View allAll Photos Tagged PlaneWatching
N650GL arrives at London Stansted on runway 22.
Taken at Stansted Planewatch Spotters Saturday organised by Essex police.
Jet2 opened a new base at London Stansted Airport on 30 March 2017. Please see my video here youtu.be/8mZooEENPJI
We arrived at the Premier Inn Heathrow Terminal 4 in late afternoon. Looking out the window we saw a lot of activity going on at Heathrow. Beautiful lighting, a bunch of heavies and other planes I rarely see. The wife gave me the ok so I spent a few hours recording the action.
I took these photos in mid-September 2019.
I flew down to Los Angeles for a few days to do some plane spotting. This was my first airplane trip since February, before the pandemic took off. I was nervous at first but Alaska Air did an awesome job. I decided to skip a rental car this time; instead I stayed at the Homewood Suites/H Hotel near the airport. It has an awesome open air terrace on the 12th floor that has great views of the north and south runways at LAX. Like an idiot, I wasn't paying attention to my camera settings; half the photos were not sharp so I zapped them I was heartbroken by this, however, I will be back.
I was surprised by the air traffic - it wasn't anywhere close to pre-pandemic levels but it was quite busy with many flights from Asia and Europe. Who was on these planes?
Panalpina Atlas Air Boeing 747-87U (F) N850GT departs London Stansted en route to Luxembourg.
Taken at Spotters Saturday run by the Essex Police Planewatch scheme.
Runway switch Monday at LHR; morning arrivals on 27L. We had tickets for Phantom of the Opera in the evening so the wife told me to head out to Myrtle Field for a bit before going into London. That worked for me! I took these photos in mid-October 2022.
I took advantage of some great air fares and hotel rates to make a quick trip to do some plane watching and aviation photography at LAX. The plane watching was great, the photography was iffy due to a lot of heat haze and smoggy blah skies. Most of these photos are from the terrace of the H Hotel/Homewood Suites. From the terrace you get a good view of the approach ends of both Runways 24 R/L and 25 R/L.
Since my last trip here a few months earlier I noticed a big increase in domestic and international traffic. I also shot a bunch of special liveries, 737 Max, and some cool charter flights. All in all a good trip.
I took these photos toward the end of May 2021.
This US Air Force Boeing C-40C departed London Stansted Airport on 29 September 2016
Please check out my video including this aircraft in 4K Ultra HD here www.youtube.com/watch?v=qgWbxSeOIbg
This was our first trip to Bali. The first morning after arriving my wife and I both had jet lag. The wife opted to sleep, I took a beach walk and spotted planes landing in the distance. I found some shade and watched some landings until I melted from the heat and humidity. I only had a 70-180mm lens with me and really needed a 400-600mm lens. Heat haze and the fence line also affected photo quality. We left Bali several weeks later and I had a chance to shoot from the International Terminal - that was much better, even with shooting through tinted glass. DPS was fairly busy with a nice mix of Indonesian and international flights coming in. I would definitely go back there again.
This was our first trip to Bali. The first morning after arriving my wife and I both had jet lag. The wife opted to sleep, I took a beach walk and spotted planes landing in the distance. I found some shade and watched some landings until I melted from the heat and humidity. I only had a 70-180mm lens with me and really needed a 400-600mm lens. Heat haze and the fence line also affected photo quality. We left Bali several weeks later and I had a chance to shoot from the International Terminal - that was much better, even with shooting through tinted glass. DPS was fairly busy with a nice mix of Indonesian and international flights coming in. I would definitely go back there again.
Please see my 4K Aviation video of the NATO arrivals including Lockheed C5M x2, Government of Bulgara, Hungary and Netherlands plus Air Force One, Chinook, VH60 Whitehawk helicopters and Turkish Government Airbus A330 and Boeing 747-8
My "hotel" had a "pool" on the roof, almost too small to swim in. But it did have a view over to the airport, and I spent few minutes taking pictures of planes taking off. In the early afternoon, it's just one A380 after another, zooming off to various European cities. These shots were all taken with the camera's maximum zoom, so a little shaky, and some heatwave distortion, too.
