From Rainy LA To Sunny Anchorage

Somewhere in Alaska air space, I noticed another plane outside the window.  Actually this photo is blown up a bit so you can see that it's another Alaska Airlines plane below us and to the west.

The pilot had banked to the left, then to the right, and back to the left and then I noticed the plane.  I saw the contrails first, and then the plane.

This is more what it looked like out the window.  It stayed with us a minute or so.  Then we banked again and then the other plane seemed to fall back.













You can see the contrail above our engine and the plane itself is almost in the middle.  Click the picture to see it much clearer. 

Waiting to take off in rainy LA

After a week of sunny warm days in LA, it was raining Friday when we left.  But they need whatever water they can get down there.  Seems we left when it started raining in October too.










Shortly after we had flown alongside the other jet, the clouds started to break up and we had some spectacular sunset views.






Clouds hanging over the water as we're getting near Prince William Sound.  










The setting sun makes big and stark shadows in the water. 

Shooting out of airliner windows offers challenges, like all the spots in the lower left not to mention the smudges that refract the light.  But have to just make do since the picture below is so spectacular.  I've done no photoshop clean up or enhancement  on any of these

Soon we were flying up Cook Inlet.  Here the ice picks up a golden glow from the sun.

We're getting close to the airport.  This is ice on Cook Inlet.

The nicks and scratches and water on the window are much less visible when the sun's not shining directly at you.  More ice patches just before we land.



I stuck this one in to contrast with the view of the airport in LA with the rain drops on the window.  It was 3:20 pm.

People in LA were asking if it's dark all the time now, so I thought it would be good to show that it isn't.  In LA now, the sun was setting around 4:30pm.  I do have to say that it gets light in LA around 6:30am.  In Anchorage on November 29  sunrise was 9:42 am for a total of 6 hours and 12 minutes from sunrise to sunset.  Officially, the sunset was 3:54 pm according to Time and Date. 

And the twilights are much longer this far north.  In LA the sun seemed to drop into the ocean pretty fast and we knew we didn't have much time to bike home before it was dark.  But here, the glow lasts. 

And on a sunny day like Friday, even after the sun is gone in town, it's still up there in the mountains as you can see in this ride home from the airport.  The camera says this was taken at 3:48 pm.


I keep thinking these flight pictures are going to get boring, but each trip the light is different and the views are different.  Saturday is the last LA-Anchorage non-stop flight of the year.  I'm not sure when they start again in 2014.  It sure makes the trip a lot faster.  Today it was 5 hours and 15 minutes.  

Oh, yeah, it's just below 0˚F (-18˚C) here.