Where can we go from here: Additions and Corrections

In an earlier entry, I mentioned several cities that only receive cargo flights from LAX. Since then, I've worked an overtime day shift during the week, and found a couple more:

Toledo, Ohio, is a cargo-only destination from LAX. The route is flown by Air Transport, using DC-8's. Flight time is about three and a half hours.

Another cargo flight to Brussels: Singapore Cargo lifts off from runway 25 right.

In the same posting about cargo operators, I mentioned that Fedex flies out of here to hubs in Memphis, Indianapolis, and San Jose. The first two are correct, but Fedex's west coast hub is actually in Oakland. Mea culpa. If you want to get to San Jose, you'll have lots of passenger options: American Eagle, Skywest, and Southwest all offer jet service from here to there (and back again). Flight times run from forty-five minutes to an hour. Skywest and Southwest also go into Oakland; those flights seem to run about fifty to fifty-five minutes.

In addition, I said that the Fedex flight to Fort Worth Alliance is usually done with an Airbus. So naturally, this week they had to do it with a DC-10:

A Fedex DC-10 departs off runway 25 left. On the parallel taxiway in the background is an Eva Cargo MD-11. The MD-11 was the follow-on model. Obvious differences are the MD-11's longer length and winglets. Less obvious in this picture is the MD-11's much better climb performance.

Speaking of DC-10s, a while back I mentioned former Northwest Airlines DC-10s that had been retired only to re-enter service with ATA for their military charters. Here are a couple of shots I discovered in a back corner of the iBook's hard drive:

As you can see, the transformations were not full-fledged makeovers.

One more ATA shot from the archives. ATA was the last scheduled US carrier to operate the Lockheed Tristar, my personal favorite of the first generation wide bodies. This was the last Tristar to show up here, sometime last year.

My day off

It's my one day off this week, and yet here I am at the tower. It's like one of those recurring bad dreams - even when I'm not at work, I'm at work. Except that it's intentional this time, and I really do have a purpose.

As I mentioned last month, LAX has been anticipating the commencement of service by Emirates Airlines, from the U.A.E. Scheduled service is to start next month, but yesterday they brought in an Airbus A380 on a promotional tour. This was the first A380 to appear at LAX in an airline paint scheme since the original first visit, which I believe was in Singapore colors. Come to think of it, this was the first A380 we've had here all year - the last visit was in November of last year, and that aircraft was in Airbus factory colors. Singapore was the launch customer for the A380, and they've been flying the first production aircraft for nearly a year now, I believe.

I wasn't in the tower yesterday when the Airbus arrived, as the information about it's arrival had not filtered up to the tower cab by the time I left on Monday. So, by the time I got to work, it was already on the ground and parked with its tail pointed right at the tower - not any airplane's best angle. Apparently the arrival was a spectacle, although not just because of the A380 itself. There were news crews and helicopters on site in preparation for the arrival, and they got the scoop of the day when an American 757 which had departed for Hawaii declared an emergency due to fumes and smoke in the cabin. The 757 landed on runway 7 left, which happens to be opposite direction - basically shutting down the entire airport. Even after the landing, the south side remained shut down to accommodate the evacuating passengers and emergency crews. The captain stopped the plane on the runway and ordered an emergency evacuation - with all the news cameras rolling. On live TV could be seen the chutes deploying and passengers then sliding down them to the ground and the awaiting rescue crews. Here are a couple of links for video clips of the evacuation:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rRQS5CsHJsE

http://www.blinkx.com/video/jet-evacuated-after-emergency-landing-at-lax/Wd_hXobRy_mBgt7_6pBveQ

While looking for those clips, I also found this one, which has both the American and then the A380's landing:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wrRt-gMDlEA

This morning's trip to the tower was to catch the A380's departure, which was managed without fanfare. Besides the sheer size of the thing, the other thing that is striking is how quiet it is - El Segundo has no basis for complaint about this airplane's noise. Even at takeoff power, it was amazing quiet - much less noise than the other jets that departed before and after. The sneaky thing about this promotional flight is that Emirates' regular scheduled service at LAX will be in B777's - not the A380. Our first scheduled service is to be later this year with Qantas, who ran full-page newspaper ads over a month ago. Anyway, on to the photo spread:

The tower view of the parked A380, with a Frontier A319 in the foreground

A Qantas B747-400 exits 25 Left

Fedex DC-10 departs

The A380 pushing back onto taxiway A as an American MD83 arrives.
You can see the museum's DC-3 in the background.