I took advantage of some great fares on Alaska Air and the Homewood Suites/H Hotel to spend 3.5 days near LAX at the end of March 2021. I did a bunch of aviation photography from the 12th floor terrace of the hotel. I pretty much had the terrace to myself. Great views of both the 24 and 25 runway pairs. The weather was pleasant but it was smoggy/hazy the entire time - bummer. Runway 25L was closed for construction so the south takeoffs and landing were on 25R - nice since it brought landing aircraft closer but there was a lot of construction equipment to deal with. Traffic wise things were picking up compared to 2020 - surprisingly a bunch of flights from China. Domestic and European traffic was also picking up. All in all a very good trip!
I took these photos while drinking my morning coffee on a hot morning in late May 2017. Since the lighting was so bad I didn't stay very long at all.
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This was a lovely day to be outside of Nellis AFB watching Red Flag 21-1 take place. A bunch of fighters started the day off, followed by tankers and then the bombers. Decent blue skies made better photos. I have a hard time getting tack sharp photos for most takeoffs but things look better when everything comes home.
I took these photos outside of Nellis AFB, Las Vegas, Nevada in early February 2021.
Runway switch Monday at LHR; morning arrivals on 27L. We had tickets for Phantom of the Opera in the evening so the wife told me to head out to Myrtle Field for a bit before going into London. That worked for me! I took these photos in mid-October 2022.
We arrived at the Premier Inn Heathrow Terminal 4 in late afternoon. Looking out the window we saw a lot of activity going on at Heathrow. Beautiful lighting, a bunch of heavies and other planes I rarely see. The wife gave me the ok so I spent a few hours recording the action.
I took these photos in mid-September 2019.
Flying from Bangkok to Los Angeles we connected through Hong Kong. This was my very first time here and it was fascinating - unfortunately our connection time was very short - slightly over an hour so I had to stay by our gate. Great place for plane watching, despite shooting through glass and dealing with reflections, heat haze, and ground clutter. I definitely want to come back to Hong Kong - for both the city and the airport.
I took these photos in April 2019.
I took these photos on our last day in Las Vegas in August 2021. We had a chance to check out Red Flag 21-3 - always a great experience. On this day we had to make the Raceway-Cheyenne shuffle several times - but it was worth it. Not only was the Red Flag activity awesome, we also caught the USAF Thunderbirds returning from an air show. Very impressive! We are already looking forward to more trips to LV and Red Flag.
I was in Los Angeles to attend the big Anime Expo ComicCon at the Convention Center. On this day it was ungodly hot and I was dying. I left early; my hotel was near Clutter's Park so I decided to head for the park to enjoy the breeze and much cooler temps. I lucked out with the air traffic - many Europe bound widebodies heading out, really interesting sky too. Definitely not a bad choice!
This was going to be a beach day but Mother Nature had other thoughts. Very cold, blustery day with periods of heavy rain. Most of the traffic was arriving on the 26s. Since I'm not very familiar with KMIA I couldn't find any good spots for photography. I ended up back at the Holes and it was actually pretty decent. All in all, not a bad day, but definitely not beach weather.
I took these photos in mid-February 2021 around Miami International Airport.
We had a few minutes before returning our rental car so we found a parking lot on Sunset Road and killed some time, Beautiful weather and a nice variety of landings. I took these photos in late January 2023.
I took advantage of some great air fares and hotel rates to make a quick trip to do some plane watching and aviation photography at LAX. The plane watching was great, the photography was iffy due to a lot of heat haze and smoggy blah skies. Most of these photos are from the terrace of the H Hotel/Homewood Suites. From the terrace you get a good view of the approach ends of both Runways 24 R/L and 25 R/L.
Since my last trip here a few months earlier I noticed a big increase in domestic and international traffic. I also shot a bunch of special liveries, 737 Max, and some cool charter flights. All in all a good trip.
I took these photos toward the end of May 2021.
I was in southern Florida in mid-October 2021 and had some spare time so I stopped at the airplane viewing area at Fort Lauderdale Airport (FLL). It's a nice area to relax right at the end of the north runway; the only drawbacks are the chainlink fence and heat haze. Air traffic is starting to pick up again so it was busy while I was there. I will definitely be back there!
