Heathrow arrivals 29-01-2018

[andygolfer]

Following on from the A.350 photos in the earlier topic ( http://www.civilianaviation.co.uk/forum ... 69&t=29849 )here are some more arrivals from a cold and soggy Monday afternoon, at least the humidity made for a few interesting vapour shots....

starting with the biggies...
A6-APA A.380 Etihad Heathrow 29-01-2018 3239 by Andrew Goldsmith, on Flickr

A6-APA A.380 Etihad Heathrow 29-01-2018 3257c by Andrew Goldsmith, on Flickr

A6-EDL A.380 Emirates Heathrow 29-01-2018 3273 by Andrew Goldsmith, on Flickr

two of the same pic - colour or mono?
G-CIVA B.747 British Airways Heathrow 29-01-2018 3732 by Andrew Goldsmith, on Flickr

G-CIVA B.747 British Airways Heathrow 29-01-2018 3732m by Andrew Goldsmith, on Flickr

Dream(liner) time...
4X-EDA B.787 EL-AL Heathrow 29-01-2018 3325 by Andrew Goldsmith, on Flickr

N967AM B.787 AeroMexico Heathrow 29-01-2018 3803 by Andrew Goldsmith, on Flickr

sun on the aircraft but dark cloud behind made this a bit more dramatic colouring
B-2736 B.787 China Southern Heathrow 29-01-2018 3845 by Andrew Goldsmith, on Flickr

5Y-KZC B.787 Kenya Airways Heathrow 29-01-2018 4297 by Andrew Goldsmith, on Flickr

others....
who needs blue skies?...
A9C-KD A.330 Gulf Air Heathrow 29-01-2018 3889 by Andrew Goldsmith, on Flickr

A9C-KD A.330 Gulf Air Heathrow 29-01-2018 3908 by Andrew Goldsmith, on Flickr

YR-ASB A.318 TAROM Heathrow 29-01-2018 3939 by Andrew Goldsmith, on Flickr

B-KQM B.777 Cathay Pacific Heathrow 29-01-2018 4252 by Andrew Goldsmith, on Flickr

another trying the stealthy approach!...
VT-JET B.777 Jet Airways Heathrow 29-01-2018 3588 by Andrew Goldsmith, on Flickr

I said it was cold and by the time these 2 arrived there was certainly a nip in the air
JA-731J B.777 Japan Air Lines (PGA tour) 29-01-2018 3976 by Andrew Goldsmith, on Flickr

JA-784A B.777 Japan Air Lines (PGA tour) 29-01-2018 4029 by Andrew Goldsmith, on Flickr

and as I was nigh on frozen, I headed off to my hotel for the night hoping to get a few pics before dark - NO!
I'd seen quite a few pics from the T4 Premier Inn and asked for a room suitable for watching aircraft when I booked and they duly obliged with room 785. Trouble was I was too keen and started snapping away for a few minutes and then looked at my pics - all very dark , the glass must have been more tinted than I realised so it was up with the ISO and started adjusting the aperture compensation and got up to +2 but the images were still dark so the glass must have filtered out a lot of light, as the light was going I upped to +3 but soon that wasn't enough and ISO was hitting the grain zone - an owesheet moment. Time exposures I thought so fortunately I had one of my tripods with me - there was no windowcill for the old camera on the pillow trick, the inside glass is flush with the wall unfortunately not my heaviest tripod and it wasn't totally solid so several shots blurred. I got these semi usable ones before it got dark (my editing skills have a bit to be desired so they could possibly be improved by an expert)...
G-XLEL A.380 British Airways Heathrow 29-01-2018 4323 by Andrew Goldsmith, on Flickr

turning onto 27L
ZK-OKN B.777 Air New Zealand from Premier Inn T4 Heathrow 29-01-2018 4326 by Andrew Goldsmith, on Flickr
and that was as much of it as I could see, all the pics from these rooms didn't mention the radar mast of Burj Khalifa proportions in front of the hotel, from my room I could just see the turn ons and then had to wait until they were almost side on ( there was all sorts of radar 'furniture' on the grass adding debris to the pics just after they came out from behind the mast.
ZK-OKN B.777 Air New Zealand from Premier Inn T4 Heathrow 29-01-2018 7980 by Andrew Goldsmith, on Flickr

the aircraft taxiing from T4 passed quite nicely and often stopped for a few minutes whilst they waited their turn
9K-AOL B.777 Kuwait Airways from Premier Inn T4 Heathrow 29-01-2018 7988 by Andrew Goldsmith, on Flickr

