The hunt is over. I have secured photos of the elusive Kalitta Charters II 727 that pays Rochester a visit every so often.
On June 29th, I noticed that Kalitta finally sent a 727 again (last time was almost three weeks ago), but because the schedule is different on Mondays, it was gone from Rochester long before I could even think of waking up. Thus, I had no choice but to go at night to shoot some long exposures.
Shot on D7500 + Tamron SP 45 VC & Manfrotto Element
When I pulled up to the DHL Freight Center at around 10:30 pm, I saw that the plane was parallel to the fence, which created some issues with the angle through the fence. Some ramp workers approached me and I thought they were going to tell me to leave, but instead they invited me airside and told me I could go anywhere on the apron to snap photos.
I don’t own a lens smaller than 45mm nor did I know this was going to happen so I couldn’t go borrow one, but when you’re airside you have to take advantage of close ups and different angles. I tried.
Sadly the equipment was all located on the same side the light was on.
Loading cargo in pallets for the flight back to CVG.
Kalitta Charter’s callsign is “Dragster”, which seems fitting for this because the 727 is sort of stanced like a dragster with the T-tail and wide rear end. While it’s definitely not as loud as one, those JT8Ds still rip into your ears, especially from less than 200 feet away.
Still have to have a close-up because it’s me.
