Plane spotting...

[Stavro35]

What are your favorite places to go plane spotting?

Are there any airports that are "plane spotting" friendly?

What are your best "plane spotting" stories?


What are your worst?

To answer my own questions ..

1. My old home town Saint simons island Georgia. I asked the airport manager for permission to stand out side the fence of (SSI) to watch and listen to planes and snap pictures. .I got some pretty good ones at times. Shannon Ireland,any where near the airport will work out well. Also right here on Bainbridge island Washington.. When the sky's are clear I can go out and see mostly commerical flights arriving and departing from Boeing field and SEATAC. Rarely do I see anything related to the coast guard or military.


The best "plane spotting" story actually involved support aircraft for the 2004 G8 Summit held on Sea island Georgia with the support aircraft having taken over the airport on the island (SSI).. The worst also from this event. Riding my bike along the bike path I notice out of the corner of my eye a car coming down the street at a pretty good clip. .They pulled up in front of me and "detained" me for about a half hour. They let me go and didn't take my camera or scanner.

 

[w0fg]

My best story? Standing on the end of the runway at the local airport while the commercial pilot for a local corporation flew a Lockeed Jetstar over my head at 50 ft. during the filming of a promotional video they were doing for the NBAA show. Can't spot 'em much closer than that!

2nd best...standing along side Runway 16-34 when a local pilot did a high-speed low pass in an Aerostar loaded with passengers and followed it up with two aileron rolls on climb out.

Being a pilot and member of the airport commission has its privileges.

Eastern Iowa Airport (CID) has a plane watching area, or at least they did. I haven't checked it recently, but I watched my wife's airline flight from Florida coming in as I drove up to that airport last night while listening to the comms on my Kenwood D700 in the truck.

 

[Colin9690]

The Ohio State University airport in Columbus has made it's old control tower into a public viewing area. It has an amazing view of the whole airport. There is alot of traffic there, many business jets and other private aircraft, especially when the Muirfield Golf Tournament is in town.

 

[trainman111]

I like going to the local Richmond International. It's going to be pretty difficult to go without getting questioned now because a bunch of idiots decided to video tape planes while they were next to the runway. The also had a loaded shotgun and discharged shells in the truck. They were arrested...

 

[N9JIG]

What are your favorite places to go plane spotting?

Are there any airports that are "plane spotting" friendly?

What are your best "plane spotting" stories?

What are your worst?

See http://www.radioreference.com/forums/showthread.php?t=59060 for some Chicago area observations on this very subject.

 

[jscott02]

The Ohio State University airport in Columbus has made it's old control tower into a public viewing area. It has an amazing view of the whole airport. There is alot of traffic there, many business jets and other private aircraft, especially when the Muirfield Golf Tournament is in town.

Didnt know that about OSU. I'll have to check it out. I usually just park in the lot by the FBO along the fence line. How often do you go there?

 

[austinscan1]

plane spotting spots

Easy, the observation area at Ft. Lauderdale (FLL). Sitting on Hollyweird beach, or the junkyard corner of Opa-locka (OPF).

 

[VernM]

Attention you plane spotters! Want to get in touch with the masters of this hobby? The web site for Air Britain will give you an eyefull (www.aiarbritain.com). They've been at it for many decades. Even have a monthly magazine devoted to the rare, the really different and the touching and going of just about anything that flies anywhere in the world.

 

[DaveNF2G]

Hancock International Airport and Air National Guard Base in Syracuse, NY, has a designated plane watching area and they rebroadcast tower audio over a frequency in the FM broadcast band.

Albany International Airport in Colonie, NY, has a spotting area just off the main highway outside the fence. There are also two big signs with illustrations of the various commercial and military aircraft that can be seen often.

Never had any spectacularly good or bad experiences watching planes. Sometimes it's been a good cheap date.

 

[Steveradio]

That sounds like a Good idea, talked with local PSP units and they get tired of stopping every time they see people parked on the wrong side of the street to watch the airport traffic.

I am from the Lehigh Valley, Pa. and we have the Lehigh Valley International Airport (LVIA/ABE) former Allentown - Bethlehem - Easton Regional Airport. I take my son along with me and normally have no problems finding a spot along Postal Rd or Catasauqua Rd North of the Airport.

They decomissioned the old tower a couple years ago and built a new one mid field on the north side of the airport. The old tower sits empty but this would make a great observation point for on-lookers and better control for enforcement. However the observation deck at the main terminal was closed off after 9/11 which was also a great spot to watch.

PSP gets to know the regulars after awhile and they just drive by and wave, sometimes they will stop and talk to you. You would think us regulars would notice something more not wright than employees of the airport or police that just drive by or check to see what we are doing.

Steve

 

[DaveNF2G]

Monroe County Airport (now Greater Rochester International) used to have a rooftop deck on the terminal where people could watch planes. I remember watching my mother get onto a flight to NYC around 1963. The deck was closed after the airlines converted to jets.

