What a day!
I arrived at the Future of Flight at about 9am to get ready for the Boeing 787 Dreamliner ZA005 to take flight. The weather wasn’t doing so great with mist, fog, and a low ceiling. There was no official time, but I was guessing 10am based on previous first flights. I thought the plan would be for ZA005 to complete high-speed taxi tests and then take off. However, time kept going and ZA005 just sat there. I heard a few different rumors of the reason, from a low ceiling to the chase plane not being ready. At least we got to watch a brand new Cathay Pacific Boeing 777 take off and land.
I had worked hard (took me three different ways) to get my iPhone hooked up to my tri-pod, so I could do a live feed while recording in HD, but I ended up having to tear it apart anyhow.
At 12:20pm I had to leave for an appointment I couldn’t miss. Since I promised a live feed, I left my iPhone with Sandy at the Future of Flight to do the live feed for me (THANK YOU SO MUCH SANDY)! However at about 2pm I got done with my appointment and made my way to a computer and saw the ZA005 had not taken off. BOO YA!
I hurried back and as I pull in I could see people along the fence still watching, so I knew I hadn’t missed anything. I grabbed my video camera and ran. Just as I got to the top of the hill and video camera turned on, ZA005 started rolling. For just running up a hill and not having a tri-pod ready, I don’t think the video turned out half bad.
I am never going to get sick of watching the 787 Dreamliner take off. They are so graceful, queit and oh man watching those wings bend is amazing. I am going to write up a blog with a little more information on these new GEnx engines being tested out today.
Over all I think the live feed function went well. By the time ZA005 took off there were 250 people watching the feed. I am excited to use that feature in future events.
Below is some media and I will be updating this as more becomes available:
* 48 of my photos of today’s event on Flickr
* Liz Matzelle’s awesome video from the other side of the runway
* Live video via my iPhone of the take of ZA005 from the Future of Flight Strato Deck
* Video from a helicopter from KING5 News — check out the gear going up and back down!
* Photos of ZA005 from the Seattle PI
* Photos from the Everett Herald
* Other live video commentary from the morning’s events
Updated last:
It’s weird seeing an airliner take off without putting the gear up.
Given all your 787 enthusiasm, you might have already seen this, but I bet you’ll like it. It’s video from inside a 172 landing parallel to a 787 at Boeing Field.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XYplNHxCRQk
What beautiful footage; you aren’t joking about how good it look taking off with the blended wings – very graceful!! Good Job Airline Reporter!!!
Thanks David, these are the only pics we have of the takeoff, even though we had one of the best views.
My daughter and I had waited and waited and had put off our tour until the last one of the day. But it was leaving as 005 was finally on the runway. So we reluctantly stowed our cameras (as required, no cameras or phones on the tour) in the lockers and were in the auditorium watching the welcome video. But because the tour guide had been a mechanic on the build, she stopped the video and brought us out to the tour bus loading area at the last second so we could see the takeoff. Had some of the best seats in the house, but not a camera between us – what are the odds! Thanks for the shots.
Hey Mark!
I call that “Boeing Time,” where new planes rarely take off on time. But they have no passengers waiting for them, so not a huge deal. I was SUPER lucky to get my video as it was. I had to leave the Future of Flight and was pulling up JUST as ZA005 was taking off.
One of the benefit of having no camera is just being able to watch a 787 take off. I just watched one take off from Boeing Field last week and I didn’t video it, since I wanted to see it for real, not on a screen :).
David
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