Having had a two year gap of posting on my Trip pages it's good to be able to start adding to them again! 2022 saw a lot more freedom on travel so the following were taken whilst out and about.
February 2022 - Mexico
The 23rd February saw my Wife and I at Manchester Airport for our first holiday in 26 months, our last being Florida in December 2019 in to January 2020.
A very early check in for our scheduled departure of 08.10 to Puerto Vallarta, a 45 minute delay saw us depart off 23L at 08.55 on board TUI B787-8 G-TUIB
We landed at PVR 11h 50m later at 14.45 local where I managed these pics from the bus to the terminal and the walk to immigration.
We then took a transfer coach to our resort hotel, the Riu Vallarta, for a one week all inclusive stay meeting up with our Son and his partner who had arrived a week earlier.
The hotel was situated around 10km down the beach from the airport but movements could be seen inbound and outbound depending on where you looked from, all movements were distant so FR24 etc had to be used to identify them.
The Thursday was spent relaxing in the resort however Friday 25th saw my Son and I get a taxi over to the airport very early morning for a flight to Mexico City.
A few movements were caught before our departure,
The following rather long term stored Aviacsa B737-200 XA-TYC looks in a very poor state parked near the end of the runway at PVR!
We eventually departed after a 75 minute delay on board Volaris A320 XA-VLM for the 90 minute flight over to MEX arriving at 11.30 local.
The following were taken on landing at MEX and during the taxi in to our stand.
One of the military ramps with a couple of the Mexican Air Force B737-800s along with the Government B787-8 XC-MEX / TP-01 inside the hangar.
There are nine Interjet Sukhoi SSJs stored here at MEX.
The "dump" just outside the perimeter contained many interesting aircraft as can be seen here.
We took a taxi from the airport to the Skyline Coffee Shop which is situated between the ends of runways 05L and 05R and has a superb view over the whole airport. We spent the remainder of the day sat here enjoying the movements, some of which are seen here.
It was nice to catch the Mexican Air Force B737-300 3529 but sadly it was too early in the afternoon for the sun to have come around.
"Banco De Mexico" CRJ700 XC-BDM arrived early afternoon on 05R.
Ex Aeromexico DC6 ETP-10011 still lives on as a cabin trainer just off the airport but can be seen from the Coffee Shop upper level.
Mexican Navy Gulfstream G550 ANX-1201 arrived early afternoon,
along with Mexican Police / Guardia Nacional Casa 235 GN-511
Another very nice arrival on 05R, Mexican Navy Dash8 ANX-1230
Mexican Air Force B737-800 FAM3526 also arrived on 05R, not an easy scheme to photograph in backlit conditions!
A golden oldie, 1975 vintage Gulfstream G2 XC-LPY taxied for departure, what a noise as it rolled down the runway taking forever to get airborne!
As the sun began to set we were collected by our driver (prearranged from our drop off) who took us over to our hotel for the night, the Camino Real (seen above), we had booked a "Club Room" on the upper levels with access to the club lounge for food and snacks which was enough for our evening meal. We retired for the night quite late on having logged many more inbounds after dark.
We were up again very early morning to see the daft o'clock arrivals and as the Skyline Coffee Shop doesn't open until 11am we elected to stay in the room until check out time.
The following were taken from the room albeit poor images as the sun is on the wrong side for you in the mornings.
MAS Air B767-200F N773AX arrived before sunrise.
Aeromexico B787-9 N782AM taxis out past the Police hangar, sadly the three B727s of the Guardia Nacional seen inside didn't come out during our time here.
A nice selection of Air Force / Navy / Police aircraft all departed or arrived during our brief morning.
We made our way back over to the terminal (a short walk over a bridge) to get airside for our flight back to Puerto Vallarta, this time on board Viva Aerobus A321 Neo XA-VBK which departed just after midday.
We arrived back at PVR at 13.15 and made our way back to the hotel to join our other halves where we enjoyed the rest of our holiday.
Sadly all good things come to an end and the 2nd March saw us back at PVR for our flight back home to Manchester, the following few pics were taken through the terminal windows once airside.
Strangely, our only sighting of an Aeromexico B737-700 on the whole trip, also nice to get a good shot of one in this scheme before it too gets retired along with the others before it!
We departed PVR on board TUI B787-8 G-TUIE just after 4pm ariving back at MAN shortly before 8am the next morning.
