2014 Trips


21st to the 31st December 2014.
Ten days in Orlando, Florida.

A family holiday in Orlando, Florida over Christmas, we departed Manchester on Virgin Atlantic B747-400 G-VROY arriving mid afternoon at MCO.

The following photos were taken during my visits over the ten days,


Sadly the sun had long since set when Alaska's "Salmon-thirty-Salmon" N559AS departed



American's new sharklet A321's are now fairly common.


Jetblue's "Veterans" special N775JB was a nice catch, being fairly new.




A lot of the ex Air Tran B717's are now wearing Delta colours.


Southwest's "Retro" coloured B737-700 N711HK






Azul was a new operator here at MCO and their special "Brasil" coloured A330 PR-AIV was seen on five of my visits!!



Frontier's new scheme was seen on A320(SL) N227FR


Southwest's new colours were seen on quite a few a/c over the ten days.



Avianca A319 N519AV wears the Star Alliance scheme.





many of the US Airways fleet are now painted in American's colours, such as A321 N507AY



Azul also operated a couple of flights with their standard colours A330's such as PR-AIZ


A late afternoon view of the international flights.



Jetblue's A320 N709JB wears a special scheme for the Internet!










My first Magni Charters B737-300, XA-UQA departing mid afternoon.




Norwegian operate their B787-8 Dreamliners here, sadly EI-LNC was the only one I had previously seen (Bangkok January 2014).




Alaska's "Disney Cars" special B737-800 N570AS arrived late afternoon.












Atlas Air B767-300 N640GT was parked up after operating a charter flight.










TAM's "OneWorld" B767-300 PT-MOC arrived whilst I was at the gate waiting to fly home.


We departed home on Virgin Atlantic B747-400 G-VXLG at 7pm on the 31st December and arrived back home on New Year's day ....................

Just over 300 new numbers entered the log-book and many nice subjects passed my lens.
Orlando International is not a great place for photography due to the distances and the heat haze but you do get some nice movements and colours.


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3rd to the 4th September 2014.
Two days in Cardiff for the NATO Summit movements.

A couple of days were spent down in Cardiff for the anticipated large amount of NATO Summit visitors ..... sadly there were far fewer movements due to a fair few going to Bristol instead!
An good time was had in the company of some of the local photographers whilst enjoying the view from the Cambrian Cafe which overlooks the runway and terminal.

The weather was not the best for photography with most of the interesting movements coinciding with the dullest conditions!

Wednesday 3rd September.

A fairly slow going day with only ten summit related movements, sadly the sun only really shone for the (small amount of) regular traffic.





Belgian Air Force Falcon 900 CD-01 was the first movement around 09.00,


followed shortly after by a pair of R.A.F. Merlins,








It was a very long wait for the next NATO movement, Slovakian Government TU154 OM-BYO around 4.30pm!


with USAF 737-700BBJ 02-0042 around twenty minutes later,


followed by Learjet 4O-SEV from Montenegro at 5.30pm,



Royal Air Force Typhoon ZJ925 made an overshoot at 5.35pm,


while the Slovak TU154 departed to Stansted at 5.50pm,



Azerbaijan Government A319CJ 4K-AI02 arrived at 5.55pm,



and French Air Force Transal R203 landed at 6pm and departed again 45 minutes later, 



Star movement of the day goes to the Turkish Government A330CJ TC-TUR which arrived at 6.45pm .... this had only beed delivered a few days earlier following over two years of cabin fit in the USA!



Canadian Government A310 15001 arrived from Luton after dark, landing at just after 8pm,



and the final movement of the day for us was Sun Country B737-800 N818SY arriving from Estonia with the US Press Pack at 8.20pm.



Thursday 4th September.

We were back at the Cambrian again at 7.00am in the hope of a much busier day .... sadly this wasnt to be with only another thirteen fixed wing movements for the NATO Summit.


