Dusseldorf Airport’s railway station observation is currently closed. The whole building seems to be going through reconstruction. Sadly this is probably the best viewing area at the airport, but all is not lost since the observation deck in the terminal building is still open.

I spent a little time at Heathrow recently – my first dedicated spotting visit since the Queens Building viewing area closed. It had certainly been some time!

This was a good thing, however, as plenty of new aircraft went into the log, and I was pleased to see my first A380s at close quarters.

Now, since there’s no official viewing area, I thought I’d check out the alternatives. My main focus was on the Myrtle Avenue area, underneath the flightpath to runway 27L. This tied in well, since aircraft were landing on that runway.

To get there, head for Hatton Cross tube station, then cross over the A30 and turn immediately right onto Hatton Road. Myrtle Avenue is the first right. Click here to see a map of the area.

This is a residential street, so don’t park outside the houses. Go to the end, where you should find a space. Better still – park at the underground station and walk.

There is a large open area here which is perfect for photos when aircraft are landing on 27L. It is also quite a good spot for watching action on the ground. You won’t be able to photograph anything on the airfield or other runway, but you can quite easily see registrations.

Here are a couple of pictures from Myrtle Avenue.

Singapore A380 over Myrtle Avenue

Lufthansa Regional RJ85

Oman Air's leased A330 at Heathrow

Andy Bowden of Plane Spotting Hotels website reports on what is regarded one of the best hotels for aircraft spotting at Singapore’s Changi Airport. He writes…

I would rate this hotel as probably one of the best all round hotels in the world for aircraft viewing and photography. As an added bonus, from the rooms mentioned below the occasional movement from Seleter Airport can seen in the distance. The hotel is situated in an excellent location, connected to terminal 3 at Singapore airport. The hotel is a short walk from the terminal 3 viewing area. The viewing areas on terminal 1 and 2 are a short 5 minute ride on the airport monorail, the station of which is a 2 minute walk from the hotel. The airport restaurants are expensive, however a wide range of food courts, as well as a supermarket can be found in the terminals. If you decide to order room service to allow you to eat and spot a typical American Style breakfast of ham, eggs and hash browns is around £8, a pizza for dinner is around £11.

For the ideal views you require a room on the 7th, 8th or 9th floorending in *02, *04, *06, *08, *09, *10, *11, *12. These rooms give a fantastic view over the right hand runway in front of terminal 3. The hotel corridor is open plan allowing you to walk out of the room into the corridor to see movements on the busy central runway (SBS and a scanner is helpful for you to monitor movements on the central runway as you do need to leave your room to see this runway). At busy times the right hand runway is used for arrivals only, however in moderate to quiet times a mixed mode operation is in force therefore you do require a means of monitoring the central runway to ensure that you do not miss the movements. Be warned, the above rooms all are reported to have the one large queen size bed, therefore if there are 2 of you be prepared to get cosy (or a roll away bed is available for a costly £30 a night). Photos can be taken from the room although the windows are tinted. A 10 second walk from the room will take you to an opening on the outside corridor where superb outdoor shots can be taken (80-200mm for aircraft on the taxiway, 200-400mm for runway shots). Morning to early afternoons are best with the sun behind you. Examples of the view from the rooms can be seen at http://www.plane-spotting-hotels.com/plane_spotting_singapore_airport.htm.

The aim of the rip was to see as many Singapore 777 as possible prior to them withdrawing the older ones. After two and a half days we came away with all but 8. All of the A380′s were seen within the first day and a half. The new A330′s were harder with the final 1 of the 5 seen at lunchtime of the finalday. All A340′s were also seen, these creep in early (0500ish) and depart mid morning, and are away from base for a couple of days due to the length of the flights to New York and LAX.

Things get a little quiet between 1100-1400 giving you the opportunityto wizz into Singapore on the local train (about £2 each way) and see the sights.

The brand new, modern airport facility at Yangyang in South Korea cost $400m to build. Yet it now has no operators, with the last commercial flight having left in November 2008.

A really interesting video: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/8055957.stm

With Manchester United in the final of the Champions League against Barcelona, which is being held in Rome on Wednesday 27th May, Manchester Airport is expecting a whole host of extra charter flights.

TAS Manchester‘s website has the full list of what’s due, and a schedule. Be warned, most will operate early in the morning and late at night!

The Aviation Viewing Park at Manchester Airport will open at 5am on 27th and 28th May. Normal prices apply.

Click here for the list of flights.

A large number of flights will also operate on 26th May.

Those of you in Barcelona or Rome will also be treated to a large number of extra flights on those days.

As a way to combine trips to (sometimes) far-flung places, with like-minded enthusiasts for company, aviation tour companies offer a great outlet for our hobby.

Some of the better known companies operating in the UK are:
Aeroprints
Ian Allan Tours
The Aviation Society

The immediate benefits of taking one of these tours, first and foremost, include the potential quality of the aircraft you’ll see. Whilst everyone’s logbooks contain different aircraft, the beauty of aviation tours is that you can pick somewhere that will be beneficial to you.

Another big benefit is that most organisations pre-arrange access to areas that would otherwise be restricted to the enthusiast, such as airside ramp tours at airports, access to private collections and museums, or manufacturers. Having all of this takes a massive headache out of organising trips on your own, and is undoubtedly more beneficial to your logbook and photograph collections.

The biggest arguments many have for not using tours tends to be cost – tours are usually expensive, and the thrifty can usually find cheaper ways to travel by themselves. Although many of the extras wouldn’t be included.

Touching further on this, others cite not wishing to travel with a bunch of unknown people, when they can just as easily travel alone, or with their friends.

Whatever your stance on the matter, the tour companies are already offering more and more elaborate and tempting tours for 2010. Here are some tasters:

Aeroprints have a Round-the-World trip at £2595, and a Japan-Korea trip at £1445 planned.

Ian Allan also have a Round-the-World trip planned at £2839 with different destinations.

The Aviation Society has not announced any 2010 trips yet, but has three main 2009 trips, to Dubai Air Show, Paris Air Show, and China.

What are your thoughts on aviation tours? Have you taken them? What were your experiences?

Birmingham Airport’s planned runway extension has been approved.

I was in the Aviation Experience last week and noticed the display boards with all of the plans and support for this that they have up. Got to be good news for the airport.

This small airport is located to the north of Los Angeles LAX, and a mile or two inland from the famous pier and seafront in Santa Monica.

The airport handles mainly GA and biz movements, although it is very much hemmed in by buildings and the road network, so it’s quite small.

At any time you can expect to see a large number of light aircraft, and a few biz jets, plus a historic DC-3 N242SM mounted on a pole.

Parking at the playground car park on Airport Avenue, you can walk down the road picking off the aircraft you see parked about.

The Typhoon Restaurant on Douglas Loop Road has a panoramic terrace. Both are open for spotters to look over the biz jet ramps, which is an excellent spot for photography.

Las Vegas McCarran’s runway 07R/25L has reopened following resurfacing work. The closure has made spotting quite difficult at the airport as this runway offers the best opportunities along Sunset Road.