Another shot showing the DC-3. Now there's a size comparison!
Another indicator of the size of the Airbus: look at the police cars!
A Skywest CRJ-700 departs. That's Chevron's El Segundo refinery in the background.
It produces a lot of the jet fuel used at LAX - there's a pipeline
from the refinery to the airport fuel facility.
Here's a Skywest E-120 Brasilia on the new center taxiway.
Another Airbus 319 - this one in the new Spirit Wings scheme.An American B767 lifts off as the A380 taxis out

Yet another A319 - this one in Mexicana colors

Up, up, and . . .Away they go!

Blue Tails

In an earlier post, I showed a bunch of airline paint schemes that featured predominantly red tails. This time, I'll show you some that feature blue tails. Much to my surprise, when I started selecting the shots for this posting, I found that there are probably more blue tailed paint schemes than red - not what I had thought would be the case. So many, in fact, that this will be part one, with another installment to follow. I'll focus mainly on airlines in this segment.

A Singapore A340-500 just about to touch down on runway 24 Right.

This airplane has been in the air since yesterday to get here.

A couple of blue tails: An Aeroflot 767-300 (yes, Aeroflot operates Boeings!) taxis past a Lufthansa 747-400. The flight to Moscow goes over the polar ice cap.

Going through my collection, I found a number of shots of airlines that I realized aren't operating here anymore. You don't really notice that they're gone during the day-to-day operations; it's more a recognition that 'You know, I haven't seen so-and-so lately.' This Varig cargo (from Brazil, I think) DC-10 is one of those; we also used to have Varig passenger service in MD-11's. Now Korean (!) flies that route.

Here's an odd-ball: A 747SP, seen here in Saudi colors. The 747SP was Boeing's first attempt at a really long range airliner in the 1980's. It has since been surpassed by the 747-400 and the 777, along with the Airbus 330 and 340.

A Lan Chile 767-300 in the flare on runway 24 Right. Lan Peru aircraft have the exact same paint scheme; as far as I know, the only way to tell them apart is their radio callsigns.

A Mexicana A320, with Southwest's NBA special behind. Mexicana's paint scheme used to be green - same scheme, just green. Now it's dark blue.

This shot shows another no-longer-here carrier: an Aviacsa 737-200 (noisy and smoky - look at those skinny nacelles), with a WestJet (Canadian, and still here) 737 next to go.

A Polar Air Cargo 747 taxis by as a Cathay Pacific 747 rotates. These are both 400-series aircraft; the cargo version retains the short hump.

Another cargo 747-400

This one's a little special in that it's rarely seen moving during the day:
An Air Transport (cargo) DC-8 takes the runway for departure.

Another cargo 747-400, but this one's a conversion. World also operates MD-11's.

I've just recently started seeing this Spirit paint scheme;
it's a bit more colorful than their other one, seen below with an Air Tahiti Airbus
340-300 (the bane of LA departure controllers - what a dog!)

A Skywest CRJ-700 in the new United scheme takes the runway, with an Allegiant MD-80 (-83 or -88, I don't remember which) waiting its turn. Allegiant is not a regular operator here; I was fortunate to catch this shot. This is also a good comparison of the size of the CRJ versus the MD-80; there are shorter versions of each (CRJ-200 and the MD-87/B717)

I couldn't decide which of these shots to use, so you get both. United's old scheme and Continental both have a lot of blue on the tails.

Another new one: I've just started seeing this Sun Country scheme; not as colorful as their other (previous?) one, which features a multi-shade blue fuselage and orange tail.

A USAir special state scheme on this Airbus 319; before America West merged with USAir, this paint scheme was seen on an America West 757.

Big and bigger: A New Zealand 767-300 in front of a China Southern 777-200.

AeroMexico has started painting their new aircraft; this 737 still has the bare skin with blue trim.

Here are a pair of Embraer ERJ's at terminal 5: In the foreground, a Delta Connection 145 (operated by ExpressJet) showing Delta's latest paint scheme; and behind, a Costera 135 (AeroMexico regional partner). Costera also operates Saab-Fairchild 340's into LAX.