Belgian Air Force Emb.135 CE-01 arrived at 7.20am,


followed a few minutes later by French Air Force TMB700 147



Dutch Government Fk70 PH-KBX arrived at 8.30am,


Danish Air force Challenger C-172 landed at 8.55am,


the Romanian visitors arrived on Tarom B737-700 YR-BGI at 9.25am,


and the Spanish arrived on two Falcon 900's ... T.18-1 at 9.35am and T.18-4 just ten minutes later.




Italian Air Force A319CJ MM62243 landed at 9.55am,


Thursdays star movement was German Air Force A340 16+02 landing at 10am,




The French Air Force sent in both of their Falcon 7X's .... F-RAFB arriving at 10am and F-RAFA landing just five minutes later. Strangely these aircraft do not wear their registrations! 





The final Belgian Air Force movement was Emb.145 CE-03 arrived at 10.20am,


Jordanian Government Gulfstream G650 VQ-BNZ arrived at 11.20,



Travel Service B737-800 HA-LKG positioned in early afternoon to operate for Thomas Cook, 


Irish air Corps Learjet 258 arrived at 2.10pm and was the last of the NATO movements before we departed for home ......




We also made a short run over to St.Athan to see the stored aircraft,
ex Buffalo Airways CL215 C-FAYU remains stored outside whilst sister-ship C-FAYN was inside undergoing maintenance.


and ex Jetstar Pacific B737-400 VN-A190 is mounted on legs but sadly can only be shot through three fences!



We headed for home late afternoon with a few new photos in the camera but sadly only another 21 new registrations in the book!


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12th to the 15th July 2014.
Heathrow and the Farnborough Air Show.

Adrian and I made a four day trip down south for the Fairford and Farnborough Air Shows and spent the remaining time at Heathrow catching up with the latest visitors. We stayed three nights at the Renaissance Hotel at Heathrow with a great view over the runways so very little was missed.

Saturday 12th July 2014.

We drove down from Manchester on the Saturday morning and the first stop was Fairford for RIAT 2014. After photographing the static visitors we made a quick stop at Brize Norton and Oxford (Kidlington) before travelling on to Heathrow for the remainder of the day where the following were photographed. 






















I ended the first day with 61 new numbers in the book .... 
(Fairford 20 / Brize Norton 3 / Oxford 4 / Heathrow 34)

Sunday 13th July 2014.

A full day relaxing in the hotel room watching the Heathrow movements come and go, heavy rain and dull skies first thing eventually gave way to a sunny afternoon and evening .... the following were photographed and another 33 new registrations went in the book.



My first Air Canada 787 "Dreamliner" arriving during an early downpour!



















My first Air Serbia aircraft .... A320 YU-APG


and my first Ethiopian B777-200LR as ET-ANQ taxied for departure after sunset.

Monday 14th July 2014.

A sunny morning meant a few nice photos were taken before heading to the Farnborough Air Show,









At Farnborough the static was photographed with the following being of the most interest to me ...










Back to Heathrow again by late afternoon and the following were captured in the sun,



Another first for me, this time Royal Brunei's B787 "Dreamliner" V8-DLA







and another Ethiopian "after dark" as B787 "Dreamliner" ET-AOT departed at 21.30.
Another 70 in the book today ... 45 at Farnborough and 25 at Heathrow.

Tuesday 15th July 2014.

Our last day and we spotted from the hotel room until kicking out time at 3pm.


It was great to finally catch South African's 2012 Olympic Games special A340 ZS-SXD as it touched down early morning, shame the light wasn't as bright as the scheme!











After checking out we made a quick stop at the end of 27 Left for the JAL 777-300 JA740J in the special "Samurai Blue 2014 World Cup" scheme, sadly the sun hid behind a small cloud as it approached!






We departed Heathrow around 16.30 and made our way back north, calling at Luton on the way ...
Another 34 were added to the log for the day, 10 at LHR and 24 at Luton.

We arrived back in Manchester late evening, my thanks to Adrian for a very relaxing four days.

