j4ckos mate

dont worry i dont do it now im 38 and stopped 20 years ago, but when i did i loved it,
, the military airfields were great,

mildenhall, upper heyford, odiham,yeovilton,lakenheath, fairford,woodbridge, marham, cottesmore, greenham common,lyneham, brize, wattisham, wyton,
used to love saving up and going on coach trips.
(bet most are retail parks now)

i reckon i must have been to gatwick 20 times,

do they still have the viewing area there?

Mildenhall was great as well, the days after the airshow were as good as the main display itself with all the weird and wonderful planes departing.

then just enough time to nip over to lakenheath to see what was going on.


we live right by man airport when i show my kids a 747 freighter running on empty with 100 tonnes of crap in it on final approach, they just go "oh " "yeah"
i would have ridden miles and miles to see that when i was a lad.

i had so many memories, of freezing to death at night waiting for this to land or that to land then rush home and do my homework.


we used to get the national express bus to london heathrow to go plane spotting. and we'd sleep in the terminal for a few days then go back.
perhaps with a quick visit to gatwick or luton if we had the chance.

its mad when i think about it, but it was dead exciting when we were young,

was anyone else certifiable like me when they were kids

yoza

I do.

RAF Valley in Anglesea, for Hawks and Tornado's and the odd EuroFighter.

And I am often at the Aviation Viewing Stand at Manchester, and parked up on the main road at the end of the runway, depending on which way they are coming in.

We (me and my 4 year old son,) dont take numbers or listen to the radios we just like watching them land and take off.

When we see a 747 approach when parked on the road, my lad almost wets himself with excitement, we jump out the truck and he gets on my shoulders and we watch it as it thunders above our heads.

The Dragonair Cargo 747 is our favorite as it is old, very noisey and stinks like an IceCream van.

They have put Concorde AC in a hanger now so you cant really see it, and they have put the parking prices up too, but we still go at least once a fortnight, I know the video on the Trident 3B tour off by heart.

Later Yoza..the plane spotter geek

FlightMan

LGW's viewing gallery was closed 4 or 5 years ago. Queesn building at LHR a year or two before that.

There are some good guids here:

Plane Mad - Airport Guides

j4ckos mate

yoza if you mean shadowmoss road, where they go overhead,
our shampooist at the shop lived on one of those houses opp the garden centre, and had the pole in her back garden,

get yourself along to the tatton and sit out its great in the summer or even closer still the airport hotel.

you can almost touch them from the pub garden.
pm me if you want to know where it is

albob

i dont know about 'spotting' but I used to stand on the roof of my van at the end of the runway (nearly directly under the flight path..) at Binbrook as the Lightnings thundered in to land. -- With their stubby little wings and skinny 'legs', wobbling as they lined up to land, they gave me the distinct impression that they were a 'living' thing, just like a bird. -- An unforgetably experience

speye91

when on meetings at or Stockport Branch,i used to pic ka lad up from Glasgow,as he would fly into Manchester.So i would go a hour early,and park up in the little car park,where Concord was,and just sit and watch them come in.

I stop in the Bredbury hall Hotel,and it was under the flight path,came over pretty low.Im flying from Manchester,in 3 weeks,might get up to the viewing bit for a while.

Bangkok(Old Airport) and Shippol,were good for chillin and passing a bit time away watching the Aircraft.

Turbo2

My dad used to take me and my brother to Cottesmore, Wittering, Alconbury, Coningsby, Lakenheath and Mildenhall.

Highlights used to be the bi-annual summer visit of the US Air National Guard's A7 Corsairs to Cottesmore. Although we lived at least 30 miles away, The sky used to be full of noise on the days of arrivals and departure, since they would bring in their entourage from the US in mighty C-141 Starlifters and C-5 Galaxies.

Alconbury used to be best: F4 Phantoms used to do battle with F5 Freedom Fighters all painted in mad Soviet-style colour-schemes. We also had regular viewings of loopy matt black TR1 spy planes (uprated U2), balancing awkwardly on their vestigial wing wheels prior to take-off. All of this could be watched from next to the runway and the guards would come over for a chat about what was going on.

I made a return trip to Lakenheath a month ago and was pleased to see that there is a decent viewing area there for you to park in and watch the noisy F15's taking off in groups. Mildenhall was full of heavy iron (KC-135 tankers, C-17 Globemaster III's and 707-based top-brass jet (Obama was here)), but nothing much moving.

If I'm in the vicinity of an operational base I always try to make time for a few minutes plane-spotting, such as when the B-52's were temporarily at Fairford to bomb Yugoslavia in 1999.

Leslie

I was based at Cottesmore twice, Once instructing on Canberras and later on the Tornado. It was a very nice airfield and we used to live just down the road in Oakham. I made the most of the fishing at Rutland Water too.

Also was at Marham for a while and did a display once at Greenham Common.

Les

dunx

iTrader: (3)

I ran my boss down to Gatwick for an 11 PM departure...

Couldn't resist sitting at the end of the runway for 20 minutes before the 240 mile drive home ! Till a job's worth moved me on !

dunx

P.S. Now under the approach for Leeds/Bradford, but still plenty high, so not very noisy.....

mouse555

iTrader: (1)

Saw some aeroplane spotters at East Mids Airport last Saturday checking out the DHL parcel planes.

stuart n

A spotter for me is someone who records the serial numbers of the aircraft they see. I don't fall in that category but I do spend time in the summer (what summer we get these days!) outside Mildenhall and Lakenheath taking photos, can't beat the noise of F15's taking off on full afterburner

j4ckos mate

Beck row, bet you know that

stuart n

Spent many an afternoon in Johns field

Leslie

We used to spend most of the time at low level hoping that people did not get the serial number!

Les

Janspeed

iTrader: (1)

Shame that thanks to a bunch of unsavory people from 2001 onwards, that the LHR and LGW spotter points have been closed.....
In Germany they make them especially for spotters, with great vantage points, binocular stands etc!
I'm no spotter, but for those who enjoy it, Germany must be the easiest going atmo.

Leslie

I hear from my old mates that they have radar in Germany now to catch planes exceeding the low level speed limits!

Les