October 7, 2006: Night takeoff

A UPS-owned B767 departs Des Moines Int'l and turns south.

via airliners.net, and one of the most interesting photos I've seen recently!

WOW, too cool.

Very cool! But it looks wierd from here, doesn't it? Far to steep an ascent.

Is is a cargo plane ... so nobody's drinks get spilled in a steeper ascent ...

I actually think that the image is foreshortened by the wide angle camera lens and shot angle. Look at the spacing on the red light.

And UPS never spirits political prisioners out of Des Moines.


btw....Canon 20D, 50mm f/1.8 MK-II

I've tried taking pictures exactly like this one. It's hard to get the exposure right. This was a very clear night. The sky isn't all washed out.

Around here the light pollution around the airport would kill any chance.

I just dug out an old shot I took in 1994 at Washington National. There's a cool park right next to the end of the runway in the flight path of the approach. This is a long exposure that caught a couple flights. Flights are about a minute apart, so this must be a 3-4 minute exposure.

Fantastic shot.

Why does the red tail light miss about 5 flashes at the top of the steep bit?

Need to add...

I showed this pic to Hubby tonight as I knew he would enjoy looking at it. When we were married, we flew to SoCal for our Honeymoon.
When we left John Wayne Int'l Airport to come back home, the plane went straight up with full thrust and when it reached the altitude it wanted, it cut the engines back to nearly nothing (compared with take off and the climb) and the plane dropped a good bit.

Hubby was wide eyed, gripping the arms of his seat and staring around to see what the other passengers were doing. I was calmly flipping through a magazine and he jerkily twisted towards me and stage whispered "Is this normal? Are we okay?" I gave him a puzzled look until I understood what was bothering him...

He hadn't flown much and had NEVER taken off somewhere where the planes had to get out of residential noise areas... He thought the plane had cut out and was gonna go down!
Poor guy. He's much better about flying, now.

It kinda looks like Santa's light trail. Is Rudolph up there somewhere?

I'm puzzled by the sharp right-angles of the light paths on the runway. Presumably these are his wing lights, while taxiing before take-off. Doesn't a plane make a sweeping turn? It reminds me of the light-cycles in Tron...

A very cool photo.

Welcome Simon!

Tell the truth ... you're actually quite complex and you're trying to put us off our guard, right?

No I'm pretty simple. It's all the time I spend with my two year old, I think.

Lots of great photos at http://www.airliners.net
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