I headed over to Clutters Park on a very foggy Sunday morning at the end of July 2021. It was surreal. Visibility was nil at first, varying from dense to almost a whiteout. I could hear the planes but not see anything. Over the next few hours the fog lessened then increased. I could see planes on the ground but they went out of sight about three seconds after takeout. Eventually the fog burned off and things got back to normal. It was a very cool day!!
This was such a gorgeous day at the beginning of February 2024. I wanted to spend the day in Central London but the Piccadilly Line was still partially closed and I didn't want to spend an extra two hours on a Rail Replacement bus - yuck. I spent the morning at the Premier Inn Terminal 4 watching takeoffs and then went to the Myrtle Avenue field at 1500. Too bad it got dark so early. The sky conditions were perfect. Life is good!
Runway switch Monday at LHR; morning arrivals on 27L. We had tickets for Phantom of the Opera in the evening so the wife told me to head out to Myrtle Field for a bit before going into London. That worked for me! I took these photos in mid-October 2022.
Dassault Falcon 2000EX OE-IEN departs London Stansted whilst Bombardier Global Express-BD-700-1A10 (9H-GCM) sits awaiting its next duty.
Taken at Spotters Saturday run by the Essex Police Planewatch scheme.
You may watch this aircraft in my 4K Ultra HD video from London Luton Airport here
www.youtube.com/watch?v=qFxftum7vTM
Thanks for supporting my YouTube channel and for viewing my photos.
This was a pretty interesting and busy day. I put my wife on a plane back to the States at the butt crack of dawn and went into Central London to check out street art. That was nice, until it started raining, so I went back to the Premier Inn Terminal 4. Runway schedule was for 27L takeoffs until 15 so I stayed in the room. I went to Myrtle Field for the switchover and the weather got worse - heavy, gray, gloomy clouds. The field was very muddy, it looked like the rain would start at any time and yet there were still people there. Sunset was around 1640 but we couldn't see it anyways. I hung out there for a bit to practice some low light photography. Not a really bad day but it could have been so much better!
I was in Los Angeles to attend the big Anime Expo ComicCon at the Convention Center. On this day it was ungodly hot and I was dying. I left early; my hotel was near Clutter's Park so I decided to head for the park to enjoy the breeze and much cooler temps. I lucked out with the air traffic - many Europe bound widebodies heading out, really interesting sky too. Definitely not a bad choice!
I was in Los Angeles to attend the big Anime Expo ComicCon at the Convention Center. On this day it was ungodly hot and I was dying. I left early; my hotel was near Clutter's Park so I decided to head for the park to enjoy the breeze and much cooler temps. I lucked out with the air traffic - many Europe bound widebodies heading out, really interesting sky too. Definitely not a bad choice!
I love watching planes at Miami International Airport (MIA). There is a great variety of airlines/airplanes, the weather is usually good, and there are several nice spotting spots. I took most of these photos at the El Dorado viewing area in mid-October 2021.
My wife and I flew to Southern California for a mid-winter break. She let me do a bit of plane watching so we started at the Proud Bird - good place to watch but it was a very slow time of day so we grabbed some lunch and headed to Clutter's Park. That's always a good place to see a bunch of activity. Heat haze wasn't too bad but there sure is a lot of construction going on at LAX now. I took these photos at the end of January 2020.
We love heading to Nellis Air Force Base 1-2 times a year to catch the Red Flag Exercise. There is usually a really good mix of US and international forces. This year there were RAF Typhoons and a tanker. I understand the Australians headed for it but didn't make it by the time we were there. We lucked out in that many of the takeoffs involved Flex West departures which put the fighters banking right over the Speedway. We had really good weather (except for the wind) and really enjoyed this trip. We were there for 2.5 days in late January 2023.
We arrived at the Premier Inn Heathrow Terminal 4 in late afternoon. Looking out the window we saw a lot of activity going on at Heathrow. Beautiful lighting, a bunch of heavies and other planes I rarely see. The wife gave me the ok so I spent a few hours recording the action.
I took these photos in mid-September 2019.