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15th to the 19th May 2014.
Another long weekend in Sharm-el-Sheikh

My Wife and I spent a nice relaxing weekend in Sharm el Sheikh, back at the Hilton (Sharks Bay) where we have stayed a couple of times before. With it being May the temperatures were very high (38 Degrees) each day so any photos taken of aircraft over the fence toward the airport were never going to be that great ... the heat haze was very bad for most of the time!
We departed Manchester on the Thursday morning on board Monarch's A330 G-SMAN arriving in SSH just after 4pm.I spent most of the four days in the pool or relaxing in the sun but did take a little time out to watch some of the movements at the airport.The following photos were just record shots, to me they are better than nothing ......










Having enjoyed a very relaxing (albeit short) break we departed SSH again at 22.30 on the Monday night on board Monarch A321 G-ZBAM, my first Airbus "Sharklets" flight .... arriving back at MAN just after 2am.
One or two nice movements seen with another 24 numbers in the book....  Roll on the next visit!


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20th to the 29th January 2014.
Japan ..... via Dubai, Bangkok, Hong Kong and Shanghai!


Having visited Tokyo in January 2013, my Son and I wanted to return but with a few other airports “in the area”!
We looked at using Emirates to get there and decided to fly MAN-Dubai-Hong Kong (with a five and a half hour stopover in Bangkok Suvarnabhumi) on the outbound with Tokyo Haneda-Dubai-MAN on the return which meant finding a way from Hong Kong to Tokyo (not a cheap option in the end!).
After some trawling on the Net I ended up booking China Eastern from Hong Kong to Narita via Shanghai Pudong which allowed just over seven hours in transit at Pudong.
We had five days in Tokyo but having been just a year ago we thought that may be too much, we also needed to find a way to get from Narita to Haneda so decided to do two days at Narita and two days at Haneda with the day in between at Fukuoka which can be reached from both the Tokyo airports.
We booked Jetstar Japan from Narita to FUK and ANA for the FUK-Haneda flight,
So … with nine flights in ten days it wasn’t going to be a relaxing trip!!


Monday 20th January 2014 - Manchester to Dubai.

The morning of the 20th January saw us at Manchester to catch EK022 to Dubai, operated by B777-300ER A6-EGU, 



The very pleasant flight (with three seats for the two of us) took six hours twenty minutes and we arrived after dark in Dubai, my first visit here …… We had just over three and a half hours in transit before our flight to Bangkok but as it was dark no photos were taken, just a little time logging registrations from the concourse. .

We then boarded Emirates 777-300 A6-EMS at 23.00 for a packed flight to Bangkok (Suvarnabhumi), this older version having far less choice on the IFE … We departed Dubai at 23.30 and arrived in Bangkok five and a half hours later at 08.00 (local time).


Tuesday 21st January 2014 - Bangkok (Suvarnabhumi)

Again, this airport was a first for me although I was disappointed at how poor it was for spotting and especially photographing, the concourses being set back a long way from the windows which were also covered in those pesky black dots! With care some photos can be taken of the aircraft on the runway or outer taxiways but they are only “record shots”.

We stayed down Pier E (due to the sun’s position) which overlooks 01L and is the side that sees most of the “visiting” airlines, therefore we missed quite a few of the Thai Airways fleet as they were mostly landing and departing from 01R, I didn’t seem to put much of a dent in my Thai Airways fleet but it was nice to see and photograph some of the A300’s and B737-400’s before they are retired.
We had almost six hours on the ground here and the following few photos were taken.


Overflying the old Bangkok airport, Don Mueang whilst inbound to Suvarnabhumi






















We then boarded a rather empty Emirates A380 A6-EEJ for the short two hour twenty minute hop to Hong Kong, departing 01L at 13.45.




We arrived in Hong Kong at 17.10 just as the sun was setting ….. Just the British Airways A380 photographed on our taxi in to our stand.


We had booked a room for two nights at the Regal Hotel which overlooks the apron and runways but despite asking twice before leaving the UK they had no rooms with views so we were forced to pay the upgrade fee for an “Exec Room” on the 11th floor,
The view was very good and allowed a lot of number crunching in the dark with FR24 (on the free Wi-Fi) coming in very handy.
The following three pics were taken from the hotel room before finally getting some sleep, thirty six hours after getting up!




