Explain plane spotting to me

Daleandee said:
"Well I bought this ten thousand dollar DSLR and I need to take photos of something ..."
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Hah! There you go.

It also seems to be a more common thing outside the US, for whatever reason.
 
Shawn said:
I get the love for aviation and airplanes…just don’t get the sitting in the side of a commercial runway to “plane spot” generic mass produced planes when you can look up on an app what planes are coming.
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There’s the “collecting” aspect as well.
 
I know people that do the same thing with trains too. Always out to capture some unique combination of locomotives.
 
I just don't understand the mentally that makes people so obsessed with watching somebody else getting paid to do something interesting or fun. That also applies to watching pro sports or porn.
 
Dana said:
I just don't understand the mentally that makes people so obsessed with watching somebody else getting paid to do something interesting or fun. That also applies to watching pro sports or porn.
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Well that's certainly a hot take. :D I think in your two examples, the idea is appreciating athletes who are particularly skilled or endowed at their craft. It's why I go to art museums instead of my friends' magnet-festooned refrigerators.
 
Shawn said:
I get the love for aviation and airplanes…just don’t get the sitting in the side of a commercial runway to “plane spot” generic mass produced planes when you can look up on an app what planes are coming.
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You have a couple of things here.

1) Same reason people go to live sports events, even though you can frequently get a better view of the event on TV from the comfort of your home. You're THERE, you can feel the crosswind, you can feel the gusts. You can judge the landing.

2) There is still the skill and timing involved to get the perfect action photo. Yeah, there are some "meh, just flying" shots, but there are also the cool action photos of touching down and getting the tires right as they smoke, or the sunset, just as the plane enters the picture.

So a lot still more than "eh, another A-320".
 
Htaylor said:
A great place for plane spotting near LAX is the In-N-Out next to 24R.


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My son did plane spotting in High School. He even met up with a bunch of guys from the UK at the LAX In-and-Out. He also sold a couple pictures to magazines for their front cover. Great hobby, meet up with nice people, have great conversations about planes, and occasionally get to meet with and talk to officers of the law. :D
 
SixPapaCharlie said:
Lots of dudes with cameras, zoom lenses, laptops, video cameras.
What is it exactly that they are doing? They snap photos of every plane landing and taking off.

Oh, this is Founder's Plaza viewing area at DFW
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There are thousands of such people sitting by the runway at Airventure. Nothing unusual about it, especially within this population.
 
schmookeeg said:
Well that's certainly a hot take. :D I think in your two examples, the idea is appreciating athletes who are particularly skilled or endowed at their craft. It's why I go to art museums instead of my friends' magnet-festooned refrigerators.
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Well. I did say, "obsessed". There are those who watch the occasional ball game (doesn't interest me as I don't play ball so I can't relate to it), as I go to the occasional air show or watch a YT airplane video (which I can relate to as I do fly airplanes), but there are the obsessed fans who don't play themselves but watch every game, memorize statistics, etc. I'd rather do than watch; I just don't understand the converse. But to each his own.
 
Dana said:
I just don't understand the mentally that makes people so obsessed with watching somebody else getting paid to do something interesting or fun. That also applies to watching pro sports or porn.
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There are also people that spend $1000s of dollars creating sim pits or truck driving setups to pretend to fly airplanes or drive semi trucks for fun when other people do it for real. Even worse, there are people that spend money to watch people that spend $1000s of dollars creating sim pits or truck driving setups to pretend to fly airplanes or drive semi trucks for fun when other people do it for real.
 
guest user said:
1) Same reason people go to live sports events, even though you can frequently get a better view of the event on TV from the comfort of your home. You're THERE, you can feel the crosswind, you can feel the gusts. You can judge the landing.
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I would argue that it's a bit different with attending some live sporting events. There, you're an active participant. Although your individual contribution is minuscule, the collective effort becomes home field advantage whether it's cheering your team on, shouting over the huddle so that the offense can't hear the quarterback, or waving around towels to distract the opposition into missing the free throw.
 
midwestpa24 said:
There are also people that spend $1000s of dollars creating sim pits
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Hey man, I like my sim setup! I like flying in real life, and also in my living room. Though it's a VR setup with stick, throttle, pedals, and not a sim pit. Some of the benefits over real-life aviation:
  • I can use it regardless of the weather
  • Hourly cost is much less
  • It's in my house and not 30 mins away
  • No pre-flight
  • No SFRA
  • I can fly planes I'll never get to fly in real life, like F-14s, Spitfires, Sopwith Camels, etc, anywhere in the world
  • A mistake on my part won't result in my death or the death of others
  • I can blow stuff up without having to explain myself to the authorities
Sims these days are great! And with VR, pretty dang immersive.
 
