Departing Seattle - May 8, 2008

May 8, 2008: My flight today from Seattle at 8 AM Pacific Time is aboard this Delta Airlines Boeing 767-300-ER.  The overcast conditions did not provide the kind of photo contrast I prefer.  Corel Photo Paint provided the color contrast and brightness equalization to enhance this shot through the windows from boarding gate A12 at SeaTac Airport.  I did not walk up to the window to prevent any reflections from inside the building.  I used the zoom lens to frame the picture outside and pushed the "shutter" button.  The artistic "spotted owls" are plainly visible reflected from the glass.

Here is the view of the terminal and a number of gates from my seat behind the wing.  I always sit on the shady side of the airplane when I fly commercial.   Since this is a flight heading East, I sit on the left side.

It was a typical IFR departure in the Seattle-Tacoma area.  When we got on top of the cloud layer, it was not long before Mount Ranier came into view on the left side of the airplane. 

This is not the best angle to take this shot.  Without post-processing of the photo, it would not look this good.  The raw photo did not have much contrast before using auto-equalization.

The pilot appeared to fly a partial "turn-around-a-point" maneuver with the mountain until he reached an easterly heading.  The changing sun angle on the window reveals some chroma distortion in the lexan layer.

Wings level again and on course for Atlanta.  I used the zoom on the camera for this parting shot.  With the window now fully in the shade of the fuselage, the color problem seen above is no longer an issue.

The rest of the flight to Atlanta was relatively uneventful.  The cloud cover was pretty consistent through the western states.  I saw some of Kansas and Missouri before the clouds became solid again.  We descended between layers over North Georgia south of Chattanooga and arrived at gate A19 in Atlanta on time around 4 PM.   I had dinner at TGI Friday's in concourse E before my 7:15 PM commuter flight back to Chattanooga.  I claimed my bag and drove home.  It was almost 8:40 PM when I settled into my favorite chair for some television (something normal).

This page was posted from home on Saturday afternoon, May 10, 2008.

May 11, 2008:  One of my readers has advised me that this is Mount Ranier, not Mount Saint Helens as I previously identified it.   I do remember the pilot saying something about flying over Yakima, Washington which is located southeast of Mount Ranier.  I have made the corrections above.