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Not much happening at OAK lately so a couple heavies just for the hell of it. Finally got the MD-11 from UPS lot today, turning onto taxiway Bravo from taxiway R (7-4-2025). Not sure exactly but it's much closer to the UPS lot vantage point than the other turn. Also a photo of a 777 departure. The Fed-Ex 777s are -200s but still equipped with the GE-90s which still look ridiculously large. Happy 4th!

Edit: Wtf, just saw a UPS MD-11 land on rwy 28L today (7-10-2025) on FR24. I did see it in a holding pattern due to a stopped jet on rwy 30 but I never in a million years thought it would land on a 6000 ft runway. I did make it to OAK in time for the Fed Ex MD-11 that was also in a holding pattern but naturally it fucked off to SFO and the Fed Ex 767 immediately behind it landed on 30 right after. Huh??? This one stung

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Gridiron 772 at OAK today (6-19-2025). I've never heard of this airline but it arrived from Vacaville which is interesting. As per usual, no idea why it was here or what/who it's transporting. Always cool to see a big plane at North Field, though. Interestingly, had to administer my wife's pio shot right after photographing this thing. The timing is always on point, lol. The livery is pretty typical private jet fare but the silver cowlings on those Rolls Royce engines are nice. Reg on this former Delta 777 is N865DA. edit: hah, Emirates a380 diverted to OAK later today. Unfortunately it's impossible to get a good picture of it from where it's parked, but still pretty cool. So far I've only seen BA's a380 divert here. I could only get this picture off rwy 30 in pretty deplorable conditions (heat haze and oak-lit, lol) but it was pretty neat seeing it take off from there.

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Fuck all happening at OAK as of late, which is normal most days of the year. I was reminded of the largest plane I've seen land at North Field, a USAF C-17. The photo is dreadful (shot panning through a fence at night) but at least it was a cool memory. I also wonder what happened to Kaiser Air's 735 "Victoria". Got a picture of it returning to North Field after a test flight a while back and that was the last I saw of it...

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Air X's a343 at OAK's North Field yesterday (5-25-2025) after arriving from Deols, France. No idea why it was here, as usual. It ended up departing today at 4pm for Seville, but owing to the fact that there aren't really any spots to photograph the plane in good light at that time, I decided to be lazy, haha. I do like the "BIG" part of the jet's registration. Also got some cool lighting conditions before sunset though I wish that stupid generator thing wasn't blocking the plane's front gear in the last photo. Also was surprised to see another person spotting at OAK. It was fun trying not to trip over him in order to find the best spot shooting through the fence for the middle photo. He didn't seem terribly interested in interacting so I didn't say anything.

edit: found out the jet was chartered by Justin Timberlake for his performance in Napa. Why not charter a 747 next time, my man??

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Fex Ex and UPS' a300s at OAK. The a300 is Airbus' first production aircraft as well as the first twin engine wide body airliner, presumably ever.

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Another morning spent at Oyster Bay Regional Park in San Leandro overlooking OAK's runway 30 (5-20-2025). Nothing to really write home about, but it's always nice to arrive there on a clear morning with minimal heat haze. The special livery on the Hawaiian a321 looks pretty cool. Looking forward to the Lilo and Stitch live action remake which is the first disney remake I can say that about. Casting for Lilo and Nani seems on point and Stitch also looks good and is still voiced by Chris Sanders. I can't believe Ving Rhames wasn't cast as Bubbles though. I always imagined that character was modeled after him in the original.

edit: saw the Lilo and Stitch remake with the wife today at Regal in JLS (5-23-2025) and, sadly, it was not good. Disney continues to strike out with their live action remakes. Some nice moments and the casting for Lilo and Nani was decent but, I dunno, the movie just felt flat with a lot of forced emotional moments shoehorned in at the end to try to salvage it...

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Slim pickings at OAK as of late (minus the C-5 visit, of course). Everts MD-83 landing 28R at north field shortly after sunset and an Alliance E190 taxiing past the big hanger to north field shortly before sunset. Curiously, the e190 used the full length of runway 30's 10500 ft when landing, maybe to preserve the brakes/fresh paint? Kind of cool seeing these former Jet Blue e190s make a pit stop at OAK before continuing their journey to, presumably, Australia. Besides Alliance, I've seen a former Jet Blue e190 repainted as Air North and a couple a319s repainted for Qantaslink. They all make fuel stops as well as giving the crews rest before heading to Hawaii for another fuel stop...

