Airplane Blog Toronto YYZ Pictures

Washington Reagan National

2007-04-09T06:43:00.000-04:00

Take off from runway 1. Gear up very quickly.

Reagan National

2007-04-08T22:39:00.000-04:00

MD-88 taking off from Rwy 1 at Reagan National. Outstanding viewing for this runway - a parking lot right at the end.

Alaska Airlines Boeing 737

2007-03-14T20:07:00.000-04:00

Taking off from Vancouver.

YVR Vancouver Airport Runways

2007-03-12T06:56:00.000-04:00

Vancouver airport. Climbing out to the north then turning east over the city.

Air Canada Airbus

2007-03-10T03:44:00.000-05:00

Decent shot of an Air Canada A319 taking off from wet runway in Vancouver.

Leaving YVR

2007-03-09T00:30:00.000-05:00

Climbing out of Vancouver aboard an Embraer E75. Very impressive winglets on these aircraft. The Embraer guys who checked out Airplane-Blog after this post, will think I have something against these aircraft. I don't. In fact, as a passenger they are tremendously comfortable. However - it does seem the Embraer has reliability problems. The aircraft in this picture is not the Embraer we were supposed to be on - it was grounded for mechanical reasons in Edmonton - and this flight was an hour late. At the end of this flight the overhead bin a couple of rows up was finally opened with a lot of force - and a BMW key! Maybe just bad luck?

Vancouver Weather

2007-03-04T15:34:00.000-05:00

Turbo Beaver landing out of the overcast at the Cole Harbour terminal in Vancouver. These guys are non-stop and not clear what weather, if any, stops them.

Air Canada Busy Day

2007-03-04T15:22:00.000-05:00

On the Saturday morning 8am flight to Vancouver. Busy ramp outside the plane. YYZ still recovering from Thursday's storm. Long line-ups in Terminal 1 and many unhappy passengers. I feel for them, thankful I'm not them....and have to say the Saturday flight was as great.

Re the Embraer - like the one in the pic - my seat mate - who had good inside info on these things - was telling me how the Embraer is very unreliable. Not a pilot fave because it's unreliable. Interesting.

Olympic A-340

2007-03-01T21:41:00.000-05:00

Olympic Air A-340 landing on 05.

Two Twins

2007-02-27T07:23:00.000-05:00

Taking pics at the end of 05 on Saturday. Surprised when these two twins flew the approach and landed within seconds of each other on the same runway. Never seen this before and contacted Airport Watch, a group of Pearson enthusiasts who are credentialed to roam the airport vicinity with minimum hassle - and who have collectively likely see a lot of different things at Pearson. Here's response from Pete at Airport watch:

The ATC Manual of Operations allows for simultaneous landing operations assuming certain conditions are met. In this case, without actually having seen just how close these guys got on the runway, the clause that comes to mind allows a light aircraft to land even if the preceding arrival has not cleared the runway as long as he can see his traffic. I m assuming that both of these guys were light aircraft - they look like a twin Cessna & a Piper Cheyenne.

Thanks Pete.

Thomas Cook Boeing 757

2007-02-24T08:18:00.000-05:00

Taken by captain Bill from the front seat of an AC 767. Somewhere over the Atlantic.

Best Office in World

2007-02-18T07:31:00.000-05:00

Thomas Cook Airlines A-330

2007-02-12T22:22:00.000-05:00

Somewhere over the Atlantic. Taken by Bill Pratt, Air Canada, from the pointy end of a 767.

Concorde Flashback

2007-02-15T08:39:00.000-05:00

From July 2003. Heathrow.

Air Canada A-340

2007-02-14T08:17:00.000-05:00

Dirty underside of an A-340 passing overhead. Somewhere over the Atlantic.

Low-vis Landing

2007-02-12T22:31:00.000-05:00

Into Heathrow. AC 767.

ERJ-145

2006-12-15T07:16:00.000-05:00

Runway 23. Soft focus.

Avro Arrow over Toronto

2006-12-08T19:37:00.000-05:00

Complete fake and the editing job is bad - but still an

intriguing image of what might have been.

Toronto Pearson Cargo

2006-11-25T17:41:00.000-05:00

Volga-Kneper AN-124

Another shot of the AN-124. It's big.

Volga-Kneper Antanov 124

2006-11-25T17:32:00.000-05:00

Got lucky on this pic. Just pulling into park when this An-124 showed up. It's a regular visitor to YYZ. First time getting a picture of it.

Leaving Las Vegas

2006-11-21T06:14:00.000-05:00

Some serious remodelling of a mountain south of Las Vegas.

Westjet: Ethically Challenged

2006-05-30T18:27:00.000-04:00

From today's Toronto Globe and Mail:

"WestJet Airlines Ltd. has admitted to spying on Air Canada in an out-of-court settlement, ending the two-year legal fight.

In a joint statement released before markets opened Monday, WestJet apologized for accessing a confidential Air Canada website designated for reservations.

”This practice was undertaken with the knowledge and direction of the highest management levels of WestJet and was not halted until discovered by Air Canada,” the release said. ”This conduct was both unethical and unacceptable and WestJet accepts full responsibility for such misconduct. WestJet sincerely regrets having engaged in this practice and unreservedly apologizes to Air Canada and Mr. Robert Milton.”

Ok, so now you know you wouldn't want to golf with these people. How do you feel about flying with them?

Letting Your Partner Down

2006-06-28T22:43:00.000-04:00

I'm a fan of Canadian airlines. AC has a great new Embraer service to Dallas and other than the risk of a little domestic spying, any flight on Westjet is fun.

That's not what this post is about. This is about flying out of Minneapolis on AC. Some advice: DON'T DO IT. You see, Minneapolis is Northwest's home. And apparently even if you work for United, Canada's code share partner and the people manning the check-in - your goal is to keep people flying Northwest.

Doing that is simple: 1) no automated check-in 2) separate line for AC passengers 3) process 2 or 3 passengers in half an hour 4) after half and hour and once line is well into hallway - leave - as in...leave... don't have anybody manning the AC check-in 5) 20 minutes later, show up looking stunned and say something dumb like "is anybody in this line on the 6:00pm flight to Toronto?" 6) look even more stunned when the line erupts in anger and abuse 7) stick really angry passengers in final row by the washroom. True story.

The moral here is clear: fly Northwest out of Minneapolis.

However, I don't believe the problem is Air Canada's. It's United's. Watching their staff, one thing was clear - they DID NOT CARE. Truly DID NOT CARE. I guess that whole Chapter 11 thing has been a little rough!

TAGS: United Airlines, customer service, disgruntled employees

Continental Express ERJ-145

2006-07-29T07:52:00.000-04:00

Operated by ExpressJet on behalf of Continental. ExpressJet has a fleet of over 270 ERJ's that will be reduced in the upcoming months to around 200.

TAGS: plane spotting, aircraft spotting, ERJ-145, Continental Express Airlines, regional jets

Colourful Jazz

2006-08-26T22:37:00.000-04:00

Got a few evening pics. Great sunset. Air Canada Jazz.