City Aerials from Jet Airliner

[Mopacs]

Somehow I forgot to post these pics....

The following photos were taken from a recent flight I took from Austin to Los Angeles, in Mid-October 2006. The flight path took us on a sharp turn to the west, flying almost directly over downtown Austin, affording us some fantastic views of the city and points westward. So without further adieu, here they are...


Taking off from Austin Bergstrom International ... TX71 passing to the east, below



Meuller Airport redevelopment. The old Control Tower sits by itself on the right side of the complex. On the far left you can make out the new Dell Childrens Medical Center



Closer shot of the Dell medical center, with the I-35/290E interchange beyond. You can also make out the new retail center going up immediately to the left of the med center





Now the UT Campus is visible



New Robertson Hill apartment complex







The Capital and UT



All of Downtown Austin becomes visible





Frost Tower and neighbors. Town lake at the bottom left



zoom zoom

















Downtown, Mopac Expressway, and the Colorado River beyond





Austin's West-End



Pan out



Winging it









Closeups of the Monarch (left) and 360 Condo (right) developments



Zilker Park, Colorado River and Rollingwood/Westlake inner-suburbs



Mopac, heading north through the heart of West Austin



Zilker and Mopac



Rollingwood



Mira Vista development along Bee Cave Rd, at Mopac



Mopac office buildings



Loop 360 and Westlake Hills



Closeup of the ultra-affluent Westlake High School, and the launching pad for Saints NFL QB Drew Brees.



More Westlake





Tom Miller Dam and Lake Austin beyond (Colorado River)



Loop 360 snaking through the pricey suburbs of W Austin



Barton Creek Resort expansion





The village of Bee Cave, rapidly becoming the commercial center for far W Austin and Lake Travis suburbs.



Highway 71 and Bee Cave Rd (Hwy 2244)



The emerging Hill Country Galleria retail center and residential complex, along TX71, between highways 620 and 2244 (Bee Cave Rd)





Falconhead, Lake Travis HS and Lakeway



Lakeway and Lake Travis, with its barren shoreline, beyond (Lake level is very low due to recent drought conditions)



Lake Austin and Steiner Ranch development beyond



Winging it some more



The "Sometimes Islands" in the main basin of Lake Travis have become a peninsula of late



And like that, central texas began to disappear behind a thick layer of clouds...



Hope you enjoyed... I'll be posting additonal pics soon, from points westward... including the Guadalupe Mountains, Las Cruses, NM, Phoenix, AZ and LA, in other threads.

[ajmstilt]

Wow great pics. I allways forget how much tree cover Austin has. Since the Trees seem so small to me, but from the air it's impressive.

[MichaelB]

Mopacs,.... I love it that you post these pics...... some great shots.... It was an interesting flight path. Were you landing in Austin.... or passing over? Not sure how you got all these shots!

[LoneStarMike]

Whoa! These photos are "First Class!" They should use some of these on the Austin Convention & Vistors Bureau and Chamber of Commerce websites. Thanks for sharing them.

[Jdawgboy]

Wow thanks Mopacs those are very impressive shots. Thanks for posting them up.

[Mopacs]

Originally Posted by MichaelB

Mopacs,.... I love it that you post these pics...... some great shots.... It was an interesting flight path. Were you landing in Austin.... or passing over? Not sure how you got all these shots!

Thanks for the comments everyone!

Michael... I grabbed these shots just moments after takeoff from ABIA. We took off from the west runway, in a northerly direction. Seconds after takeoff, the plane took a sharp bank to the left (west) and basically paralleled the Colorado River from just south of downtown, to near Marble Falls, before veering off to the WNW into West Texas.

I couldnt have picked a better seat... no obstructions whatsover (wings, jet engines, etc.) As for the number of shots... I had my camera on 'burst' mode, and held that shutter button down constantly. What you see here is at most half of what I took over downtown alone! While not necessarily relevant to this subforum, I'll go ahead and include the Phoenix and LA shots in this thread too (they're worth it).

Thank you for your comments too, Mike. If the ACVB wants some of my pics, come on down!

[KevinFromTexas]

Oh my god, dude. Those are AWESOME! Mopacs, if I were you, I would seriously think about advertising those. They're fantastic. Add some to Emporis, set up a photo album account and advertise them. Whatever it takes. You know, Austin still has no good aerial postcards from after about 1997. Those are so cool. They're some of the best aerial pictures I've seen of Austin in years, no joke. They're great at showing the sites of all these future towers and helping to give you an idea of what downtown will look like. Awesome stuff, thanks so much for posting them. And yes, please do post the other cities. Did you get anything out in the hill country, too, or was it too cloudy? And did you get El Paso, or Midland? I guess you'd be pretty high up, though.

You should post those in City Photos also.

[427MM]

Rob, please go to LA more often. Those are great.

[Mopacs]

Originally Posted by KevinFromTexas

Oh my god, dude. Those are AWESOME! Mopacs, if I were you, I would seriously think about advertising those. They're fantastic. Add some to Emporis, set up a photo album account and advertise them. Whatever it takes. You know, Austin still has no good aerial postcards from after about 1997. Those are so cool. They're some of the best aerial pictures I've seen of Austin in years, no joke. They're great at showing the sites of all these future towers and helping to give you an idea of what downtown will look like. Awesome stuff, thanks so much for posting them. And yes, please do post the other cities. Did you get anything out in the hill country, too, or was it too cloudy? And did you get El Paso, or Midland? I guess you'd be pretty high up, though.

