Plane-Spotting

Post Reply New Topic

I do plane-spotting, I do life near to a quite small airport, but still "international" airport, which is only 2 km from where I live.
But there are only 12 departures and 12 arrivals per day, but I am very happy that they introduced a B-737-800 and an Embrear E 190 for flights to Spain and Italy and Germany.
The other planes are Fokker-50 and Avro RJ85.
But I like the big passenger planes.
I see the planes through a roof window or walking outside or in the reflection in the windows of the houses opposite my window sitting at my laptop.
I know the time when they depart or arrive.
They fly quite low already and I love the visuals, not so much the noise (but I can differenciate the noise knowing which plane is departing or arriving).
There are also smaller airplanes departing and arriving from that airport, but I have no interest in them, I find their noise annoying (especially in the weekend they are with many).
Sometimes I wish I'd live closer to the next big airport, but it is 50 km from here, I'd wish to see more planes.
And more variety.
Passenger airplanes have been my special interest as a child and teenager, but now they are not that much special interest anymore in the sense I am involved with them all the time, but still I am very interested in them.
I also watch them on YouTube, but not all day.
Are here more people plane-spotting or train-spotting or other-things-spotting (I don't know what-spotting, but there might be other things).

I like planes.

If you go to Rosedale, Queens, New York City, you'll see planes literally only 50 feet above you landing at Kennedy Airport.

We do train spotting - my boys absolutely love trains as well as myself. We would do more plane spotting but the local airport is really really tiny and slow. I want to take the boys to an airshow one of these days. I think they'd love it.

I go plane-spotting at LAX.
I saw A380 there.
There's some hills and park where I can see planes take off towards the ocean.
And a small patch of grass across from in-n-out where planes approach to land and fly right above.
Perfect to combine with yummy burger and milkshake of course.

I used to do plane spotting when I was little. I really liked helicopters too.

Now I do a lot of cat spotting.
I have several flower gardens and I like to do Mantis spotting.
I have both Chinese and Carolina Mantis.



Whenever you spot a Mantis they usually spot you back.

Those are beautiful mantids! We don't have many out here and I actually don't know what kind they are... typically small and brownish, though I have seen bright green ones.

I think Mantids are beautiful too, and the babies are cute.
That one is a baby. They usually come out in late May or early June depending on where you live.

Carolina Mantis are smaller, with very slight differences. Chinese Mantis are larger. Of course I'm talking about the adults.

I always have them in my flower gardens, and lots of butterflies.

I would love to see that!
I landed once at JFK when I was a teenager for a 3-hour transit stop.
I sometimes watch videos on YouTube about St. Maartens Airport SXM, where the planes almost seem to land on the top of people's heads, who are spotting them.

I have never been to an airshow, but if I would go, I would take noise-cannceling headphones as at an airshow there are lots of fighter jets which make lots of noise, and I have tried very good noise-cannceling headphones a week ago, but they cost around $300.

I would love to visit LAX one day for plane-spotting.
I have never seen the A380 in real, but would love to.
I would also love to visit Mojave Air & Space Port, it's in California too.
Have you ever been there?

When I was I child is was fascinated by the Chinook-helicopter, there were many flying around where I lived, I think because there was an area for military practice.
I also spot my cats and the cats in the neighborhood in the evening, when they run around.
Last year I saved a Mantis-little-one from drowning, he was very light green like the one on the top foto but still a little-one as the head was really big and the torso and extremities in comparison smaller than on the fotos, he had a diameter of about 4-5cm, and he kept sitting on my hand, but he was beautiful to look at and he also looked at me.

St. Maarten's Airport:

I love planes.

I have loved them since I was about two, and the quality of my enjoyment of them is basically unchanged, though I know more about them now!

I am in a place where I can see planes going in an out of Teterboro (lots of exec jets of all kinds), Newark (lots of international and regional passenger flights and major cargo operations for FedEx and UPS) and Morris Municipal (smaller GA aircraft). I see all types of Airbus from the 380 on down and Boeings large and small. There are a lot of Bombardier regional jets and Dash-8s. Every now and then some military aircraft land at EWR. We also see the Thunderbirds and Blue Angels flying up the Hudson when they do local shows.

The restaurant at IKEA Elizabeth has a fantastic view of EWR and I sometimes go there for a coffee to just sit and watch takeoffs and landings. No one in my family shares my enthusiasm, though, so I don't have much time for this. My family obligations always come first.

We went to an airshow at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst and it was amazing. B-1s, F/A-18s, F-16s, C-17s, a beautiful old Corsair, B-24, C-5s, F-15s, an MQ-1, a Marine airborne assault demonstration and we got to meet two of the Tuskeegee airmen... an amazing day. Earplugs absolutely required. Admission was free.

You seem to live in a really great place.
Do you see them from your window?

Not usually because the sight lines are not right. but when I am in the back garden on on the front lawn or anywhere in the neighborhood, I see them. When I look North or East and runway 6 or 1 is active at Teterboro, I see all the exec jets going in. They are particularly busy on certain days (e.g., lots of inbound exec jets on Sunday afternoon/evening)

When I look South, East or North, I see inbound and outbound traffic from Newark. I love the livery on those Lufthansa heavies.

There are many United flights out of Newark and I sometimes see that distinctive Southwest livery.

I guess Newark is a big Star Alliance hub--there are always some large aircraft there with the Star Alliance tail marking. I don't understand what those are, and I never got round to looking it up.* don't understand how that entity works.

I often use FlightAware on my phone or PC to figure out what flight a particular aircraft is and where it is going. I sometimes listen to LiveATC while watching.

When I look west, I can see GA aircraft going into Morristown though it is much less busy than the others. There is a ridge over my town with a spectacular view of New York and the harbor and Newark airport is right in the center of that view.

* Just looked it up:
http://travel.stackexchange.com/questio ... cal-planes
A branding exercise using member aircraft.

I like spotting planes too, but it isn't a strong interest - I am just curious what plane it is and check http://www.flightradar24.com/ when I hear a plane flying low over my house.
I live about 40 kms from 2 airports (Kraków KRK/EPKK on east, Katowice KTW/EPKT on northwest) so I can spot low (as long as you consider 4kms "low" ) flying planes a few times a day. During regular days I can see the 21:10 plane flying from Kraków to Dublin(DUB) and not many more but the days when wind changes are quite interesting. A lot of planes to Kraków fly over me while flying in rounds, preparing their way to the airport and some planes from Katowice fly over my house on their way to south.

I also find plane crashes interesting. I always read what I can about the incident whenever I hear a plane crashed somewhere in the world.