Due to this thread, I googled my plane's tail number and sure enough, a plane spotter got a shot of ours. To be honest, it's a pretty cool pic in my opinion and I'm glad some people do this as a hobby, otherwise, I would never have seen my plane, with me flying it lol. 86746_1666627083.jpeg
 
asicer said:
I would argue that it's a bit different with attending some live sporting events. There, you're an active participant. Although your individual contribution is minuscule, the collective effort becomes home field advantage whether it's cheering your team on, shouting over the huddle so that the offense can't hear the quarterback, or waving around towels to distract the opposition into missing the free throw.
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I grant you the point that it contributes, but if we were to take a survey of the people going, how many would say it is to be "an active participant"? I would suggest very few.

In my mind it is kind of like asking why do we fly real planes when sims are very immersive these days? How many people would say they fly to support GA and keep it from being shutdown? Nobody I know says they fly real planes for the purpose of keeping GA alive.

So, I'd say its an effect, not a reason.
 
My UPS 74 left seater buddy recently sent me a YouTube link of one of his recent flights landing at Sydney. First time he'd been plane spotted, he claimed, although I'm sure he hasn't been looking very hard. We were both amazed by how enthusiastic these guys on the video were, basically hosting a live stream for hours. He lands right around the 2 hour mark of the video.

https://www.youtube.com/live/tUQfkcMQmxs?t=1h58m30s
 
The plane spotters don't get super excited about every 737 and A320 they see (the Corolla of the skies as alluded to earlier). They get excited about special liveries like the Alaskan Salmon Thirty Salmon, or special planes like the Dreamlifters, Beluga, and Antonov's. I generally don't get worked up about commercial planes, but I'll admit that when I go to RFD, I love seeing the 747's everywhere. There was even a Mexican registered DC-9 last time I was up there. I would've taken pictures of it if I'd had my good camera.
 
Just like railroad buffs, traveling to famous railroad landmarks to watch the trains
 
Jim K said:
The plane spotters don't get super excited about every 737 and A320 they see (the Corolla of the skies as alluded to earlier). They get excited about special liveries like the Alaskan Salmon Thirty Salmon, or special planes like the Dreamlifters, Beluga, and Antonov's. I generally don't get worked up about commercial planes, but I'll admit that when I go to RFD, I love seeing the 747's everywhere.
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Exactly!! I was in Houston a couple of months ago and one of the guys working at the museum knew that I was an aviation photographer. He told a couple of the volunteers and they came over to show me some of their photos. They had pics of the Houston Rockets jet (based there), the newest Southwest 737 that is painted like the American flag, etc. While not something I would want to do, I liked their passion and they had some cool pics. It's almost like a game with them, showing each other their photos.
 
I learned a new term at the pub a couple weeks ago.

Mansplaining.
 
I have a treasured picture taken at the old Monza 38 degree banked track in Italy. 1958, the year Indy cars raced. Speeds at the apex were above 160 MPH, and the pavement dropped so fast coming out of the turn, the Indy car is a foot in the air, all four wheels. ASA 1000 color film, 1/600th second exposure, and lens well opened for exactly the right exposure. The car is close enough it 1/3 fills the frame. Individual spokes of the wire wheels can be counted, and the driver, in a T shirt, the flapping of both the shirt and muscles of his arms are clearly seen.

That picture turns on my adrenalin more than half a century later. I can still hear the scream of the straight pipes die, then return a split second later as the driver saves his tires, and then accelerates down the straight to over 200 MPH.

The pictures before and after that one missed that perfect timing.

Plane spotting? Train spotting? Race car spotting? All have their high spots, but the one unique picture that you get once in a while makes it all good.
 
SixPapaCharlie said:
I'm still not sure I understand it. But I think they go out there every Wednesday so tomorrow I'm going to meet them and engage with them and find out what they're doing.

I will report back
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show up wearing your bose headset (and epaulettes), pretend to be listening to ATC, and just occasionally laugh. oh, and get it on video of course.
 
geezer said:
I have a treasured picture taken at the old Monza 38 degree banked track in Italy. 1958, the year Indy cars raced. Speeds at the apex were above 160 MPH, and the pavement dropped so fast coming out of the turn, the Indy car is a foot in the air, all four wheels. ASA 1000 color film, 1/600th second exposure, and lens well opened for exactly the right exposure. The car is close enough it 1/3 fills the frame. Individual spokes of the wire wheels can be counted, and the driver, in a T shirt, the flapping of both the shirt and muscles of his arms are clearly seen.

That picture turns on my adrenalin more than half a century later. I can still hear the scream of the straight pipes die, then return a split second later as the driver saves his tires, and then accelerates down the straight to over 200 MPH.

The pictures before and after that one missed that perfect timing.

Plane spotting? Train spotting? Race car spotting? All have their high spots, but the one unique picture that you get once in a while makes it all good.
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:needpics:

POST THE PIC!
 
If one of them invites you to come to his house to play model trains and eat imitation crab meat…say no!
 
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