A superb (and much needed) holiday with a little aviation alongside a lot of relaxing.
a pretty decent 410 new numbers for the log book and plenty of nice photos too.
My thanks to my very patient and loving wife for putting up with my time away whilst we should have been together and my thanks to Ashley and his fiancée Jade for their great company!
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8th to the 10th April 2022
London Heathrow
A weekend visit to London with my very understanding Wife saw us stay over in the T4 Premier Inn at London Heathrow. Although this was not a spotting trip it did allow a little time to watch the aircraft from the hotel room window.
We left home early morning on Friday the 8th April and drove via Kemble to get a quick look at the stored Mozambique Embraer E190 2-EMBB with a couple more seen whilst there.
We continued on via Bicester Outlet Village for a bit of shopping, reaching the T4 Premier Inn early afternoon where the remainder of the day was spent watching the movements.
Saturday the 9th was spent in London shopping and sightseeing so no photos taken.
Sunday 10th I was up early and a few were caught from the bedroom window before breakfast and check out.
After checkout we sat watching arrivals to 27L for a while as there were a few new subjects I was after, the following were caught over a couple of hours.
After a couple of hours spent at the Heathrow Aviation Fair (lucky timing for me!) we headed back home, a lovely weekend away and a few new numbers and photos as a bonus!
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18th May April 2022
London Heathrow
A last minute decision for a day trip down to Heathrow after seeing the good weather forecast along with a few special colour schemes to be caught.
We left home very early morning to catch the first of two Qantas B787s which was due to land just before 6am!
Qantas B787-9 VH-ZNJ wears this special "100th Anniversary" livery.
Qantas B787-9 VH-ZND wears the special "Yam Dreaming" scheme, arriving just after 7am.
United Airlines' B757-200 N14106 wears this special "Her Art Here" scheme, this one representing California. Sadly this one arrived at an awful time for the sunlight!
Etihad's B787-10 A6-BMH wears this "Greenliner" scheme and was followed in to land by British Airways' A320 G-TTNA which wears the special "BA Better World" colours.
LATAM B777-300 PT-MUA still wears this great "Star Wars / Stormtrooper" scheme, arriving early afternoon although the sun had weakened by this time due to a lot of haze.
One of the highlights of our day, Columbian Air Force B737-700BBJ FAC0001 arrived just after 4.30pm, a very nice surprise and wrapping up the day nicely!
We left for home just after this, a further 25 new numbers in the book and a good handful of new subjects caught by the camera.
My thanks again to Gary and Ashley for their company and another great day.
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15th July 2022
Fairford Airshow (RIAT)
A day trip down to Gloucestershire for the Royal International Air Tattoo at Fairford,
sadly the show wasn't the best one of recent years but there were a few nice aircraft on display.
The following images were taken whilst walking the static and watching the show.
The star of the show as far as I'm concerned, the awesome U.S. Air Force Boeing E4B,
often referred to as the "Doomsday Machine". This was making its air show debut outside the US but sadly arrived once the thick cloud had rolled in preventing any sunny shots.
After leaving the show we made a quick visit to Kemble on our way home, a bonus for me was a sunny image of the ex LAM Mozambique Emb.190 2-EMBB.
We arrived home late evening after another long but fun day out.
Some nice images and another 22 new numbers in the book for the day.
My thanks to Gary, Fraser and Ashley for their company once again.
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19th to the 21st July 2022
Farnborough Airshow,
Heathrow, Stansted and Birmingham.
A three day trip down south to visit the Farnborough Airshow and a couple of nights at Heathrow saw us leaving home early morning on Tuesday 19th July. We made a very brief stop at Heathrow to catch the arrival of the Aerotrans Cargo B747-400F ER-JAI along with Air Mauritius A330-900 3B-NBQ.
We then carried on to Farnborough for the airshow, this was probably the worst turnout for the show that I have known with very few aircraft in the static display but the quality (for me) made up for it with some nice examples of the latest commercial airliners.
ITA Airways A350-900 EI-IFF was parked up in the static,
Embraer E190-E2 2-RLET was towed out of the static to fly its display wearing a new variation of their "Shark" scheme.
Airbus' A350-900 F-WWCF was sadly a repeat visitor from six years back at the FIA 2016 although the scheme was slightly altered so not a total loss!
