Jaunted‘s latest Plane Spotting blog post comes from St. Lucia – one of the most scenic islands in the Caribbean.

One of the best places to watch the action at St. Lucia is from the St. Jude’s highway running into Vieux Fort and passing the western end of the runway.

Alternatively, at the eastern end of the runway the beach offers a breathtakingly close view of aircraft departing over your head. Of course, this is a great place the enjoy the sun, sea and sand whilst on the island!

Read the full blog post here.

Fujairah in the United Arab Emirates is slowly becoming more of a jewel than Sharjah in terms of the older and rarer aircraft that can be found both operating and languishing there, particularly old Russian types, and dying breeds such as the Lockheed Tristar.

Whilst Sharjah reintroduces its airside access scheme, Fujairah has always maintained its anti-spotter stance. And even though the hill outside the terminal offers a fantastic view over the ramps and resident aircraft, it is usually not worth the police interrogation that most spotters fear, if not experience.

An alternative spotting location recently came to my attention which offers as good, if not better, opportunities to log what’s on the ground at Fujairah. This is a road which runs the entire length of the runway, and can be reached by turning right on the road just before the airport perimeter when arriving from the mountain road leading into Fujairah. Follow it past the end of the runway, and then along the length of the runway with a fence alongside offering views across.

There are litter bins and laybys which suggest this is regularly used as a viewing area, but as always discretion is encouraged as the road is lined with cameras on poles.

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

Denver is the largest airport in Colorado, and one of the busiest in the USA. It plays host to a large number of movements by Frontier and United Airlines. It also has services from all other main US airlines, and a number of international airlines.

Denver Airport has three terminals – A, B and C

Terminal A hosts Frontier’s regional fleet, operated by Lynx, and is the best terminal for spotting. Inside, walk to the end of the terminal where there are large glass windows. This overlooks the commuter aircraft, and across to the United gates. This is the best spot for covering most movements, although the airport is so big and has so many runways that it is impossible to cover everything.

Terminals B and C also both have large windows at their gates, which offer views of aircraft moving around.

There are few accessible views from around the perimeter due to a lack of public roads.

Anyone know of any other good spots? Please comment.

One of Japan’s busiest and most modern airports. Osaka is a great stop-off if you’re spotting in Japan, however it has periods of few traffic movements on afternoons.

The actual traffic you get is very similar to that at Tokyo’s airports.

Osaka Kansai has a spotting deck which is four storeys above ground, and situated at the end of Runway 24, which is used most often. The deck opens at 10am and closes at 6pm. It is free to enter, and has both indoor and outdoor areas, along with food & drink facilities and arrivals boards. A bus will take you from the terminal to the Aeroplaza building, which is opposite the viewing deck.The sun is behind you here, so you can take excellent photographs.

If you are travelling through Osaka Kansai, there are opportunities to view aircraft through windows at certain departure gates, although this can be frustrating and limited at times.

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.

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.

Airport Spotting Guides Europe – the guidebook to Europe’s best airports for spotting – is selling well and proving incredibly useful to those planning trips and those out visiting airports for spotting.

You can get a copy here if you haven’t already.

The next book in the series will concern airports further afield. I’m looking for suggestions of which airports would benefit you if you were to buy the book. Please leave comments with any suggestions outside of Europe.

Are you planning on going to Tampa for the Superbowl? If so, you’ll be in for a treat with the hundreds of biz movements expected, on top of the usual airliners and good weather.

The official stance on spotters at Tampa for the Superbowl is that you’re welcome to be there! What a refreshing change! Here are the rules, kindly provided for all you spotters by Mike Greenway via Geoff Cook:

Spotters are encouraged to congregate on the roof of the economy car park on the south side of the airport. This offers fantastic views over the ramps where all the biz jets will be, and also has views of other movements.The car park costs $9 a day to use, and has toilet facilities, and a free shuttle to the terminal.

If you are attending, you are encouraged to contact Community Relations Coordinator Kelly Figley on KFigley@TampaAirport.com, with names and your passport or driving license number, who will pass on the details to the police.

As an extra note, aircraft are expected to stop flying during the game. Any arrivals after this time are likely to use nearby St. Petersburg airport, so you may wish to head over there for some more spotting.

Paul Moiser, an expert on spotting in Dubai, has kindly provided this extensive report for your reference. If you are planning a spotting trip to Dubai, or want to know what it is like to spot there, please read through.

