C-5 at LAX

It's particularly obvious in this picture, but this crew somehow managed to keep their Galaxy in the cloud shadow all the way down the taxiway and onto the runway - sneaky!

I think it's neat how the rear main landing gear can turn to help the plane get around corners

 

This is a horrible shot, but I include it to show how little runway the C-5 requires. None of our regular air carrier aircraft are anywhere close to being airborne at this point on Runway 24 Left. We're looking at Taxiway W under the C-5's nose and Taxiway E-10 just behind the tail; that's approximately 3,500 feet (1,100 meters) down the runway

Finally found a sunny spot!

Welcome to No-Effort November!

 

Yes, it's time once again for No-Effort November. The name is somewhat silly since the plan is to give you a post for each day of the month - which bears a shocking resemblance to actual work. The rules are that there will be a post for each day of the month, although some may be posted in arrears out of consideration for things like my not getting off work until after midnight. There may or may not be any sort of effort put into captions or actual text, but there might be some semblance of editing. 

This is Avianca's old livery, which we used to see once a day on their widebody flight from Columbia. I don't recall us seeing it on a narrowbody other than an occasional B757 in place of the usual B767 or A330, as all of the narrowbody flights were flown by LACSA or TACA. We still get the LACSA and TACA flights. These are all Airbus narrowbodies but they're now usually wearing the new Avianca paint scheme while still using the LACSA or TACA callsigns. We do still get a widebody flight, usually a Dreamliner but occasionally an A330, and using the Avianca callsign.

Happy Halloween!

 I realize that the title and the photo have nothing in common, but this was given to me at the end of last week and seemed a fitting way to start out No-Effort November.

How about some really bad slightly Halloween-related jokes:

What is a ghost's favorite kind of airplane?

A Boooing Screamliner

What is a skeleton's favorite instrument?

 

The trumBONE

 

 

Why do ghouls like to hang out with demons?

Because demons are a ghoul's best friend

What do ghosts use on their hair?

 

ShamBOOO

 

 

Why don't mummies like to take time off?

They're afraid to unwind!

What are skeletons' favorite foods?

Spare ribs

 

 

Why do ghosts make good cheerleaders?

 

 They have a lot of spirit!

 

 

How come vampires have no friends?

Because they're a pain in the neck

 

 

What do you get when you cross a snowman with a vampire?

Frostbite

 

 

Why don't skeletons like to walk in cemeteries?

Because they have no guts!

What is a ghost's favorite plant?

BamBOOO!

Happy Halloween!

October update

We're well into autumn in Los Angeles; we've even had a smattering of rain - a sure sign that summer is behind us. Meanwhile, construction around the airport progresses. We'll start by taking a look at Terminal 3, which has recently opened:

Here we see the B767 being test-fit on the new Gate 37A

Until I looked at this photo, I had not noticed how far the jetway for the new Gate 33 can extend

 Meanwhile, on the south side of the terminal complex:

Terminal 5, in the center of this shot, is pretty much all open. This terminal hosts nearly all JetBlue and Spirit flights along with some American flights as well, and has become an almost all-Airbus terminal. On the right, you can see that the southern end of Terminal 4 has been completely removed.

Terminal 6 is still receiving gate-by-gate renovation. In this shot, you can see aircraft parked at the recently-opened Gates 64A and 64B. These will eventually get re-numbered, as that solitary E175 on left side of the photo is on Gate 62. There is at least one closed gate in the blocked-off area with the new concrete (it was formerly Gate 64). On the west side, Gates 61 and 63 are closed for renovation

It may not be obvious in the earlier shot of Terminals 5 & 4, but we also had a section of Taxiway C closed for pavement replacement. This closure ran nearly all summer, along with another section of Taxiway C further to the west.

Here's a shot of our ground radar, showing the two closed sections of Taxiway C. They don't look like much, but the location of these two closures made ground control quite challenging this summer. If you look closely, you can see that the radar map and the photo show different phases of the construction, as the closed section in the photo doesn't quite correspond to what's shown on the radar map.

In other news, our traffic count is still holding fairly steady at something like twenty-percent less than in the before times. We did see a bump during the summer compared to January:

As you can see, our highest days this year (so far) have barely broken 1700 operations. Before the pandemic, we would have been around 2000 operations per day. Let's wrap up with some gratuitous airplane pics: