Plane Spotting

Contratrombone64

Contratrombone64

Admiral of Fugues
Hi all,

I've recently taken up plane spotting. I live VERY close to Kingsford-Smith airport (Sydney). So on my early morning walks I head there and then sit and watch the big birds come and go from the main, north-south runway.

Kingsford-Smith (Sydney) is right on Botany Bay, it takes me 45 minutes to walk there from home. So that's an hour and a half plus some plane spotting.

Does anyone else do this and have you photos to share?

I've going to try and upload some of mine, but I'm notoriously bad at getting the knack of uploading movies/photos.

David
 
Contratrombone64

Contratrombone64

Admiral of Fugues
Here's one taken at night (yes, I can hear you say "useless as a chocolate teacup" but I enjoyed being there at night. Kind of spooky and noisy. The main runway is only 20 feet from where I stand to watch.
 

Attachments

  • SYD_Night.MOV
    1.1 MB · Views: 4
Contratrombone64

Contratrombone64

Admiral of Fugues
Here's one take by day (far more sensible). A nice looking Canadian jet by the looks.
 

Attachments

  • SYD_Day_01.MOV
    2.4 MB · Views: 3
teddy

teddy

Duckmeister
Nice to see you back David.

I live half a mile from the famous Manston Airport, which played a big part in WW two. It has one of the longest runways in Britain and regularly we saw Concorde there. It became non military a few years ago, but has not been a commercial success. There is a Battle of Britain Museum and an original Spitfire. Mainly freight now but we keep hoping that someone will make a success of it.

teddy
 
Dorsetmike

Dorsetmike

Member
The main interest in Manston was that it was the major emergency diversion airfield for Southern England having a much wider and longer runway and it retained its WW2 FIDO installation until at least 1958 by which time electronic "blind" landing aids became more reliable.

FIDO was a means of burning off fog on the approach to a runway, intended initially as an aid for damaged bombers returning to UK during WW2. It involved burning vast quantities of petrol from long tubes either side of the runway and its approach.
 
Contratrombone64

Contratrombone64

Admiral of Fugues
@Mike - now a days, of course, they have these brilliant green side lights. These are incredible if seen at night. I was at the airport last night admiring the planes come and go in the dark. Once I hopped up on a milk crate and got on tippy-toes I could see the brilliant emerald green lights dotting along the main runway and vanishing into the distance towards Botany Bay.
 
teddy

teddy

Duckmeister
Manston, or Kent International Airport, as it is known now, continued to be an emergency landing site after the war, and was still being used as such until the military moved out a few years ago. It was not unusual to see plumes of black smoke rising from the airport when the fire brigade practiced their emergency routines,

teddy
 
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