The old terminal building is long gone now. There are places inside the new terminal where you can see some of the airport, but plane watching is not really encouraged.

 

[Colin9690]

Didnt know that about OSU. I'll have to check it out. I usually just park in the lot by the FBO along the fence line. How often do you go there?

I used to go all the time, but I don't as much anymore. Actually that tower is a conference room that businesses can rent to meetings and such, but there is usually no one up there, so I just sneak up there. The management is fine with it, as long as there is no one having a meeting in it.

 

[b52hbuff]

What are your favorite places to go plane spotting?

Are there any airports that are "plane spotting" friendly?

What are your best "plane spotting" stories?

My favorite place is to hang out by the landing strip. You'd be surprised how many more airplanes you'll spot that way.

I am not aware of any airport that are PS friendly in the SF Bay area. Shortly after 9/11 SFO removed a very nice place to watch that they deemed was too close to the runways. I think it is a designate 'limo parking' spot now.

Best? Like in what I saw? Planespotting near old Castle AFB was fun when Buffs were in the patter. Plane spotting at Travis used to be fun when they'd allow you on base. I would always get 'lost' and find a great spot where the airplanes would almost fly over hear.

...ah the old days when the only enemies were the Soviets, I miss those days...

If you mean "Best?" like getting hassled and surviving...

I had an MP come out and ID me at Edwards one time. I was right in the 'triangle' of the offramp to the North Gate access road, many, many yards from the base. I was respectful and polite and so was he.

I was near Pope AFB, pre-9/11 and there was some pretty amazing field access. Some MP ended up shinging a spot on me encouraging me to keep moving...

And within the last year SF PD @ SFO educated me that 'No Parking' means no sitting in your car either...

 

[Stavro35]

For plane spotting in the Seattle area. I'd like to add the Seattle/Bainbridge ferry route. Once you're within a few minutes of Seattle,look up!

 

[b7spectra]

I love taking pictures at PDK (DeKalb Peachtree) as it's a VERY friendly airport to shoot at. They even have an observation area built for everyone to watch/shoot from. ATL (Atlanta) is VERY UNfriendly about shooting from their property. I have been threatened with arrest and being turned over to the FBI by the over zealous APD officers there. I have to shoot from outside of Atlanta jurisdiction, which is real funny because I was approached once by a US Air Marshal who actually told me about the great places to shoot from that were NOT on Atlanta property! Now I shoot totally unharrassed by APD!

MGE (Dobbins ARB) is also a great place to shoot from, but I have been "detained" by Marietta Police a couple times while they checked me out because the security guys at MGE wanted to know who I was. I now shoot "out of range" of their cameras!

http://www.airport-data.com/photographers/Michael+Martin;78/ will show my shots!

 

[RyGuy009]

theres a big hill behind my house in calgary AB. the airport is just over the hill but i cant get a goos siginal on some frequencies. during stampede week, i was listining to ATC and they were advising other traffic to look out for the blimps flying ouround. it was pretty cool.

 

[live911]

The end of runway 13R @ Boeing Field (King Co) in Seattle, WA watching the Blue Angels soar over my head and trying to capture it with an SLR camera while listening to the pilots do run-ups on my scanner.

 

[radio10-8]

At SJC 2 places to see good stuff, 1st is dirt lot north of Hedding St. between HY87 & Coleman ave. 2nd is at SJJC San Jose Jet Center, park in teh lot go inside air conditioned lobby and just hang out.

 

[acarsnut]

Well if you ever get to charlotte douglas international in charlotte nc.Dont go to the lookout area at the end of 18r.Its loaded with gays and lesbians doing all kinds of stuff.I didnt know this until I seen this mess going on and called the airport police.And the airport police never catch them at it!! Its been on the news over the years.Would be a nice place if they would clean it up.Use to take my laptop and scanners and decode acars there.Now I just decode from home.

So find another area around the airport but not the lookout area!!!!

 

[CLB]

I'm a line supervisor at KCHS/ AFB, so I see it all anyways. I have to tell people almost every day that they can't take pictures of the base. It's usually some numbnuts with a telephoto lens stepping out of a Lear and the first words out of his mouth are "OOOOHHH!!!! Look at those big C-130 cargo jet airplanes!" (we have C-17's here). I've also seen MANY people loose a $300+ camera when either the AF SF's or the Airport Authority Police confiscate it.

Best plane spotting would have to be the B-1 doing a pretty d*mn fast flyover of rwy 15 last year. There's also the Antonov 124 we get every now and then, and all the F-18's, Harriers, T-1, 6, 37, 38, 45's we get nearly every weekend. Makes for an interesting job.

Worst would be the usual IFE at least 2-3 times a week...You never know how bad it's really going to be until the aircraft is safe at the terminal/ GA/ AFB ramp. Haven't first hand witnessed a crash yet, but have seen the aftermath (10 minutes after the earliest, and quite firey I might add) numerous times.