As this was my first visit to Hong Kong I needed a large amount of the based aircraft so sleep was kept to a minimum, We were up early the next morning and this was the view from the room.


Wednesday 22nd January 2014 - Hong Kong.


We met up with a couple of Hong Kong locals (thanks Mohit and Edward!!) who kindly took us over to Sha Lo Wan which is on the neighbouring Lantau Island, from here you get an excellent, elevated view over the airport and great photos of aircraft taxiing to and lining up on 07R.













Silkway B747-400F 4K-SW008 remained parked up in the maintenance area all day and managed to get itself in most of the photos!









Sadly this "Smartwings" 737-800 was operating the rather more exotic "Mega Maldives" flight!!








China Airlines A330-300 B-18355 wears the great "Welcome to Taiwan" scheme.





Sadly this Air Seychelles A330 was towed to a remote stand a little too far away, the heat haze was awful!




Great to finally catch B777-300 B-KPF in the "Hong Kong, Asia's World City" scheme, only a couple of weeks before it was repainted and gone forever!




























The great looking Cathay Pacific "Oneworld" B777-300 B-KPL




Dragonair A330-300 B-HYF wore their "25th Anniversary" Dragon scheme (now since repainted!)







Air Niugini B767-300 P2-PXW was parked up for the day in the maintenance area, the heat haze (and clutter) again spoiling this one .... although nice to see.




























Xiamen Air B737-800 B-5159 wears the Skyteam colours.





Asiana Airlines B767-300 HL7516 wearing the Star Alliance colours.





Sadly Royal Brunei's new scheme really is poor compared to the old one!





















It was superb to see the Hunnu Air A319, a rare one for me!



And that was it, the end of a superb day on the hill at Sha Lo Wan, we took a small boat back to the airport island and then a bus back to the terminal which kindly passed the Cathay Pacific headquarters where DC3 c/n 9525 is on display, marked as VR-HDA in honour of their first ever aircraft.


One more shot from the hotel room in the evening, Air Asia A320 9M-MHO wearing one of their many special schemes.


We then went in to Hong Kong centre to get a night time view of city skyline, awesome!!



Thursday 23rd January 2014 - Hong Kong to Shanghai to Tokyo

Once again I was up very early, I managed to log my last three Hong Kong Airlines A300F’s before checking out of the hotel early and making our way to the terminal to check in for our flights to Tokyo Narita via Shanghai (Pudong),
Hong Kong was superb for me with some great photos and only thirteen of the based airliners not seen in the thirty eight hours we were there!
The following were taken on taxi out and take off .... departing off 07 Right on board China Eastern A320 B-6802 just after sunrise.





A sad sight for me as I finally got to see the old "Kai Tak" airport, sixteen years after it closed!



We arrived in Shanghai just before 10am, sadly Pudong is another very frustrating airport while airside …. Just like Bangkok (Suvarnabhumi) it has concourses set back from the windows meaning most photography is difficult and photos of anything on the nearer taxiways or gates is impossible!
With us using China Eastern we were in transit in Terminal One which only has the sun in the right place first thing in the morning so soon after arriving the subjects were already becoming backlit!
Terminal One does not have much variety either with most of the interesting carriers serving T2, fortunately though by camping out at the top end of the departure lounge near gates 1 to 5 you can see the end of the runway on the other side and read the arrivals and departures off if you are quick,
If not, free Wi-Fi is once again available and you can monitor FR24 for anything coming in or anything departing.

The following were taken during our transit of just over eight hours 






Our aircraft, China Eastern A320 B-6802 after arrival from Hong Kong.








Nice to finally see a Mahan Air A340 as EP-MMB touched down, sadly on the far runway meaning lots of distance and heat haze between us!










China Eastern A340-600 B-6055 still wears the special "Better City, Better Life" scheme from 2010.



China Eastern A340-600 B-6053 wears the "Skyteam" colours.








Nice to finally see an SF Airlines 757-200F although with it landing on the far runway in backlit conditions it really wasn't great!!

Sadly by early afternoon the sun was already way too far round to the "wrong side" but the following specials still warranted a record shot .....





