Tiggs

my 3 year old thinks all planes are 1 inch long and live in the sky.....i have to drive by Heathrow today...wheres a good place to park for 10 mins to see planes coming in and out so he understands that they are at least 10 foot!

T

ps- do i get arrested as a terrorist if i park near heathrow?

Mog

You may get a knock at the door later by the men in black with a thread title like that.

Mog

douglasb

Drive along the A4 and follow the signs for long term parking. This will take you on to the perimiter road which passes the maintenance hangars. There is a possibility that the road will be temporarily shut while a plane is dragged across the road. You won't be able to park there, but will see loads of planes pretty close up and will be near to them taking off and landing.

Tiggs

cool...no place to stop?

douglasb

Double yellows and plod with guns.

If planes are landing east-west and are using the south runway, there are places to stop near Hatton Cross tube station pretty near where they fly directly over the dual carriageway (A303?).

(I used to live directly under the landing path, one mile out from the end of the runway)

David Lock

M25?

Christian_Driver

A lot of people seem to stand near the Heathrow Vistor's Centre, which is parallel to one of the runways. Has the advantage of a carpark, so you don't have to find somewhere just off the road.

I walk past there almost every day on my way to work and there are often 10 or 15 people standing there with binoculars etc.

You can see the planes pretty close as they take off and land. It is on the perimeter road also, so if you drive around that you can often find a spot at the end of a runway where the planes are landing or taking off right over your head.

andypugh2000

I used to go up to the top floor of one of the car parks and watch them taking off/landing

Spoon

Stop using your child as an excuse for your new hobby I say.

class_A

If you can find the Travel Inn, on the right after you pass the Visitors Centre, there's a little side "road to nowhere" that I ended up on when trying to enter the car park.

Stop there and have them take off over your head

ande

I know its not Heathrow but, I was working in Broadstairs a few months back. Whilst driving down the high street I could hear this wooshing noise getting louder and louder! Next this a Plane comes over head above the shops could only have been a few hundred metres in the sky!

Awesome sight!
Driving past Gatwick still makes me smile, even though it is nearly every day!

Ande.

Puff The Magic Wagon!

iTrader: (2)

Drive down the A30 & there is a place on the SW bound section, just past Hatton Cross Tube Stn that a lot of spotters park at (used to b4 911 for sure). Its before the T4 exit.

Chris L

Near the visitor's centre is quite good. I contracted for BAA years ago and was based in the engineering blocks that are close to the visitor's centre. There are quite a few roads that 'lead to nowhere' where you could park up without too much trouble.

Friday afternoon routine in the summer was to get the tea and biccies and go out on the flat roof of the engineering building and watch the planes come in. Used to see 6 or 7 queued up. Best thing was aborted landings (normally when the previous plane had missed its turn off point) - seeing a 747 go to full throttle and then go nearly vertical was quite impressive when it is only 50 ft off the ground

Not the busiest job I've ever had, as you can probably gather

Dunk

iTrader: (1)

If you're going to make the effort to get in the car, go somewhere you can touch, feel, stroke & caress .... (http://www.flying-museum.org.uk/home.html at Middle Wallop nr Andover is excellent) or if you've an hour to kill & want to see A (& notice the "A") plane close up there's the Woodley air museum / shed.

D

Funkii Munkii

Try Mathisen Way, Colnbrook

I work there and at the moment they are landing and can be seen at about 200 ft, after us they fly over us its over the M25 and then wheels down, were about 1 mile from the runway, plenty of parking as well, use the neighbours car park!!

Dracoro

So leave it at that, don't take away his/her innocence The kid may get really disappointed to find out that they are hundreds of feet long and don't always live 'up there'

Neil W

Green Man pub Hatton Cross.

If they are landing this way, they will be extremely low over that pub. There is a car park or you can sit outside the pub.

gsm1

Just drive into Heathrow following signs for Terminal 4. That road takes you by loads of service areas where planes are kept, as I was telling my mate, Osama, the other week.