Being a Glasgow spotter, in my early years in the hobby a trip to Prestwick was an event. Usually only at weekends and during the school holidays, but there was the very odd day where “bunking off” was in order if something special was due in. Note the use of the term “bunking off”, the often used term “dogging” now has unfortunate connotations but it was what we called skipping a day at school.
Now I live around 20 minutes from Prestwick, but due to Covid-19 I have only managed down a few times – in reality less frequently than when I was a teenager dependent on public transport.
But it was great just to take a flyer down to Prestwick on spec, there used to be some great stuff turn up unexpectedly. Still we are where we are and it’s likely to be lock down for an other couple of months.
For Prestwick spotters, 2020 was a pretty good year if you could escape lock down and get to see what was there. The couple of exercises and the deployment of the US Navy P-8’s meant that it was pretty busy, but technically we weren’t allowed out to see anything.
The new hangers that have and are still being built at Prestwick have restricted the viewing angles, but not so much that you can’t get any pictures. You can still easily access much of the Monkton side where the majority of the Airport can be seen, with the only missing view being the North Pan and some of HMS Gannet.