This was going to be a beach day but Mother Nature had other thoughts. Very cold, blustery day with periods of heavy rain. Most of the traffic was arriving on the 26s. Since I'm not very familiar with KMIA I couldn't find any good spots for photography. I ended up back at the Holes and it was actually pretty decent. All in all, not a bad day, but definitely not beach weather.
I took these photos in mid-February 2021 around Miami International Airport.
Runway switch Monday at LHR; morning arrivals on 27L. We had tickets for Phantom of the Opera in the evening so the wife told me to head out to Myrtle Field for a bit before going into London. That worked for me! I took these photos in mid-October 2022.
These photos are from our second day the Red Flag 23-1 at Nellis Air Force Base in last January 2023. The day started off good with a bunch of Flex West departures. For some reason which we can't figure out, all the departures switched to straight out departures - pretty boring and not good for photography. Later in the afternoon we headed to Cheyenne Avenue for the recovery operations - and we weren't disappointed but it seems like the heavies landed on 21L instead. Oh well!
I took advantage of some great air fares and hotel rates to make a quick trip to do some plane watching and aviation photography at LAX. The plane watching was great, the photography was iffy due to a lot of heat haze and smoggy blah skies. Most of these photos are from the terrace of the H Hotel/Homewood Suites. From the terrace you get a good view of the approach ends of both Runways 24 R/L and 25 R/L.
Since my last trip here a few months earlier I noticed a big increase in domestic and international traffic. I also shot a bunch of special liveries, 737 Max, and some cool charter flights. All in all a good trip.
I took these photos toward the end of May 2021.
The wife was in the mood to relax and then go shopping so she gave me a day pass. I spent it at the Myrtle Avenue field. What a great day for photography, LHR was very busy and the weather was great - nice way to spend several hours before darkness set in. I took these photos at the beginning of October 2022.
USAF C-17 Globemaster III Mississippi ANG 21112 parked up at London Stansted airport on a grey Saturday morning.
Taken at Spotters Saturday run by the Essex Police Plane Watch scheme.
Whenever we visit Las Vegas my wife and I have an agreement - she gets to go to the outlet mall and I get to watch planes for a few hours. Good deal for both of us. LAS is a very busy airport with a number of foreign carriers. Most of the air traffic consists of 737s and Airbus 319-321 models but there are a few heavies to check out. The bad thing about watching planes from the Sunset parking area is that you have to shoot through a chain link fence - this does show up on some of the photos.
I took these photos in March 2017.
We had some time to kill at DFW before our flight to LHR so we went to the American Airlines Flagship Lounge. Great lounge with an awesome view. It seems like 95% of the traffic is American Airlines but we did see some heavies and international airliners there. We also got to see fire fighting training going on - it was unnerving at first but they did it several times while we were there. I took these photos in January 2025.
These photos are from our third day of plane spotting at the 23-1 Red Flag Exercise at Nellis Air Fore Base. After a lovely morning at Red Rock Canyon we got to Nellis around 1330, just as the B-52 was taxiing for take off. Excellent timing. Good weather, still windy, and most planes were doing the Flex West departure - very nice. About an hour after the wave of takeoffs subsided, we went to Cheyenne Avenue to catch the afternoon recoveries. This was one of our best days there ever. Seemed like nonstop action for over an hour. The lighting conditions were awesome - good late afternoon sun right before sunset - especially when the AWACS finished the days activities. Wow!
This photo is from our second day at Red Flag 24-2. It was a short day since we had to leave around 1330. We saw some more Flex departures (always so cool) but it was fairly quiet. Sky conditions varied from blah to decent. It was still a decent day - I just wish we could have stayed longer.
I took advantage of some great fares on Alaska Air and the Homewood Suites/H Hotel to spend 3.5 days near LAX at the end of March 2021. I did a bunch of aviation photography from the 12th floor terrace of the hotel. I pretty much had the terrace to myself. Great views of both the 24 and 25 runway pairs. The weather was pleasant but it was smoggy/hazy the entire time - bummer. Runway 25L was closed for construction so the south takeoffs and landing were on 25R - nice since it brought landing aircraft closer but there was a lot of construction equipment to deal with. Traffic wise things were picking up compared to 2020 - surprisingly a bunch of flights from China. Domestic and European traffic was also picking up. All in all a very good trip!