12-25T14:41:00.000-08:00

Best wishes to one and all for a safe and happy holiday season!

Round and round

2011-12-19T09:50:00.000-08:00

This is a poor-quality night time shot of a ground control roundabout. There are five aircraft in play here at the end of Terminal 4, and as long as everyone keeps moving, it'll all work out fine - trust me.

Compass

2011-12-17T13:02:00.000-08:00

A recent reader comment included a question about Compass Airlines. Compass is based in Minneapolis, and is now one of the Delta Connection carriers, having previously flown as Northwest Airlink before the Delta-Northwest merger. We see Compass just once a day at LAX, on a mid-morning round trip from and back to Kansas City. On this route, they compete with Frontier/Republic ("Brickyard") and Southwest, all of whom operate larger aircraft more frequently. Compass has a fleet of about forty (40) Embraer 175s with a passenger capacity of 76. They are the only regular E175 operator at LAX, although Republic does occasionally show up in a slightly-smaller E170. Republic and Air Canada both bring in the larger E190, easily distinguished by its over-wing emergency exit and additional fifteen (15) feet (~5 meters) in length. As a Delta Connection operator, Compass parks at Terminal 5.

The many tails of JetBlue

2011-12-15T15:20:00.000-08:00

Consider this a precursor of the next installment in the stagnant A320 spotters guide series. While JetBlue also operates E190s, we don't see those at LAX.

One of the neat things about working at LAX is that I get to see lots of different airplanes and paint schemes. But even that gets boring after awhile - every American jet looks like every other American jet. There are a few exceptions, though. Alaska and Horizon have a number of special liveries, as does Southwest. Frontier has its "spokesanimals" pictured on the tails of its aircraft. Another exception is JetBlue, whose aircraft have a variety of different designs on their tails, sort of in the same spirit as Braniff's "Flying Colors." This is not a comprehensive collection, but does include all the JetBlue tails I've caught with the camera, and will be occasionally amended as the opportunity arises:

I've been told that this one aircraft is painted green, but I can't see it. No reasonable amount of adjusting the photos makes it any better, so check these links for confirmation:

JetBlue Airways: Blue turns Green

NYC Aviation: JetBlue New York Jets

Lunar Eclipse

2011-12-12T04:47:00.000-08:00

Not that this has much to do with airplanes, but those of us on the west coast who had to get up early this past Saturday morning had a chance to see the lunar eclipse.

Shot of the day 11

2011-12-10T17:27:00.000-08:00

I'm pretty sure I've shown you this AirTran B737 before, but this is a much better view. I especially like the silhouette on the engine cowlings!

Happy Birthday dad!

A Tribute to Harry Morgan

2011-12-07T12:06:00.000-08:00

Actor Harry Morgan died in LA this morning at age 96. I knew him primarily from his role as Col. Potter in the TV series M*A*S*H, and only later learned of his earlier career. I can honestly say that I never saw a performance of his that I didn't like. So goodbye, Harry Morgan. Farewell: Your work will not soon be forgotten. You will be missed - amen.

Bloomberg

Huffington Post

LA Times

NY Times

Reuters

LA Times obituary

A Christmas Carol

2011-12-06T17:10:00.000-08:00

A shameless plug for the Long Beach Shakespeare Company's 2011 production of Dickens' A Christmas Carol. Check out our reviews:

Greater Long Beach

Long Beach Press-Telegram

Shot of the day 10

2011-12-05T15:41:00.000-08:00

It's been a while since I've seen Evergreen here, but here they are in this shot from a few weeks ago, about to touch down on Runway 24 Left, while Southwest departs off the right.

Photo quiz of the day revealed

2011-12-04T00:47:00.000-08:00

Judging from the number of comments received, this was not exactly a stumper. All the same, here's how it looks in daylight:

Shot of the day 9

2011-12-03T00:30:00.000-08:00

Yes, it's been windy of late. This flag marks the top of a construction derrick close to the tower.

Which is kind of ironic since the tower is taller than the derrick.

Q & A

2011-12-02T04:26:00.000-08:00

Several of you have posted comments with questions recently, so today I'll address some of those.

