Tarbes-Lourdes 23-07-2022

[LifelinerOne]

Hej all!

My wife wanted to go to see Lourdes and who am I to deny that? Well, as long as we could make a quick stop at Tarbes-Lourdes. And so we drove the 1,5 hours to the airport and what was planned to be a quick stop ended up being an almost 1,5 hour session. Luckily the wife and kids were patient.

Anyway, this was my third visit in three years to the airport and every time they seem to reshuffle and reposition the aircraft at the airport. Enabling sometimes new opportunities to photograph aircraft that were not able during a previous visit. For the second time in a row, the weather wasn’t sunny but that prevented backlight.

With purpose I chose to visit the airport in the weekend, limiting issues with people trying to send you away. Roadworks are being conducted near the Tarmac hangar, enabling some new possibilities to photograph aircraft and you’re really close here to them, only divided by a small and flimsy fence. You need a very wide lens if you want to fit the aircraft, like 10mm.

Anyway, we began the tour at the road construction site, near the railway track and from there the following was photographed:

1. This former Air France A380 F-HPJE is now owned by the Dr. Peters Group, a lessor and registered in Malta as 9H-AIY. There’s no attempt to scrap this one (yet):
A388-AFR-9HAIY-LDE23jul22 by Anton Homma, on Flickr

2. Next to the Air France was this Azur Air B777-300ER VQ-BZB. This aircraft was supposed to be delivered to the Russian carrier in February, but the sanctions scrapped this plan and the plane was flown to Tarbes-Lourdes on 26 February. While I was there, mechanics were working on the plane and it had its APU running:
B773-AZR-VQBZB-LDE23jul22 by Anton Homma, on Flickr

3. From below the Azur, I could manage a better shot than I managed previously of this Airbus A340-300 F-WWAI, which was in use by Airbus as a flying testlab:
A343-AIB-FWWAI-LDE23jul22 by Anton Homma, on Flickr

4. This Wamos Air A330-200 is now registered officially as OE-IBG by CAMO Solutions. It’s the former EC-LNH and has been at Tarbes-Lourdes since November 2021. It has no registration applied:
A332-WMS-OEIBG-LDE23jul22 by Anton Homma, on Flickr

5. The end of the line for this A330-200. This aircraft is registered EI-EWH and owned by lessor Pembroke. It was supposed to go to National in 2019 but never taken-up. It has now moved to the scrapping corner:
A332-NAT-EIEWH-LDE23jul22 by Anton Homma, on Flickr

6. Being parted out is this former easyJet A319. It’s now registered OE-ITY by lessor AerCap but you might now it better as G-EZMK or HB-JZM:
A319-EZY-OEITY-LDE23jul22 by Anton Homma, on Flickr

7. A shot of the ramp from the roadwork construction site:
TarbesLourdesRamp23jul22 by Anton Homma, on Flickr

8. A flying airliner at Tarbes-Lourdes was something I never experienced but today was the day in the form of this Volotea A319 EC-MUY departing for a scheduled flight to Naples:
A319-VOL-ECMUY-LDE23jul22 by Anton Homma, on Flickr

9. Hainan A350-900 B-30DM again shows how close you are to the fence. A 10mm shot with the wing almost over my head:
A359-HAI-B30DM-LDE23jul22 by Anton Homma, on Flickr

10. We moved positions to the other side of the hangar where the corn field was now mowed, enabling a view on that side of the apron again. Unfortunately, this Etihad A380 A6-API was blocking most of the view:
A388-ETI-A6API-LDE23jul22 by Anton Homma, on Flickr

11. Next to the Etihad was this former Avianca A321 N696AV:
A321-AVI-N696AV-LDE23jul22 by Anton Homma, on Flickr

12. And left of the Etihad was this former Turkish A330-300 TC-LOL, now registered as OE-LDJ by ICBC Leasing:
A333-THY-OELDJ-LDE23jul22 by Anton Homma, on Flickr

13. And behind the Etihad I was able to grab this shot of A320 VQ-BCY of Ural Airlines:
A320-URL-VQBCY-LDE23jul22 by Anton Homma, on Flickr

14. Then we drove to the other side of the airport (the terminal side), where I first photographed this A340-300 9H-ACY of South African, which is the former ZS-SXB:
A343-SAA-9HACY-LDE23jul22 by Anton Homma, on Flickr

15. There were three Mango B737-800s present at Tarbes-Lourdes, one with a South African registration and two with a US one, including this N259GE:
B738-MGO-N259GE-LDE23jul22 by Anton Homma, on Flickr

16. Also very convenient is that they moved the two Air Côte d’Ivoire A319s to this side, close to the fence. During my previous visits I wasn’t able to photograph them. Seen here is EI-GWK:
A319-IVR-EIGWK-LDE23jul22 by Anton Homma, on Flickr

17. And I’m ending my set with this former Thai A330-300, now registered as 2-MAFS by Orix Aviation and was previously the HS-TBC:
A333-TGA-2MAFS-LDE23jul22 by Anton Homma, on Flickr

Hope you enjoyed the report! You can see a few more pictures here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/lifeliner ... 245680426/

Cheers!

[YS11]

Nice set of birds.

[SWAT 11]

all taken from outside the field?

[VH3D]

I think in US only GYR offers this kind of level of access to photograph. Maybe VCV in some level too, but only because of the loooong fence line.
Nice shots!

[LifelinerOne]

all taken from outside the field?

Yes, all from outside the fence. Be prepared to wade through the cornfields to get close to some of the aircraft.

Cheers!

[LifelinerOne]

I think in US only GYR offers this kind of level of access to photograph. Maybe VCV in some level too, but only because of the loooong fence line.
Nice shots!

Earlier this year I was very disappointed when visiting Goodyear due to ongoing construction work, preventing access to the fence.

And, indeed, Victorville was nice but can be difficult sometimes but I did enjoy myself there in March.

Thanks for the comments!

Cheers!

[janneman36]

Well Tarbes is not one off the busiest airports but easily accessible I had some active airliners like an air Austral triple 7’s and F100’s and some Air Corsica Atr72’s in the past..
Because I have family over there I sometimes stop by like Anton..
Thank you for posting these Anton

Cheers, Jan