SXM - St. Maarten. Spotter's Paradise!

A few from the Sonesta Hotel. KLM B747-400 crossing the fence and touching down.
Shot with Canon 5DmkII & 100-400 mm lens.

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Bigger!!!!!!

New Airbus A-330-200 Air Caraibes departing SXM at sunset on Rwy 28 from Sonesta Hotel. Awesome paint scheme! My new favorite at SXM. I love this place! Canon 5DmkII with 100-400 mm. Larger file this time. Sorry for the smaller KLM ones.

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Great location!

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You're so lucky. How long are you staying there? Keep posting some more and hit the beach

Very jealous. The closest I can get to that place is when the Air Caribes 330s come in here for maintenance.

Chris

aviator.4.life wrote in post #9636560
You're so lucky. How long are you staying there? Keep posting some more and hit the beach

Hi, I will be at SXM this Saturday and I've already got my afternoon planned out, weather permitting. We stay for a 25 hr layover and our hotel is the Sonesta. Very convenient! Since it is wintertime and the sun is a bit lower in the sky (more southerly), I like the lighting and view from the Sunset Bar & Grill side of the runway and Maho Beach. It's hard to beat the "look down" view from the Sonesta but I've got to be careful that my shots are not backlit by the sun. I don't want just silhouettes of the landing aircraft.

I highly recommend the fresh mahi mahi burger meal. Delicious! Since I'll be there on a Saturday and it is their 'high' season, air traffic at SXM should be great! AF's A-340 is daily service but KLM's B-747 only arrive there on Tu/Th/Sa. Corsair's B-747 service is also not daily. I was stunned at the gorgeous new A-330-200 in Air Caraibes colors when I first saw it. The largest a/c I had seen from that company was a Cessna Caravan so seeing a shiny new A-330 was amazing!

One of my most fun experiences at SXM was this past summer. I was checking out the HD video capabilities of the Canon 5D2. I had it all set up on a solid tripod on the beach on the extended centerline of the runway. It was about 1000 AM and not much air traffic yet as SXM doesn't really come to life until midday and into the afternoon. On the horizon I saw a large twin engined propeller driven a/c. I looked through another camera with a 24-105 mm lens. It looked like a DC-3 BUT it had a nose gear and not a taildragger. What was it? As it got closer I got a better view. It was a 1954 vintage Convair 440. N153JR is the registration. It's used as a cargo plane throughout the Caribbean. The pilots spotted me and buzzed me on the beach. It was GREAT! The video is fantastic. I had a Rode external stereo video mic on the 5D2. The stereo effect of the big recips being pulled to idle, the jugs unwinding, the props slowing down....Wow!


I highly recommend a trip to SXM for anyone who is a photography nut and an airplane nut! I'm guilty on both counts. I don't recommend standing behind the departing a/c! That is for the unwitting or foolish. I don't want to be picking sand out of my camera and lens equipment or my eyes! I leave that foolishness to the tourista.

Cheers,

Brian

Sounds like a ton of fun. If I were to go, which would be probably once in my life I'd at least have to stay for a couple weeks. What airline do you fly for? Also do you have a link to that vid? I'd love to see it.

The video of the 1954 vintage Convair 440 is now up on YouTube. It took a while to upload but it is there. Do a search for: SXM 1954 vintage Convair 440. Enjoy!

Brian