Airport Spotting Blog

Undoubtedly the highlight of most peoples’ spotting trips to Moscow or Russia are the large numbers of stored and rare Russian aircraft to be found. However, getting regular and accurate logs of what can be seen is often quite difficult.

Thanks to Darren Kellett, our sister site Out of Production List has a full recent list of the aircraft stored at Moscow Domodedovo Airport. Click here for the link.

Jaunted blog recently ran an interesting piece on New York’s Citi Field stadium, where the Mets play their baseball games. Whilst those in the highest seats have usually paid the least for them, and suffer the long climb and distant views of the game, there is actually the benefit of having a view of arrivals at La Guardia Airport. Planes will also depart right over the stadium.

Take a look at the blog post here for an interesting picture of what you can see.
http://www.jaunted.com/story/2009/7/23/132132/122/travel/Watch+For+Fly+Balls+And+Landing+Planes+At+NY%27s+Citi+Field

I passed through Paris Charles de Gaulle airport this week, and used the relatively new Terminal 3 for the first time (yes I flew low-cost, for my sins). So I thought this would be a good opportunity to see what the terminal offers in terms of views and spotting, having passed through terminals 1 and 2 a number of times in the past.

Aircraft using this terminal largely use the square apron immediately in front of it, parking in one of two rows. Upon arrival you are shepherded into buses and into the baggage claim, which has no views at all of aircraft, so make sure you see what you can whilst taxying in and leaving the aircraft.

When leaving, I found there were no views at all of aircraft from the check-in hall. However, if you go outside the front doors and walk to the left along the walkway, and past the arrivals waiting area, you’ll come to a fence. From here you can see aircraft using the northerly runways, and the taxiway leading to the threshold. You can also get fleeting views of aircraft at terminal 1, and also aircraft departing the southerly runways.

Once in the departure lounge, I found there are some very limited views of aircraft on the terminal 3 ramp. You need to head to the northern end of the seating area to be able to see past the blast fence. You can also see some aircraft on the taxiways near terminal 1 from here.

View from departure lounge at Paris CDG Terminal 3

One word of warning - once in the departure lounge, there is only one cafe selling food & snacks. For a small sandwich, pastry, crisps and bottle of water I paid nearly 10 euros. This is incredibly expensive, so make sure you eat beforehand!

Here in this post is a picture I took from the departure lounge of an Aegean A320 on the terminal 3 ramp. There are windows, poles and buses in the way, so photography is nearly impossible.

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.

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?