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Got damn, thanks to J-hawk for the heads up about FRED going to OAK (4-21-2025)! After missing the 74 that headed to north field in December, I was pretty down as I got into the game a bit late and missed the AN-225 at south field and two AN-124s at north field in 2018/2019(!). I've been wanting to see a fat fuck at north field in the 4-5 years I've been spotting at OAK and yesterday I was finally able to see one. This C-5 based at Travis AFB carried an old legacy hornet to OAK to be transported to the USS Hornet in Alameda. The heat haze this time of year is getting pretty bad so I opted for angles that are closer to the plane. I did get my typical hanger 9 shot though it's fairly heat hazed. The heat haze dissuaded me from going for a shot of it passing the hangers on its way out, but maybe I should have opted for it instead of the shot of it taxiing to rwy 30, I dunno. In any case, very stoked to see this. It was pretty surreal to see something this large taxiing around what is essentially a general aviation airport (not really but sort of, haha)

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Some pictures and a collage of USA Jet's MD-80s and 727s at OAK over the last few years. The night shot was taken yesterday (4-19-2025). A rather like that red/blue "retro" livery on the MD-80 a bit more than the dots livery but the dots is kinda cool as well. A couple interesting notes. The first officer (?) waved to the camera in the taxi shot of the MD-80 with the retro livery. The bottom right photo shows a MD-80 passing over Hegenberger. You can see what used to be the sign for the Hilton as well as other hotels in the background. It's a pretty depressing drive coming off the 880 and heading to North Field but at least the planes are cool, I guess.

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I realized I don't have many pictures of the a380, which is weird considering I've been on the Emirates a380 from SFO to Dubai for a work trip. In the top photo, the daughter wearing the pink helmet asked "what is that"? and I could have sworn the dad replied "are you fucking stupid? Emirates a380"! His hand gesture corroborates my story! The 2nd and 3rd pics are of the a380 departing SFO (12-12-2022). At this point Emirates was still using its 777 as there was doubt that air travel would pick back up due to Covid and the prevailing opinion was that the a380's days were numbered. The a380 was sent this day due to some 5G rollout issues or something. I took the day off work to capture what I thought might be the last a380 into SFO. Interestingly, strong winds came out of the north the following day necessitating the elusive arrivals on the 1s but I was unable to get another day off. Naturally, air travel did pick back up and the Emirates a380 is now a daily occurrence at SFO and we haven't had another 1s landing since. Kevin Page, ladies and gentlemen, always backing the wrong horse, lol...

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The Solidaire plastic princess visiting OAK again (4-10-2025). A lot of interesting history with this plane even though the 787 is not old. My understanding is that it is used for flights for refugees among other humanitarian efforts. It used to have images of a female Iranian student who was killed by "law enforcement" for refusing to cover her face and a footballer who was thrown in prison for protesting her wrongful death on the tail. Shown here in it's "new" livery, which is a lot more unassuming, heading past hangers 8 and 10 towards hanger 9. Not sure why it was here this night...

edit: The Solidaire 787 departed this morning (4-12-2025) in pretty decent morning light (8:30-ish am). I had an airport ops truck observing me around DHL and Earhart road making sure I didn't get up to anything suspicious. My car is pretty easily identifiable as we still haven't replaced the rear quarter panel that was busted by a bipper last year, haha. The heat haze on departure off rwy 30 was pretty tragic from my vantage point up until the jet got quite a bit up in the air, sadly. Cool seeing it taxi past the 28s at North Field, though...

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A couple Aeronaves 737s and a German Airforce A400 at OAK. The 737s are from Feb of this year and the A400 is from yesterday (4-2-2025). I guess everything is going to show up at night now, haha

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First interesting thing at OAK in over a month: an Avro RJ85 Tanker stopping by for a refueling stop before departing for Vancouver (3-30-2025). I was reminded of the Dornier 328s that fly to Crescent City up north and actually thought they were actually a shittier version of the RJ85. I know nothing!

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A pair of Raptors arriving at OAK (10-9-2024) for Fleet week. A buddy of mine managed to get photos of them doing low level as they headed from Socal to the bay. Pretty pumped to see these though they arrived during the worst heat haze I've ever seen since I began spotting. Even at a short distance from this spot, they're slightly affected. The second jet is also a wee bit worse as I think it caught a bit of the exhaust trailing the first jet. Doh!

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Not a whole lot going on at OAK lately. Shout out to my new favorite airline that still has service out of OAK, though. I've only flown with them a handful of times so far but I haven't witnessed any unruly customers and the flights are way cheaper than Southwest. Interestingly, seems they spend a lot more time sorting out any weight distribution issues before departure than any airline I've been on, I wonder why...

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After some thinking, I think the F-15 is my favorite fast mover. Hard to capture the "fweep" sounds made by the afterburner nozzle actuators in photos though. Still deciding if I want to go to 25-2, we'll see...

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A F-18 followed by a 39 year old 737-200 arriving at OAK today (2-25-2025)! I'm so used to seeing the CFMs on the 737 that the JT8D engines look strange. Gotta love the JT8Ds, though. Glad to finally get a picture of a 732 in good light. Couldn't get an angle with the reg fully visible but it's N467TW, a charter plane of Ameristar. I wonder why it doesn't have the airlines titles on it. Oh yeah, the F-18 was cool too, haha