Ben's Air Blog

  Where is Waldo? I rarely have my photo taken when I am taking photos. But with cameras all around me documenting everything, I was bound to end up in an official NASA photograph. In fact, I got into five photos and one video!

  Déjà Vu I returned to the KSC Press Site at launch minus one day. It was déjà vu. We don’t get too many “do overs” in photography. For at least some aspects of this event – I was getting a do over.

No one ever said photographing a shuttle launch would be easy, nor did I expect that it would be. I should know. After all, I have worked in the space industry for the last 16 years – some of those years with the shuttle program – and launch delays are part of the business. But until I got my feet on the ground, I never realized how frustrating it would be. Frustrating. Yes, that pretty much sums it up.

Getting there (and back) was really part of the fun! Fliegerschiessen Axalp or Air Force Shooting Axalp is a two-day airshow where the main draws include Swiss Air Force fighter jets performing live fire demonstrations and the Swiss Air Force’s Patrouille Suisse demonstration team performing aerial acrobatics amidst the beautiful Swiss Alpine environment.

Cranky Flier’s Trip Report Cranky Flier’s Videos Trip report from “ORDnHKG” at flyertalk Two excellent YouTube videos from “United737522”: Landing at SFO Final water cannon salute Collection of water cannon salute photos by Kevin Marshall

On October 28, 2009, I joined scores of enthusiasts and airline employees and flew on United Airlines’ last Boeing 737 flight (appropriately with flight number UA 737) from Los Angeles (LAX) to San Francisco (SFO).  UA 737 farewell flight flew on an east to west routing stopping at United hubs along the way.  The flight started the day in Washington Dulles (IAD) with stops in Chicago O’Hare (ORD), Denver (DEN), Los Angeles (LAX), before final destination of San Francisco (SFO).

Collection of memorabilia from flight UA 737, United’s last 737 flight.