VT-JET B.777 Jet Airways from Premier Inn T4 Heathrow 29-01-2018 7994 by Andrew Goldsmith, on Flickr

it got darker and darker (May would probably be a better bet!)
HZ-AK39 B.777 Saudia from Premier Inn T4 Heathrow 29-01-2018 8020 by Andrew Goldsmith, on Flickr

and here's a wide angle view from the room showing the mast in all it's glory:
HZ-AK39 B.777 Saudia from Premier Inn T4 Heathrow 29-01-2018 8015 by Andrew Goldsmith, on Flickr

this RB 787 paused long enough for a decent angle but it's a bit soft (not as soft as the very comfortable P.I. bed!) when the queues built up they often held here for a few moments
V8-DLB B.787 Royal Brunei from Premier Inn T4 Heathrow 29-01-2018 8025 by Andrew Goldsmith, on Flickr

CN-ROT B.737 Royal Air Maroc from Premier Inn T4 Heathrow 29-01-2018 8033 by Andrew Goldsmith, on Flickr

and then someone parked this American T7 right in front so the tail was in every pic until they had moved on, they were on the turn behind it and picking up a bit of reflected light - if only they had parked it elsewhere I might have got a few decent pics
B.777 American Airlines from Premier Inn T4 Heathrow 29-01-2018 8041 by Andrew Goldsmith, on Flickr
I was surprised how little light carried as far as the taxiing aircraft, no helpful floodlights as they provide on these night shoots, it's learn on the hoof, try to work it out and make do - reminder, find somewhere to practice where there is a lack of artificial light in the right place. Any moving shots were totally out of the question
this was about as much light as I got on anything and still that damn wing got in the way:
A7-ALN A.350 Qatar from Premier Inn T4 Heathrow 29-01-2018 4405 by Andrew Goldsmith, on Flickr

I gave up, got an early night planning to be up well before dawn, alarm set for 05.45 - grab the unlimited breakfast and be at the window at first light for 27L arrivals as per the schedule. Looked out as the first hint of light appeared in the dark sky, no bleedin' aeroplanes landing! What's happening?!!!!! then one appeared from the left errr... sod it they had changed runways due to a wind shift over night. I turned on FR24 and checked weather on my tablet and there was a 3 kt wind from the east forecast to move round quite quickly, give it an hour I thought - that T7 was still parked in the way so touchdown shots were going to be a farce. No sign of a change so I had a quick look at bing maps and picked a point on the 09R approach. Checked out, put the address in the sat-nav, no filter to avoid motorways or flight paths , 3.5 miles it said - it directed me wrong (or I missed a turning) and I ended up on a Shearings type tour of Wraysbury, Old Windsor and Horton before Sat nav took me back onto the M25 and up to Poyle industrial estate. The spot had too many trees but not enough aircraft. One SAS A.320 followed by a B.A. one then ziltch, silence, birds singing happily no human generated noise at all 'don't see many people watching planes here' said a dog walker (I'm not effing surprised thought I), then the dolcit tones of an aero engine - two actually - they HAD changed runways, back on 27s IF only I'd stayed put for another 40 minutes. I'd checked out so I couldn't go back to the room so it was off the the cemetery until it was time to go to pick up my neighbour, the pics i got are on another thread -
http://www.civilianaviation.co.uk/forum ... 69&t=29854

All in all everything conspired against me!

[AlanP]

Good efforts through the glass Andy i like the EL-AL 787

[Mike]

Good try Andy, seems like everything was against you, it's incredibly difficult trying to get decent shots at night through a double glazed window with so many obstructions in the way.

It's a 9.0 from me and a 7.5 from the Russian judge.

[jonf45]

Great set Andy, the light on that China southern dreamy and the gulf 330 are stunning
I see what you mean with the hotel shots, but I really think that's probably just down to the time of year?
Jon

[GCIJem]

Great pics Andy - I saw all of those too as I was at the Rennaissance for four days - it was nice to see something larger than the constant flow of ATR's that frequent GCI.
Roll on my next visit!

[norwichmike]

Nice set. I too struggled at first when I stayed there in December but I found that if you took the camera back from the window every so slightly the results came out a lot better like these couple (plenty more on my flickr)

Grubby weather
XA-AMR by Mike Burdett, on Flickr

Sunny Weather
ET-AUC by Mike Burdett, on Flickr

Cheers

Mike B

[andygolfer]

thanks Mike, I was trying to avoid any reflection but maybe I'll remember that for next time.

Did you have to use much aperture compensation?

[norwichmike]

Andy

I too tried to avoid the reflections but by just moving away ever so slightly didn't produce any reflections that affected the photo.

As the evening went on it needed a very small adjustment of the aperture but for the majority of my stay it was on neutral.

I too had the problem with aircraft in front of my room, a B777 and a B787 but thankfully the gaps allowed for photos.

Mike B