We had an hour delay on our departure although no reason was given to the passengers!!,
We departed Pudong on board China Eastern A321 B-6345 for the two and half hour flight to Tokyo Narita arriving at 21.35 local time, we then took the terminal transfer bus from T2 over to T1 and made the very short walk to the Narita Rest House for our three night stay.

Despite being on the airport this hotel has very limited views of movements although we could see aircraft on approach from the room but they are quite distant.


Friday 24th January 2014 - Tokyo Narita.

Up early again and after the short walk to T1 we were on the terrace by 07.00, Narita seems much quieter this year as quite a few JAL and ANA services have been transferred over to Haneda.
We stayed on the T1 deck for three hours after which the sun starts to move around and causes backlit photos.....












Garuda Indonesia A330-300 PK-GPD wears titles and logos for Liverpool Football Club.





My first "Winglet" UPS 767-300F ...







By late morning the sun has traveled too far around for this deck so we then took the terminal transfer bus over to T2 where we spotted for the rest of the day.




Great to catch this colourful new addition to Narita's movements, Thailand's Asia Atlantic Airlines B767-300 HS-AAB.














Taiwan's Transasia are a new addition to Narita since our last visit, A320 B-22311


Nice to see one of the Air China "Peony" scheme B737-800's ... B-5177.



Vanilla Air, another new airline for us, formed from what was Air Asia Japan.
A320 JA01VA being the only one so far in their full colours.



Jet Asia B767-200 HS-JAE, another new Narita operator since our visit last year.


China Southern A330-200 B-6528 wearing the Skyteam colours.


Spring Airlines Japan are another new airline, B737-800 JA02GR was performing route proving flights prior to the airline's start up.





 We called it a day shortly after sunset and opted for an early night ….. Our first proper sleep since leaving home on the morning of the 20th!!


Saturday 25th January 2014 - Tokyo Narita.

 The next morning saw us up on the T1 Terrace at 07.00 again, today was mostly cloudy and was the worst weather day of our whole trip (we didn't do too bad considering!). The following were seen from Terminal One first thing.








As it was cloudy and pretty quiet movement wise we moved over to Terminal Two early on where the following were seen until mid afternoon,












Then back over to T1 mid afternoon to catch the Aeromexico 787 which departs around 5pm,




A major bonus, my last "Hello Kitty" A330 as B-16309 taxied for departure!


















And my first Air New Zealand B767-300 (now with Winglets) which landed just before the light disappeared too much!

We stayed on later this evening to see the evening arrivals including the Air Niugini 737-700 which made a nice change from the 767-300, a couple of record shots were taken as it taxied in and pulled up on stand, a bit dodgy but better than nothing!!




Sunday 26th January 2014 - Narita - Fukuoka - Haneda.

Up at 04.30 this morning for our flight down to Fukuoka, 
Jetstar Japan A320 JA15JJ was our ride (and mostly empty), 


We departed Narita at 06.40 with a great view of Narita on climb out .... 



...... arriving in FUK just under two hours later.
On arrival in Fukuoka we went straight to the ANA Desks to check in for our return flight to Tokyo Haneda that evening, this meant we could get rid of the suitcases instead of lugging them around.
The terminals here have viewing terraces but they are all either behind glass or wire mesh with no camera holes provided unlike the other Japanese Airports. 
With care photos can still be taken through the mesh so all is not lost!
We spotted from the terrace in Terminal One for a couple of hours before the sun started to move around.

The appeal of Fukuoka is getting to see some of the traffic that the Tokyo airports do not see, The Fuji Dream Embraers were my highlight here with five out of their fleet of seven seen in just six hours!
You also get the JAL Commuter Saab340’s and Dash8-400’s here along with a few of the smaller carriers.


The Terminal 1 Deck at FUK.
























At around 11.30 we caught the free terminal transfer bus over to the International Terminal on the other side of the runway,
This deck is behind glass but photos can be taken with care as seen here ....






















Another new airline for me, Korea's T-Way with B737-800 HL8268.