Due to the number of mails I recieve asking about Dubai and what the spotting is like, I thought I’d post some info that anyone can refer too anytime if they are planning a visit. So here is some useful info regarding spotting at Dubai and what the local area is like for eating out etc……

I usualy visit Dubai at least 3 times a year, so the info posted will always be current and correct. This current info posted is correct as of Sept 2008.

HOTEL
The hotel to stay at is the Sheraton Deira Hotel. This hotel is only 10 minutes away by taxi from the airport. A taxi will cost you around 28 Dirhams which is approx £4/$8.

The hotel offers a roof-top pool area which over looks the airport.

Here are a couple of views taken from the pool area:

The roof top pool area is open from 7am through till 10.30pm every night, 7 days a week.

The Sheraton roof top pool area has several tables with shade from the sun. Those of you taking an SBS with you can benefit from an English plug socket next to one of the tables with provided shade.

TRAFFIC

Aircraft land over the hotel usualy from around 10pm and right through the night until around 11am-midday. after this time they are departing over the hotel.

Here is a typical landing shot over the hotel
http://worldwidephotos.pm.fotopic.net/p50205673.html

And here is a departure shot too
http://worldwidephotos.pm.fotopic.net/p50369986.html

All those that land over the hotel can be read off, and all those that carry there reg under the wing can be read off on departure too.

At night time the majority of the departures can still be read off under the wing due to the lights on the ground below reflecting under the aircraft.

MOVEMENTS

The morning and afternoons are mainly Gulf Air, Qatar Airways, Oman Air, Kish Air, Iran Asseman, Iran Air, Air India and Air India Express, with many Emirates flights in between, as well as cargo movements from FedEx and UPS…..

Evenings from 4pm is when Dubai gets more interesting. A few of the above movements still operate in, but evenings see movements from the Far East arrive with movements from Cathay Pacific, Thai and Singapore and Jet Airways etc.

For those after certain Emirates types such as A340/300′s and A340/500′s, these mainly arrive after dark and during the early hours. These can all be seen taxiing out for departure from 7am through till 9am from the roof top pool area when they are departing away from the hotel. On a clear day these can be read off. Having an SBS is an invaluable tool especially for tieing up those you see landing towards the hotel once it hass gone dark

Quite a few Emirates do depart over the hotel during the afternoon but you will only see two or three A340′s. The majority are B772/3′s and A330′s.

Russian movements are mainly S9- British Gulf AN12′s, with the odd EP- Kish Air TU154, a based EP- YAK42. and at least one EP- IL76 a day too.

Dubai is very unpredictable though. Some days you can log up to several Russian movements and some days you can only log the odd one or two. The other local movements from Iran such as Kish Air FK50′s and Iran Asseman FK100′s keep it interesting and are in and out all day every day.

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Please note, Airband scanners are not allowed to be used at any time. I have never encountered any problems using my SBS, these still should be used with discresion, (basically keep your aeriel out of view ) and you will be fine.

The hotel management is ok with the use of cameras and scopes / binoculars. They do have one rule though and thats not to stand on the outer wall around the pool with your scope pointing towards the airport – they prefer you to stand 1 meter back. This is fine and will not hinder your view so please respect their wishes.

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PLACES TO EAT
The roof top pool area offers drinks and dining. Please note – it is expensive! A soft drink will costs 22 dirhams ( £3/$6 ) and meals range from 45-65 dirhams, ( £8-£12/$16-24

Outside the hotel there are many different restaurants available catering for all tastes, including Indian, Turkish and Lebonise, as well as local foods.

Also within walking distance is a shopping mall called the Wafi Centre. This is where you will find fast food outlets like McDonalds and Pizza hut etc.

Across the road from the hotel is a small 24hr shop called Happy Land. Inside you can buy almost anything and drinks are very cheap – 1 dirham each – a big difference to the 22 dirhams you pay at the Sheraton.

If you want to buy gifts etc, then a 5 minute walk again from the hotel is the Lulu Centre and the Hyper Market. Both of these sell very cheap souveneirs as well as clothes and toiletries etc.

For a night out, you can take a 10 minute taxi to the Irish Village. This area has a few bars and restaurants and is very reasonably priced. It’s an excellent evening out.

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SPOTTING IN THE TERMINAL AT DUBAI

There are only two places, and both are airside. You can spot from the McDonalds food court area on the upper level above duty free, and also the Irish Village pub on the same level. Both areas provide views of those taxiing and any landing / departing traffic.

Note: if spotting at night from these areas, aircraft landing are impossible to read. These can be read off when they vacate and taxi to the terminal.

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I hope the information is of use to those planning a visit to Dubai in the near future.

Best Wishes……………….Paul M.
http://worldwidephotos.pm.fotopic.net/