I’ve wondered in the past why plane spotting is a hobby, it’s not any different from Bus spotting, Train spotting or collecting car registrations for that matter. Is it just the interest in aviation that makes it different, or the fact that as a plane spotter you can see aircraft from all over the world at the local airfield.
When I lived in Skye the majority of the civil visitors were foreign registered, whereas all the military that I saw was either US or UK armed forces. The civil stuff came from the US, Switzerland, France, Germany, Bermuda, Denmark and a number of other locations.
The two local airfields, Ashaig (Also called Broadford) and Plockton were never that busy. With 15 aircraft being the largest number that I ever managed to catch on the ground back in 2000, although not in Skye for much of the time it was always interesting to go for a drive by.
One of the things I liked about these airfields was the fact that there was no way of knowing what would be there (If anything) when you went, sometimes the RAF arrived for lunch and sometimes the Navy. But more often than not, there was nothing there – if you timed it right you got to have a chat with the pilot – maybe even recommending somewhere for lunch. Time it wrong and you could sit and talk to yourself, a well known plane spotter trait.
During the exercises like Joint Warrior the place sometimes got a bit busy, but it wasn’t a guarantee – but then what is in the spotting world.