Spotting afternoon at Bankstown - 30/12/2009

[Maikha Ly]

Hi all

This afternoon I went out to the viewing area at the end of the Runway 11s to try out my new 75-300mm zoom lens for my 400D. This is what I've come up with and would like to share it with you all. By all means I welcome constructive criticism and filling in of any gaps in my captioning.


This humble Basair C152 was doing touch and gos all afternoon.


Aero Commander arriving into Bankstown


VH-SXF, Cessna 208 Seaplane, returning to base after a day's work out on the water


VH-ASA (Beechcraft 76), registered to a Mobile Cleaning company, starts up and makes a departure from Bankstown


Another Aero Commander arriving into Bankstown


Another Seaplane, this time a DHC-2 of Seawing Airways, arrives minutes after the previous Seaplane


Not sure of this aircraft type. A search on the CASA website indicates it's a 'GA-8', built in Gippsland, and registered to a Bathurst mob. Would this be close to it?


Dual arrival of VH-OGW on 11C and VH-ZVM on 11L


VH-OGW, a PA-31 with Avtex, arrives into Bankstown


VH-ZVM, one of those Pacific Aerospace 750s, arrives into Bankstown right behing OGW.

Now I posted this query elsewhere, but one of my main interests in aviation is turbo-props. I noted the Pionair Convair and a few Fairchild Metros all around the place at Bankstown and would really love to get a shot of one of these birds taking off.

Would there be anyway of knowing when these aircraft are due to depart on their next flights, or would such information only be confined to insiders of the industry? Can respect if it's the latter, although I'd really love to get a shot of both of these planes for the collection. Any assistance in that regard would be greatly appreciated!


Apart from that, hope you enjoy the shots. I'm hoping to post a few more I took this afternoon and also hope to get back out there soon and get some more!

[Jayden Laing]

Maikha,
The photo of the GA-8 is correct. Its a Gippsland Aeronautica GA-8 and you may find that they often do a mail run out to central western NSW. I have seen one similar come & go from Parkes everyday (VH-BXK) which is registered to Aero-Solutions of Bankstown. I managed to have a quick chat with the pilot one day & she said that they mainly use these aircraft on the mail run. I'm guessing that the one you photographed does the same kind of thing to the one I see at Parkes.

[Maikha Ly]

Thanks Jayden. A quick Google search leads me to this page, from the company website detailing the GA8 Airvan, something I never knew existed!

[Todd Steele]

Amazing photos, seems like there were a lot of different ones then when i go. I could have gone over yesterday but decided to go to Sydney today

[Matt_L]

Maikha,

nice variation of shots over an afternoon.. good job!

I know a certain Beaver pilot who would be pretty happy to see your shot of SWB

Cheers

[Maikha Ly]

Thanks Todd, Thanks Matt!


Matt, if you want to private message me your email address, I can send you the full-res of VH-SWB for your buddy flying the Beaver.

[Tim Bowrey]

The light you got on some of these photos are great especially the 2nd Seaplane you saw. Nice work!

[Maikha Ly]

Hi all

I thought I'd add the following photos to the mix, which were also taken on the 30th December last year.



Miscellaneous

While waiting for traffic to arrive, I experimented with some abstracts, something which interests me more in photography.


All sorts of birds in the sky!








Two days later on New Years day, I went by there again with the hope of seeing stuff (But to no avail). I was however surprised that the road at the end of Runway 11s has now been closed, and has been signified at the entrance to the airport:



Abit of a pain, driving through the place like you use to, but sadly out of our powers


Nonetheless, enjoy!