My Best Aviation Pix pg 13

My Best Aviation Photos Eye Candy - # 13	Bob Bogash

Pobeda of Russia landing BFI

Nassau

747-8F Departing Paine Field

ETH 787 -- Boeing - Everett

KC-46 Tanker - BFI

Boeing Everett Flight Line

ex-Southwest, future Colson Water Bomber 737-300
Port Alberni, B.C.

Boeing Field and Seattle

Pair of Navy F-18s passing Smith Island west of Whidbey Island NAS

Hungarian IL-18 - Amsterdam

Boeing Field -- BFI

Nbr 3 737 Flight Test airplane taking off BFI - 1967

#1415 and her "Co-pilot"

Renton

Boeing Everett Flight Line -- 6 September 2017
A scene no longer possible - a line-up of 747s

Gulfstream

Big 'Un's and Little 'Un's

I have been active in the Seattle Museum of Flight since 1965, and managed many projects for them. These include acquiring, restoring, maintaining, and making the last flights on many airplanes in the museum collection. After retirement, I moved from the Mainland to the Olympic Peninsula on the West side of Puget Sound. My many trips to the Museum's facilities now required two 3 hour ferry rides, considerable time and expense just to show up.

In 2013, I completed building my own airplane - a Light Sport airplane called the Vans RV-12.
Tail number is N737G.

This airplane became my main "Taxi" to an from the Museum. My many trips (over 100/year) to Boeing Field and Paine Field (in Everett) now just required 20-25 minutes and saved the constantly rising ferry fares and ferry problems. Even counting my drive time to/from the airport, I shaved 50% off my travel times. Also, as you will see, I got to park even closer to my work than if I had driven my car.

My airplane passed 800 hours flight time, and I have added
about 1000 hrs of RV-12 flight time to my logbook.

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The Aviation World is, generally, divided into various buckets - civil/military, big airplanes and small airplanes, and so on. There is little opportunity to cross into the other world. But my various projects allowed me, and my very small airplane, unprecedented access into the big airplane world. Here are some examples.

The "Small Airplane World" -- RV-12 Fly-in

The "Big Airplane World"

and

"My World"

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Not too many Light Sport Airplanes get to share a "Tie-Down" with a Concorde!

Pilots like to take pictures of their airplanes.
Bet you can't beat this one!

Here's a picture for your (my) office wall....

B-17

B-25

B-47

B-52

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E1 - N7001U - Boeing 727 Prototype

"Traffic - 12 o'clock - an RV-12 - range 100 feet."

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American 727

Just in case you think all I do is 'park' near these big airplanes....
My friend Joe Blank (dec.) from Vans really liked this one.
He said the Title should be "Nursing from Mother."

Super Connie

Boeing Guppy (Dream Lifter)

Boeing 247

C-47 / DC-3 -- Friday Harbor

Pretty hard to drive your car on the Boeing Flight Line.
Your airplane? Forgetaboutit!!!
My tune is the opposite of Garth Brooks song: "I got friends in high places..."

My 4 hour trips to Moses Lake turned into little more than 1 hour.

DC-2

Well, that'll give you some idea how my little Bug-Smasher spends her time....
.... mixing it up with the Big Iron and Heavy Metal.

She's a "One of a kind!"

Click here for the whole RV-12 Story

PBY Catalina

The Consolidated PBY Catalina (with other names - such as Canso in Canada) is one of the most widely used and iconic of the flying boats (amphibs when fitted with landing gear, as in the -5A) ever built. More than 3300 were made (including 300 by Boeing in Vancouver.) The Type first flew in 1936 and is still in service 88 years later (as of 2024.)

I first saw a Cat up close in August 1959 at White Plains - it was an airplane owned and operated by Herb Shriner - a musician and entertainer. It was rigged up for fishing and had two boats under the wings.

Navy Catalina - at Pensacola - September 2009

Later, I flew them in SE Alaska when they were operated by Alaska Coastal - Ellis Airlines out of Annette Island Airport, serving Ketchikan and other panhandle cities and towns.

Annette Island Airport - Ketchikan

Tongass Narrows - Ketchikan

While taking care of NASA 515 - the 737 Prototype - at Moses Lake for 6 years, there were 5 PBY's in storage or restoration adjacent to my airplane. Here's one I got to look over pretty closely. Pretty rough around the edges but pretty much stock.

And finally, here's what a Cat looks like when she's fixed up, purty, and in flying condition.

Vancouver Island

One of the little projects we undertook for our RV-12 was
flying into all the airports on Vancouver Island.
And we did!

Like here into Victoria

with more new airplanes to see and photograph!

Nanaimo

SAAB 340

Courtney - adjacent to Comox

Campbell River

Alert Bay in the Gulf Islands

Where you can see REAL Totem Poles in an Indian cemetery

A different world and only a short hop away in a small airplane.

Port Hardy at the northern tip of Vancouver Island

... and Tofino

...on the West Coast of Vancouver Island

Some Oddball Stuff

A real head-scratcher - even for Ole Bob

Landed at Port Townsend - what the heck is that?

Had to look it up - it's a .....

1955 CZECHOSLOVAK A/C WORKS-OMNIPOL SUPER AERO 45

Well -- Now I know!

.... and another one I came across in Wenatchee

It's a Kaman K-1200
It has intermeshing rotors and...

it was specially designed to optimally perform external cargo load operations and is capable of lifting payloads in excess of 6,000 pounds (2,700 kg), which is greater than the helicopter's empty weight and almost twice as much as the competing Bell 205 despite sharing a similar engine.

Learn something new every day!
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Not all airplanes are cream-puffs.

Cessna 310 at Toledo (KTDO)

Cessna 337 Skymaster

Some have been put out to pasture ... literally

Beech 18

I'm sure the price is right - with a little TLC and elbow grease,
they could take to the air once more.

Marines F-18 - departing Runway 32 Left - BFI
Afterburners - ON. Stick - Back.
Returning to Miramar (Remember Top Gun?!)

On Friday, 29 September 2023, VMFAT-101 was decommissioned after 54 years of service. It was the last remaining F/A-18 Hornet training squadron in the US Navy and the Marine Corps.