First was a question about the information shown in the data tags on the ground radar. This is a typical display for a controller working the north side of the airport, with north at the top of the radar display:

Here's a close up of the east end of the 24 complex. In this shot there are three arrivals (SWA3945, SWA1442, & SWA2360) and two departures (TRS54 & KLM602). The first line is the aircraft's callsign. SWA = Southwest; TRS = Citrus, the radio callsign for AirTran. The second line has the aircraft type and a field for destination or waypoint information. The arrivals each have had their assigned gate entered (9, 14, & 11, respectively), while the departures show a code for the assigned departure procedure (Holtz and Loop). The target for KLM is yellow because it's a wake turbulence aircraft, in this case a B744. If you take a close look at the first picture, taken a bit earlier, you'll see a couple of the Southwest arrivals before their gate numbers were entered; their tags have LAX in the destination field. You can also see some other departures on the Casta and Perch departures, along with one headed for Santa Barbara.

Another commenter asked about one of the cargo ramps. The C-1 cargo ramp (so called because the ramp entrance is taxiway C-1) has recently been reconfigured to accommodate two aircraft. This diagram provided by the airport shows the new parking positions as well as the old markings that will be removed.

American has been parking aircraft at the west remote gates while pavement repairs are being accomplished around Terminal Four. Some gates at Terminal Five were also reworked, but Delta did not use the west remote gates.

Photo quiz of the day

2011-11-29T23:29:00.000-08:00

Since A Christmas Carol opens at the Long Beach Shakespeare Company in a matter of days, yours truly finds he has scant time for writing here. So for your amusement, here's a shot taken a few days ago. Care to guess what and where?

Monday morning triple shot . . .

2011-11-28T03:28:00.000-08:00

. . . of Airbus A380s.

While we've become used to seeing two Airbus A380s together at LAX, there are occasional opportunities to see three, each wearing different colors:

Gear Up!

2011-11-25T05:20:00.000-08:00

Our recent sessions of east traffic have provided some nice photo opportunities of departing aircraft. You saw some in yesterday's post on east traffic; here are a few more.

Things look different when we go east traffic

2011-11-24T00:54:00.000-08:00

It's that time of year, when the weather actually changes in Southern California - if only for a little while. We've had several weather systems bring us rain recently, and we've run East traffic at LAX each time. In one instance, for a couple of days, although a few hours is more common. A recent example: This past Sunday, we transitioned from the overnight "Over Ocean" procedures directly into east traffic, as the winds were out of the east at around ten knots. It rained off and on all morning (and flooded the Sepulveda tunnel), but just after lunchtime, the winds unexpectedly shifted with a vengeance and were out of the west at up to seventeen knots. So we scrambled to turn things around and went west. But, since we're west most of the time, most of the pictures I've shown you are of west traffic operations. So this is how things look when we're east traffic:

The approach end of the runways, in this case, the 7s:

The arrivals:

The departures:

Even the radar display looks different. This shot was taken at a quiet moment one evening a couple of weeks ago, during another east traffic session:

And then there's the inevitable accumulation at the other end of the runway when it's time to turn it back around:

To all of you in the US: Happy Thanksgiving! To those around the world who are not engaging in gluttony and preparation for insane shopping: Happy Thursday!

Monday morning photo quiz revealed

2011-11-22T23:22:00.000-08:00

A lot of responses for this one, which surprised me after nobody commented on last week's picture of two airplanes on the runway. As many of you correctly noted, this Philippine B747 has a few flat tires:

This happened after a rejected takeoff late one night last week. The aircraft exited the runway with hot brakes. Really, really hot. So hot that we could see them glowing bright red, from the tower. Without binoculars. Wish I'd had the camera, but I'd left it in the car because we'd been socked in earlier in the afternoon when I came into work. Hot brakes on a large aircraft are serious because they can conceivably catch fire or cause tires to explode. Most airliner tires and wheels are designed to release the pressure in the tires before they can explode, and they functioned as intended. We rolled the trucks, and the fire crews cooled and monitored the brakes and tires while the passengers deplaned and were returned to the terminal in buses. The plane was headed for Guam, a twelve-hour flight, and it was full: There were 405 people onboard, and no injuries were reported. I imagine that the aircraft was left on the taxiway because it wasn't practical to tow it with full fuel and over a quarter of its main gear tires blown. The following afternoon, a crew set to work replacing the blown tires:

The aircraft was on Taxiway Bravo, adjacent to Terminal Seven. As you might imagine, not a very convenient place to park a disabled aircraft; the ground controllers had a lot of fun working around it. Here's how it appeared on our ground radar; the yellow and red stripe marks the position of the B747 (the aircraft was in the red area; the yellow area was restricted for some aircraft):

~~The day after the tires were replaced, the aircraft flew out at the usual time.~~
Not so, actually: A week later, it's still here, getting shuffled around from one parking spot to another, while residual issues are being worked out.

Related news articles:

Aviation Herald

The Daily Breeze

Monday morning photo quiz

2011-11-21T07:25:00.001-08:00

Here's a little something to start the week: Check out this B747 parked in the middle of Taxiway Bravo. Any guesses what it's doing there?

East traffic teaser

2011-11-16T10:27:00.001-08:00

I'm working on a collection of shots from our recent sessions of east traffic. In the interim, here's a teaser:

Cool shot of the day

2011-11-12T22:40:00.000-08:00

Saluting our Veterans

2011-11-11T22:30:00.000-08:00

November 11th in the US is observed as Veterans Day in honor of our military veterans. In other countries, the date is observed as Armistice Day or Remembrance Day. Thank you to all of our veterans.

Before and After

2011-11-11T11:11:00.000-08:00

If you ever doubted that airliners' wings are designed to bend, just compare these two shots. The first shows this China Airlines (callsign: Dynasty) Cargo B744 about to touch down on Runway 6 Left. The entire weight of the aircraft is being supported by the wings:

And now, just after touchdown. The weight of the aircraft is on the landing gear, and the wings have relaxed:

Those of you who recall the Wake Turbulence series remember that this means that the wings are no longer producing lift, and thus no longer creating the vortices that create the wake turbulence felt by the following aircraft.

Happy Binary Day!

Shot of the day 8

2011-11-09T13:23:00.000-08:00

An early-morning shot from this past weekend. Rain moved in from the west as the sun rose in the east. We had this rainbow for a minute, maybe two. Shortly after, things really started to get interesting as the wind got progressively stronger out of the east. You know what that means: Time to turn the boat around. A few hours later, time to do it again. Three airport turns in one shift!

Triple Shot of the Day

2011-11-07T03:27:00.000-08:00

Here's a nice family photo: Triple B777s
(aka Triple Triple Sevens)

Double shot of the day

2011-11-01T11:01:00.000-07:00

Super shot of the day

2011-10-31T03:37:00.000-07:00

Trick or Treat!
Happy Halloween, here's your treat: How about a pair of A380s

The last Qantas flight

2011-10-29T21:31:00.000-07:00

Saturday, 9:31 am LAX time: Qantas 11 touches down on Runway 24 Left

As you have no doubt heard, Qantas has followed in the footsteps of the NBA and "locked out" its employees in response to disagreements with their unions. There are at least six stranded Qantas aircraft on the ground at LAX; so many that the airport was scrambling to find places to put them all. At least one ended up on one of the air freight ramps. The tally includes one A380, two A330s, and three B747s - and possibly more, as these are just the ones I could personally see from the tower.

Related news articles:

NPR: Australian Airline Qantas Grounds Entire Fleet

NY Times: Qantas Fleet Grounded for Second Day

Late Sunday night update: Qantas has resumed operations, and I got a tally of aircraft on the ground at LAX: A total of nine, including the previously-mentioned A380 and pair of A330s, along with six B747s.

Shot of the day 7

2011-10-27T15:30:00.000-07:00

A pair of big blue buses

Sequence of the day

2011-10-25T23:13:00.000-07:00

I know I've already shown you something similar, but I think it looks neat, and so today you get a sequence of these shots.

Funny shot of the day

2011-10-23T21:51:00.000-07:00

Apparently you can use a pickup truck in lieu of one of the main gear on a B747!

There are times . . .

2011-10-22T17:04:00.000-07:00

. . . when the tower is too tall!

Shot of the day 6

2011-10-21T04:10:00.000-07:00