I recently flew to Cartagena in Colombia for a short trip away from Bogota. We flew on AeroRepublica EMB-190 and had a great experience – although the flight was a little bumpy going out, with the afternoon thunderstorms brewing around the coast.

Cartagena is a lovely old walled city, full of Caribbean charm, colourful buildings, endless vistas of the sea, sunsets, and great wining and dining experiences. But you’re here for the aircraft, so I’ll carry on.

The terminal at Cartagena Airport is very modern. And sadly it does not knowingly cater for the spotter at all. When arriving or departing, passengers funnel through a walkway which leads between the aircraft and the terminal. If you’re in the departure lounge, your view out of the window is of this walkway and its slatted wall. In order to see aircraft, you have to wait until they move, and with binoculars focussed on a gap, hope the registration passes by.

Nevertheless, once you walk to/from the aircraft, you do get a chance to see what’s on the smallish ramp. This usually includes MD-80s and F100s of Avianca, EMB-190s of AeroRepublica, 737-700s and DHC-8s of AIRES, and the odd US airline such as Spirit. Movements are fairly quiet – maybe 4 per hour at peak times.

Cartagena does play host to a number of biz jets each day, however. They park either to the side of the airliner ramp, or on the ramp on the opposite side of the runway. Also, there are a number of Air Force and Navy aircraft in residence, including Casa CN235s.

Around the terminal there are no obvious views of the aircraft, apart from on the road passing the end of the runway, where you’ll see aircraft just as they depart or land. I wouldn’t venture much around looking for holes in the fence, as there ‘s a strong military presence, and the housing area is quite poor around the airport.

AeroRepublica HK-4506 at Cartagena

AIRES 737-700s fly from Bogota

These two biz jets were in Cartagena in July 2009

Cartagena Airport from above

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.

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

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?

Derek Oldham has provided this excellent report on spotting at Memphis – a haven for FedEx and Northwest (soon to be Delta) jets.

I stayed in the Radisson at the airport. Contrary to what somebody said, I found the reception staff very helpful. I was given a room at the back overlooking the taxiway, but the view of the runway threshold was blocked by part of the hotel kitchen. I decided Room 373 looked the most promising and luckily it was free. The receptionist warned me it would be noisy (bless her!) and it was – NWA DC 9s and FedEx 727s actually shook the building! My advice would be to go for the corridor 351 – 373 (all odd numbers). Probably the same numbers on floor 2 would be good enough, but you will be at ground level and looking up at the taxiway. Floor 2 is the outward looking ground level because the inward facing part of the hotel has a floor 1 as well. Before 2 of you go booking room 373, I was on my own and therefore had no problem with the Queen bed! All these rooms lookonto the taxiway linking FedEx to RW 18R, and the higher the number, then the more chance you have of seeing the other aircraft taxying out from the terminal for take-off. At night you will only get the FedEx that taxy past – there is not enough light for the others – and even for the FedEx you will have to go outside (the fire escape at the end of the corridor is ideal). I don’t think any of the other rooms will have much of a view, but at the front you may have distant views of RWs 18C & L.

I had e-mailed the police beforehand about spotting at Memphis. (Google “Memphis Airport Police” and go to “Contact Us”) – I got an almost instant reply from the chief with a phone number to ring when I got there.
I arrived late afternoon Friday and saw some departures from the room, followed by a constant stream of arrivals from 2230 until I gave up at 0030. From what I heard there were a good few departures in the middle of the night.
I did Graceland Saturday morning and then phoned the police in the afternoon, was told they had my details and I spent the afternoon on the terminal car park roof with no problems at all. (It is walking distance from the Radisson.) The busy period was about 1415 to 1630 – about 50 FedEx departures and 60 or so others – mainly Northwest of course. When it went quiet, I drove around the north of the airfield and got most of the remaining FedEx from the main roads. Leave the terminal area on Winchester East, turn left on Tchulahoma and left again on Democrat. I had read elsewhere about other roads around here with views, but they have clearly been eaten up by the FedEx complex and are no more. Also the National Guard complex is now completely shut down and they have what appears to be a new complex close to the RW 36R threshold. If you now retrace your route, when you get back on Winchester, you are on the correct side of the road to turn into the Wilson Air Center and Signature FBOs where you can easily read off anything there. Coming out of Wilson you are straight across from anything on the UPS ramp.