We were booked on the 19.20 ANA B777-200 flight back to Haneda but my Son had noticed an ANA Boeing 787 inbound from HND mid afternoon, we decided to head back to T2 to try and change our flight to the 787.
After much discussion with the staff on the ticket desk, (they were adamant that there was no 787 flight in the afternoon) and only after showing them the Flight Radar 24 app with it inbound did they realise what we were wanting!
Our tickets were changed very quickly to the 16.10 departure (usually scheduled as the 777-200) and we were given our new boarding cards, very efficient indeed and all with no extra charge!!
We then went through to the gates where the B787-8 JA816A arrived very soon afterwards ….. A nice bonus!


We departed FUK at 16.25 and touched down in Haneda just 70 minutes later.
The B787 was a great ride ... very smooth and the windows are huge!!


On arrival at Tokyo Haneda we spent a couple of hours by the windows at T2 (ANA Terminal) logging the movements and also getting a bonus night shot of the ANA B767-300 JA8674 which wears their "Anniversary" livery ..... the only chance we got of photographing it over the next couple of days so very lucky!


We then headed off to hotel, the Toyoko Inn which is just a ten minute courtesy bus away.


Monday 27th January 2014 - Tokyo Haneda.

Up early again and the 6.30am shuttle bus to the airport saw us on the terminal 1 (JAL) terrace just after 07.00, We stayed here until the sun started its move around mid morning.


JAL's "Oneworld B777-200 JA771J


Both of JAL's "30th Anniversary of Disneyland Tokyo" B777-200's JA772J and JA8985......



....... and all four of JAL's "30th Anniversary of Disneyland Tokyo" B737-800's ..... JA329J, JA330J, JA332J and JA339J.








Mt. Fuji was looking pretty good in the cold clear morning air!









Late morning we headed over to the International Terminal for the lunch time Asian visitors,






And early afternoon we moved to the T2 (ANA) Deck for the rest of the afternoon.





Solaseed's fleet of B737-800's now carry small logos on the rear...












We headed back to the hotel after nightfall to get a much needed sleep before our very long final day........


Tuesday 28th January 2014 - Tokyo Haneda.

Our last full day in Tokyo and it was to be a long one ….. up at 06.00 again and on the T1 terrace for 07.00











Back to the International Deck in time for the lunchtime visitors.....










ANA's B777-300 JA754A is now the only aircraft in the fleet to wear a Pokemon scheme following the withdrawal of the B747-400D's ......




China Eastern treated us to their "Better City, Better Life" special A321 B-2290







We got one last look at ANA's B747-400D as JA8961 departed in the evening sun ..... the last of them leaving the fleet just weeks after our visit.


And our final daylight subject .... the new Cathay Pacific "Spirit of Hong Kong" B777-300 B-KPB which was particularly nice as we didn't even get this in Hong Kong!!





A couple of night time attempts while waiting to check in for our return flights ...
One of ANA's specially painted B787's JA801A and the late evening Hawiian flight as A330 N381HA taxis to stand.


We then went in to the terminal to check in for our 01.30 departure back to Dubai 



We boarded Emirates B777-200LR A6-EWD at 01.00 and departed on time at 01.30 for the eleven hour flight to Dubai..........


Wednesday 29th January 2014 -  Tokyo Haneda to Dubai.



...........arriving in Dubai at 07.30 local.


After arrival we made our way to the Food Court in Terminal 1 where there are clear windows (slightly tinted) that you can take photos through, discretely of course!
We stayed here for around four hours before making our way back to T3 for our last flight …….



















Back at the gate for the flight home and my first sighting of Shaheen Air as A320 AP-BLI taxis to stand, sadly the windows on the main concourse are covered in white dots giving this horrible effect!



Our last (and ninth) flight of the trip was to be on Emirates B777-300 A6-ECQ, we departed Dubai at 14.55 local, arriving back in Manchester at 18.00.

A superb trip with a few new airports for us both, some nice photos and nearly 900 new entries in the log book!

Tota numbers for the trip were …..  825 Frames and 59 Scrapes = 884



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