Over the last few years, Seattle-Tacoma International Airport has invited some local AvGeeks, who love sharing their airline passion online, to a special gathering. We all meet up airside and get a rundown of the day, go through security, then pile into a few vans and head out to the airfield, all under escort from airport ops. That part alone is pretty entertaining and fun, but it gets better from there.
BONUS: Our SEA AvGeeks Airfield Day Photos from 2003
We got to spend a bit over four hours between runways 16L/34R and 16C/34C, and it was awesome. I just brought my iPhone to share photos on our social media, but luckily our Francis Zera was there too; he takes way better photos than me. It is just a totally different experience to be so close to the aircraft when they taxi, takeoff, and land.
It felt like you could reach out and touch the winglets of the wide bodies as they taxied by (I didn’t try). We did get quite a few confused looks by flight crew, followed by many smiles and waves. Of course the ongoing joke throughout the day (at least it was funny to me) was calling out when an Alaska Boeing 737 or Embraer E-175 was taking off — there were lots and lots of those!
Out of all the planes seen that day, the one that excited me the most was the FedEx MD-11. Such a classic. Such a beauty! The second was an Alaska Air E-175 (let me finish …) with the special Horizon Air livery. As an ’80s child, it brought back memories of flying on Horizon’s Dash-8-100s, Metroliners, Fokker F27s, and Fokker F28s.
This year for sure did not disappoint. Check out all the additional photos below!