You should post those in City Photos also.

Thanks Kevin... I will definitely post some of the downtown pics on Emporis, and perhaps submit elsewhere. I simultaneously created this thread in City Photos too.

And yeah, I could not believe what I was seeing. When the plane took off to the north, I expected a more north-northwesterly path, perhaps taking us over the northern metro area. When the plane banked an immediate left after takeoff, I knew we were in for some great views. Next thing you know, downtown Austin appears entirely below us and I just let that camera go on Auto-Pilot! Luckily I managed to grab a few zoomed-in shots of downtown as well.

Its amazing how literally seconds after takeoff, we are directly over the center of the city. The downtown shots were taken over the course of 60-90 seconds tops. Within 10 minutes, Austin is gone... we're flying over the rural areas of the Hill Country.

As for the West Texas views... after the cloud deck cleared, we emerged over flat and dusty areas of west-central Texas. Unfortunately, we passed at least a hundred miles to the south of major West Texas cities such as San Angelo, Midland and Odessa. Had I been sitting on the opposite side of the plane, I would have had a great view of El Paso. The plane flew directly between El Paso and Las Cruces, so it was the New Mexico city I had a sweeping view of, instead (great shots of White Sands too).

I'll be posting those pics soon, so stay tuned!

[KevinFromTexas]

That's cool. We hardly ever see anything of Las Cruces. I wasn't aware that they even had a skyline until this year when I saw someone post a few pics of it on a flickr album.

[Mopacs]

Here are a few additional shots over Austin:

US183 (aka Ed Bluestein Blvd, in this stretch)





Freescale Semiconductor's East Austin campus (formerly Motorola)



Colorado River, just north of the airport



The lonesome control tower. Until a few years ago, it was surrounded on all sides by the Mueller terminal building



Colorado River valley... Lake Austin, and Lake Travis in the distance. Loop 360 and West Lake Hills in the foreground



Office buildings along Loop 360 (just west of Westlake HS)



Distant, hazy shot of North/Northwest Austin (Arboretum on the left) and Round Rock



River Place and huge 3M facility, near 2222 and 620



Southwest Parkway, Barton Creek and Colorado River valleys.



Another shot of Bee Cave, with Lake Austin/Colorado River at the top, peeking behind the tall wooded bluffs



Another hazy shot of Lake Travis



Again, I"ve got lots more on the way...

[GoldenBoot]

GREAT PICS, Mopacs! Thanks for posting them!! You aught to contact Teri or Amanda, down at the GACC, and see if you could sell some of those aerials!

[Mopacs]

Originally Posted by GoldenBoot

GREAT PICS, Mopacs! Thanks for posting them!! You aught to contact Teri or Amanda, down at the GACC, and see if you could sell some of those aerials!

Thanks golden! I'd definitely be open to selling the full-rez shots... feel free to PM me their contact info if possible.

[Mopacs]

I keep finding additional pics on my hard drive... so here are a few more (albeit very similar to those posted above):

Capitol Complex



UT's 40 Acres and State offices



Lower congress avenue, downtown



Lamar Blvd (West-End/Whole Foods area)



Mopac







West Lake Hills commercial district, Loop 360



More hazy NW Austin

[Mopacs]

And as promised earlier, here are some pics taken over West Texas, about 30-45 minutes after the Austin Pics were taken:

Emerging from the cloud-cover... SSW of San Angelo (not visible)



I believe this is the small town of Crane, TX (located on US 385, about 30-40 miles south of Odessa)



This appears to be the town of Monahans, along Interstate 20, halfway between Odessa and Pecos.



Military jets



The following images are of the Guadalupe Mountains National Park, home of the tallest mountains in Texas. At the bottom-left of this photo, you can make out the signature "El Capitan", at the southern edge of the park.

More Info...









Wide view... southern New Mexico's White Sands is visible in the distance

[KevinFromTexas]

Man Rob, I can't get over how cool these photos are. Awesome job, dude!

Where about was that military jet? It looks like it was a B-52, I l believe they're stationed at Dyess Air Force Base in Abilene.

And those are such cool shots of the Guadalupe Mountains. If you find anymore do post them, these are fantastic.

[GoldenBoot]

Originally Posted by KevinFromTexas

...Where about was that military jet? It looks like it was a B-52, I l believe they're stationed at Dyess Air Force Base in Abilene...

Are you sure it's not a KC-135? It looks to have a refeuling boom behind and below the tailfin.

Anyway, cool pic!!!!!

[sammyk]

Originally Posted by GoldenBoot

Are you sure it's not a KC-135? It looks to have a refeuling boom behind and below the tailfin.

Anyway, cool pic!!!!!

Nah, you can just about make out the double engine pods and the outer wing fuel tanks. That and the high wing. What you see behind it is just exhaust.

BTW, nice pics. AA MD-80?

[Mopacs]

Originally Posted by sammyk

BTW, nice pics. AA MD-80?

Yeah, it was some variation of an MD-80... a narrow-body American Airlines jet with two engines attached to the back of the fuselage.

Which brings me to my previous flight to LA (same model). I was seated at the only window of the plane that is COMPLETELY obscured by the back-right engine!...with only a tiny sliver of a view to the front of it. Man was I frustrated! It was 4th of July weekend, so seating choices were limited. If its any consolation to myself, the plane took off to the south and (from what I could barely see), flew well to the south of the above flightpath (I could sort of make out Slaughter, William Canon and south Mopac).

[AustinBob]

These pictures really are incredible. Thank you for posting them.