The highlight of FIA 2022 as far as I was concerned, Boeing's great looking B777-9 N779XW showing off its unique (in civil aviation) folding wingtips.
while being the last movement of interest for us at the show, Boeing's new B737-MAX10 N27752 which will be delivered to United Airlines once the aircraft has passed its certification.
With nothing more to offer us we left the show and returned to Heathrow for the rest of the afternoon / evening, only a handful of airliners worthy of photographing though.
We called it a night quite early on after a fairly productive day.
Up early on the 20th July and we had a relaxing day just sat at Heathrow, it was slow going but at least some new subjects passed our cameras.
Definite highlight for LHR for me, the Brunei Royal Flight B787-8 V8-OAS which arrived very early morning.
United's "Her Art Here" B757-200 N14102 which depicts the US East Coast.
Lufthansa's "Lovehansa" special A320N D-AINY
One of Emirates' "Year of the 50th" special A380s with A6-EEX
Managed to catch a much better shot of ElAl's "Retro" B787-9 4X-EDF although still avoiding the sun!
Nice to catch a decent shot of a Turkish A350-900 with TC-LGD
And a decent sunny shot of Air Mauritius' A350-900 3B-NBQ
Another fairly early night as nothing much was due.
Up early again on the 21st July and with nothing of any interest due at Heathrow we decided to make our way back home via Stansted after hearing a couple of decent government airliners were around ...
Oman Government B747-800BBJ A4O-HMS was parked up for a few days ...
.... while Bahrain Government B737-800BBJ A9C-ISA arrived early afternoon.
We made a very quick stop at Duxford after spotting one of the British Antarctic Survey fleet, Twin Otter VP-FBL which was seen from the museum car park.
Heading nearer to home our last stop of the trip was a quick call at Birmingham after seeing the MNG Cargo A330 Freighter TC-MCZ was due to depart imminently,
It was a bonus catching this aircraft as it now wears the company's new scheme.
Corendon B737-MAX8 TC-MKF arrived just before we left,
The usual oddball selection of smaller freighters were parked up on the Elmdon side,
We arrived home early evening after another successful trip, 113 new numbers in the log book and a fairly good selection of new photos.
My thanks as always to Ashley, Gary and Fraser for the company.
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16th to the 17th October 2022
Heathrow & Stansted.
A two day trip back down south to catch up with a few more of our required airliners, in particular catching the Bamboo B787-9 before operations transferred to Gatwick.
We departed home early morning arriving at Heathrow just before 7am in position to catch Uzbekistan A321N UK32102 depart 27L
We then made our way over to 27R to catch a few arrivals.
Finnair's great looking "Marimekko" A350-900 OH-LWL was nice to catch in better light
The main catch for us at Heathrow today, Bamboo Airways B787-9 VN-A819 which wears additional "1st 787" titles.
With very little else due for a few hours we noted that there were a few movements of interest over at Stansted so headed there, arriving around 11am.
First target, Play A321 Neo TF-AEW departing off runway 22 .... great to catch this after photographing their A320 Neo recently at Liverpool!
Aramco's smart looking B767-200 N767A was parked up northside.
Kuwait Air Force C17 KAF342 was a nice catch arriving early afternoon.
HiFly A321 CS-TRJ was operating on a summer lease to Jet2 wearing this stramge hybrid scheme.
Catch of the afternoon at Stansted for me, the Titan / GEODIS A330-300 Freighter G-EODS, one I have wanted to catch for some time.
With nothing else of any interest due we made the drive back over to Heathrow and our room for the night at the Rennaissance Hotel where a few more pics were taken before darkness stopped play.
My first Aer Lingus A.320 Neo as EI-NSB departs off 27R
The next morning saw dull dreary weather so a couple of hours by the windows in the Exec Lounge before heading out for some arrival shots when the sun started to break through,
Nothing particularly interest to catch for most of the day but these passed us on approach to 27L
Our only real target for today, Royal Jordanian's great looking "ALIA Retro Jet" A321 JY-AYV which arrived just after the runway change at 3pm!
With nothing else to keep us hanging around we departed just before 3.30pm and headed for home, Another fairly quick but enjoyable trip and my thanks to Ashly for his great company for the two days.
Only 41 new numbers in the book but pleased to have caught a few decent photo subjects!
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