On Sunday afternoon there were 75 Fedex departures between 1455 and 1645 with one or 2 after that. 45 used RW 18R, 4 on 18C and 26 on 18 R, so it is definitely worth going to the car park and not staying in the hotel. I saw 20 that I hadn’t seen on the Saturday. Again I telephoned the police and was left alone all afternoon – there are plenty of patrols who drive around and would have seen me up there, so contacting them is definitely worth the effort.

What can be seen at Memphis then? Loads of Northwest (some are now appearing in Delta colours) and Northwest Airlink, a few US Airways Connect, American, Continental Express a few Biz (I was there at the
weekend – maybe more during the week?) and a few twins and lights. I saw plenty of FedEx DC-10s, lots of A300s and A310s, quite a few 727s and MD-11s and a handful of 757s.

Keishi Nukina recently posted a great overview of the main Washington DC area airports from a spotting perspective, following his recent visit. If you’re planning on heading there, it makes great sense to give this a read:

WASHINGTON – NATIONAL
Traffic consisting of mostly domestic narrowbodies with a couple of Air Canada Jazz mixed in. For spotting, there is an exibit hall between terminal A and B, from where you can see all movements and in the afternoon you can take nice photographs there as well.

WASHINGTON – DULLES
Spent there one day, spotting from the parking lot of the museum and Daily Garage 2, both are excelent for photos, but you will miss a couple of movements from both. Notable international traffic include Qatar Airways, Saudi and SAA.

BALTIMORE – WASHINGTON
A couple of movements from each major airline from the US, with a lot, and I mean a lot of Southwest and AirTran aircraft. If youre in the area, definitely an airport that is worth a visit for a half day or a full day. You can spot all day from the observation room located inside terminal without being bothered, but the place is not the best for photography due to being backlit almost all day.

COLLAGE PARK AIRFIELD
If youre going to Baltimore by public transport, you will most likely be on the green metro line to Greenbelt. After the University of Maryland stop sit on the right and get your camera ready. Right after the train leaves the station, there is that airfield with a couple of light aircraft parked outside, so you will be able to get a couple of new light frames by reading them off the photos you take. Was a nice surprise for me. Nothing for those who dont collect light aircraft.

David Stevens wrote this report about a trip to Cuba in 2006. It is still up-to-date, and useful if you plan on visiting Havana and spotting whilst there:

Logged on arrival at Havana were those around the international terminal (Terminal 3) which included:
CU-T1259 IL62 (used as a cafeteria / bar)
CU-T1280 IL62 Cubana
EI-TAD A320 TACA / Cubana
HP-1526CMP 738W Copa Airlines
N762MX 757 Mexicana

With the immigration formalities completed, we headed off to the resort of Varadero for the next 10 nights. Upon leaving the airport at Havana I noted that a NEOS 767, Icelandair 757 and Air France 747 were also now
present.

Wednesday 24th May was to be the one aviation themed day of the trip.
Prior to leaving the UK I’d booked for us to undertake a short domestic flight with Cubana, from Havana to Nueva Gerona on the Isla De La Juventud (a.k.a Island of Youth) – which is located off of the southern coast
of Cuba. The flights costs circa £45 return and were scheduled to be operated by an Antonov 24.

Noted from Terminal 1 at Havana prior to departure were:
CU-C1515 IL18 Aerocaribbean (cargo)
CU-T1236 An24 Cubana
CU-T1243 YAK42 Cubana
CU-T1247 YAK42 Cubana
CU-T1250 IL96 Cubana
CU-T1251 IL96 Cubana
CU-T1257 An24 Aerocaribbean / Cubana
CU-T1541 E.110 Aero Taxi
CU-T1546 IL18 Aerocaribbean
CU-T1547 ATR72 Aerocaribbean
F-GKMY DC-10 Air Lib (stored)
F-GTLY DC-10 AOM (stored)
N285AS E.120 Gulfstream International
XA-TWR 732 Conviasa Venezuela

I didn’t use binoculars within the terminal but instead relied upon using my trusty digital camera. Even then I was careful not to take any shots whilst anyone in a uniform (that seems to be about every 3rd person in
Havana!) was about and kept my camera in the bag when it wasn’t in use.

