Plane Spotting

[Southernmiss]

I don't pay much attention to large aircraft, but after many years as an EMT my ears are very finely tuned to the sound of Air Rescue. We happen to be in the normal flight path for Air Rescue South flying into a local trauma center, and I hear the aircraft miles away and know exactly where it's going. Even with their newer, quieter aircraft, when it passes overhead it literally rattles our windows.

In addition to putting numerous patients on Air Rescue, I did have one opportunity to fly a 12 hour shift with Air Rescue South as a training exercise. Pretty elegant accommodations!

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And being a music lover -- to show you what weird gymnastics the mind goes through -- when Air South flies overhead, I always think of Mr. Mister's "Kyrie Eleison." I love the song, and the title translates to "Lord, have mercy," so it just seems to fit the moment.

"Kyrie Eleison down the road that I must travel
Kyrie Eleison through the darkness of the night..."

Fun off topic fact, we named our oldest child based on this song. LOL

 

[GreatLakes]

Not really but we used to have a restaurant with a patio right across the street from the airport (it is currently closed) and we've eaten there for the explicit reason of letting our son watch the planes for a bit.

 

[Kitty 34]

Maybe either on Mannheim or Irving Park Rds?

I edited my post to say even....and yes right at the airport they had a viewing deck.

 

[RogueX]

My husband works out of a regional airport that's a few miles from our house. Helicopters for news and traffic are there, while planes for flight schools and private jets come in.

I see these in the area all the time without really leaving my house much. On rare occasions my husband has spotted celebrities at the airport, be they filming there or having landed. The one he wishes he got to meet was Betty White.

 

[Flight]

I have not seen a better place for very up close observing than from the beach at St. Maarten (SXM).

Ft. Lauderdale (FLL) has a nice observing parking lot right next to Runway 10L just yards away from Rt 95.

 

[JimMIA]

I have not seen a better place for very up close observing than from the beach at St. Maarten (SXM).

You know, when we visited St. Maarten many years ago, I had no idea we were that close to landing on someone's beach umbrella!

 

[Flight]

...Air Rescue...

Amazing and critical missions flown by these professional crews.

Airports have obstuctions either cleared away or well defined. Approaches and departures carefully plotted out.

But the Air Rescue missions often flown into unknown terrain in uncertain weather conditions

 

[JimMIA]

Amazing and critical missions flown by these professional crews.

Airports have obstuctions either cleared away or well defined. Approaches and departures carefully plotted out.

But the Air Rescue missions often flown into unknown terrain in uncertain weather conditions

Yep. Usually LZ's are set up in nice open areas like county parks, or on roadways, and with lots of ground support from regular fire units. The typical situation is a transfer from a ground Rescue unit to Air Rescue, with an engine crew managing the LZ. Very secure, lots of help, ezpz.

Where I worked in Everglades National Park, we did most of the LZs on roads that were closed to traffic anyway. But we had a couple that were hair-raising -- where they had to descend straight down from 100 feet or so through pine trees. As a lay person, you'd look at that and think no big deal, it's a helicopter after all -- but trust me, it gets your attention!

On my shift with them we landed at Elliott Key in Biscayne Bay and had one of those straight-down landings. And with no marshaling or any other ground support.

Then, after we packaged the patient and loaded her, we had to take off straight up again, fly across the bay and land on a roof platform on top of Ryder Trauma Center in a major hospital complex near downtown. That was another eye-opening experience, weaving among the tall buildings and setting down on the platform!

On the bright side, it was July 4th, so we got an amazing view of the fireworks on the trip back to quarters!

 

[Skippy918]

We used to watch the planes land at BWI airport when we visited relatives. When we were in Vegas, we stumbled across a strip mall close to the runway and watched the airplanes for a bit.

 

[fab1976]

I haven’t gone to watch from right beside the airport, but we are on a flight path for Toronto airport. We have even been able to pick out our house down below when taking off on a trip . We have planes going overhead all the time, quite literally. And we are close enough they come pretty low overhead. I always think we should go one day to watch but haven’t yet.

 

[goofyernmost]

Taking in account that I am older then dirt, planes have been around all my life. As a young child we used to pile into the car and Dad would drive to the airport and we would watch planes taking off and landing. My Dad has been a crew chief on a P47 during WWII. It was a two seater so he never actually road in one and never traveled on a plane his entire life. All he ever said was, "I know what can go wrong with them and you cannot pull over to the shoulder and what for a tow truck".

I was in college before I ever went on a plane. The college offered a two week European Tour, for credits, and a friend and I decided that it might be fun to do it. I have to admit that all those years of listening to my dad say the above quote left me with a lot of anxiety but I was determined to overcome it and I did. Not without some anxious moments, but also some spectacular moments as well. I will never forget flying into Portugal at sunrise and the top edges of the clouds were lined in a spectacular shiny gold edging.

I still love to watch them land and take off, but I never lost that deep down fear. Once airborne I was OK but I hated take offs and landings. For me flying has always been a check off sheet. Successful take off... CHECK! Successful flight... CHECK! Successful landing... CHECK! We have survived another one. I have taken literally hundreds of flights all over the world and still have not lost that initial knot in my stomach when boarding a plane.

It used to be easy to watch planes until the wonderful world we live in created the need for Homeland Security. Some airports like where I live now has an observation deck. Although I did watch a couple livestream, I got bored quickly listening to the blather on about each plane in relation to it's size, etc. If I find myself watching it for over 10 minutes I immediately start to feel like all I am doing on the planet is taking up space. I then move on to more important life functions such as verbal diarrhea on a discussion board. Seriously, I once had serious dreams and goals many years ago.

 

[Dead2009]

 

[White Cat]

I haven’t gone to watch from right beside the airport, but we are on a flight path for Toronto airport. We have even been able to pick out our house down below when taking off on a trip . We have planes going overhead all the time, quite literally. And we are close enough they come pretty low overhead. I always think we should go one day to watch but haven’t yet.

There is a place to stand in front of the Wendy’s on Orlando Dr and Airport Rd. The runway is right there across the street so they are right about ready to touch down at that point. Usually there is a group of people standing there watching. Or sitting in chairs. It’s a very good spot to watch from.

 

[erin1715]

During these covid times, one of our favorite things to do as a family is go to our nearest busiest airport which is about an hour away and sit in our car (too cold outside right now) and watch the planes depart and arrive. Our daughter is 3 and she loves it. It’s a fun simple free thing that we don’t have to wear masks to do. I only wish our closest airport was busier. Our local airport maybe gets one flight a day!

 

[ncc1701]

Growing up my Grandparents's home was on a South Jersey approach path to Philadelphia International Airport (PHL). My Sis & I would stand in the back yard and watch the planes come over trying to see the airline name. I remember going to PHL as a child occasionally to see planes land or takeoff. Must have an observation lounge like a PP mentioned at another airport.
Now decades later DH & I have live on the same path of my Grandparents' home. We are a mile or 2 further East but when sitting on the back deck sometimes we can still spot which airline is flying over our home.
It is rarely a takeoff route. One exception was when Pope Francis flew out of PHL The takeoff was on the local News , flying to the East by the Walt Whitman Bridge. We thought maybe it will fly over us. So out we went to our deck and a minutes or so later it did.