Havana has a total of 5 terminals with these being used as follows:
Terminal 1 – domestic. Mainly Cubana, Aerocaribbean and Aero Taxi
Terminal 2 – predominantly for charters from the US
Terminal 3 – the main international terminal
Terminal 4 – another domestic terminal. Mainly used by Aerocaribbean
Terminal 5 – currently used for handling the large number of flights that are bringing in Venezuelan workers to Cuba.

From the departure lounge in Terminal 1, Terminals 4 and 5 are completely out of sight as are most aircraft at terminal 3 and the main Cubana maintenance area.

It was then aboard CU-T1257 for the 30 minute flight to Nueva Gerona. This aircraft is in basic Aerocaribbean livery (excluding titles) but operates on behalf of Cubana.

Upon arrival at Nueva Gerona ours was the only aircraft present. It should be noted that there is a heavy police presence at the airport with no views of the ramp available from either landside or indeed airside (I didn’t explore much outside as we were greeted on arrival by a passing thunderstorm).

Just over 4 hours later it was back aboard the same aircraft for the return to Havana. This time she shared the Nueva Gerona tarmac with a Cubana An24.
Back at Havana the airport was very quiet although a Click / Mexicana Fokker 100 and Lineas Aereas Suramericanas (Columbia) 727 were noted before we headed back to Varadero.

The only other spotting completed in Cuba was during a 3 hour stint at Havana prior to our departure back to the UK. Here is what was noted:

C6-BFP DHC-8 Bahamasair
C-GBHM A319 Air Canada
CU-T1243 YAK42 Cubana
CU-T1247 YAK42 Cubana
CU-T1280 IL62 Cubana
CU-T1283 IL62 Cubana
CU-T1538 YAK40 Aerocaribbean
CU-T1547 ATR72 Aerocaribbean
EI-TAC A320 TACA / Cubana
G-VROM 744 Virgin (our ride home)
HP-1523CMP 738W Copa Airlines
N408AT ATR42 American Eagle
N488TA A320 TACA
N762MX 757 Mexicana
PH-MCJ 763 Martinair
TF-FII 757 Loftleidir Icelandic
TF-FIT 757 Loftleidir Icelandic
XA-SHJ FK100 Click / Mexicana
XA-TCH FK100 Click / Mexicana
YV-136T MD80 Aeropostal

Anything parked at the international terminal is easily identified from within the departure lounge. As there were large numbers of people about I decided to leave the camera in the bag and instead used my mini-bins.
In fact, photography from the departure lounge would be difficult as you are always looking though several layers of glass.

Luckily we were sitting on the right hand side of G-VROM as we taxied out and this allowed me to identify a few of the aircraft in the maintenance area as well as a few of the other stored aircraft. Noted were:

CU-T1244 An24 Cubana
(CU-T1253) TU54 Cubana
CU-T1263 An24 Cubana (appears to be WFU)
CU-T1282 IL62 Cubana (appears to be WFU)
CU-T1512 ATR42 Aerocaribbean
CU-T1558 C-47 Aerotaxi (stored without props)
CU-T1559 C-47 Aerotaxi

The registration of the TU-154 is unconfirmed but has been quoted as this in several previous reports. The aircraft is in bare metal and in a very poor condition – the tail has been separated from the fuselage and the
front half of the cabin roof is “missing”.
There is also a stored Aerocaribbean IL18 reasonably close to the threshold of the main runway which has had the registration painted out and is missing all of its engines and the nose cone. According to Soviet Transport this aircraft could be CU-T1517 although I am still attempting to verify this.

Did you know there are some free bus services around London Heathrow that are ideal for spotters moving around the various perimeter locations?

Bus service between Hatton Cross and Terminal 5 are:

423 via northern perimeter road, Bath Road and Longford village.
441 between Central area and Terminal 5 via northern perimeter road
482 and 490 via Terminal 4 and cargo along southern perimeter road.

All of these buses are free between Hatton Cross and the terminals. They will help you travel between spotting locations at Runways 27L, 27R and 09L for viewing when runways change.