About Spotting
What is Plane Spotting
Strange as may seem, this isn’t an easy thing to quantify. For some people, it’s just about underlining registration numbers and serial numbers in a book. For others it is about so much more, but in the main it’s about recording information on some aspect of an aircraft that you’ve seen. Although I’ve been a spotter for more than 50 years, I’m still not sure why I spot – just a fascination I guess.
Aeronumerology Blog
From a spotting perspective, most of 2020 and a good bit of 2021 look to be a total bust. All the usual 2020 air shows have been cancelled and the shows scheduled for 2021 have been or are likely to be cancelled, for the most part the civil aviation scene has been put on hold. But if there is anything going on, then I’ll try to put a blog post up about what is happening.
Aviation News
There are a number of aviation news feeds available on the site, these are dynamically updated. They are from a number of sources, so there may be a certain amount of duplication. But then if you use Google to search for Aviation News, you’ll find that there is a great deal of duplication on the web. The site blog is also likely to report news, but mainly for West Central Scotland.
Picture Galleries
There are a number of picture galleries on the site, these are for the most part taken by users of the site. There are some galleries from spotters that have flown off into the sunset, where I have access I’ve posted some of the pictures left behind. There are also galleries of pictures taken at airshows over the years, along with some galleries from special events.
Spotters
Spotters come in all shapes and sizes, collect all kinds of different information and are interested in different aspects of the hobby. There are any number of aviation groups, with all manner of interests and in the main these are a great source for information. Although care should be exercised when using these sources, as sometimes there is a certain lack of patience with people percieved to be asking silly questions.
Places
In general you are going to find fellow spotters anywhere that you can read the registration or serial number off the side of an aircraft, although with the advent of tools like Freedar and Flight Radar the need to actualy be there has reduced. Photography is slightly different, but with some of the cameras fitted to mobile phones even that can be done at some distance when you have a 100+ MP camera with a zoom factor of over 30.
What’s on the Site
The site has just been redone, so the counts will not be very high for the site content. But given a bit of time I’ll add stuff to the site, hopefully of interest to some people. The counters below should reference the content, as I add more content I’ll increment the counters.
Contributors
Galleries
Blog Posts
Reviews
Why Spotting?
Everday Something New
The thing about plane spotting is that there is always something new, if you live near an airport you will see a variety of aircraft – or will when there is some return to normality. If the skies are clear, you have a good chance of seeing something new, in fact seeing new aircraft is a mainstay of the hobby.
Take Food and Drink
As aircraft movements can be subject to the foibles of the weather, with the inherent delays it can cause, you should take some food and drink. I’ve sat at some base in the middle of nowhere waiting on a delayed aircraft, really wishing that I’d brought something to eat or drink. It can make all the difference to the experience, cold and wet is bad enough and with the addition of hungry it’s less fun.
Easy Directions
Visiting a new location, you can generally ask for directions to where to spot. A good place to start is social media, there are numerous groups on Google Groups or Facebook who will give help to fellow spotters. Tools like Google Street View and Google Maps also help, but in the end a lot of it comes down to common sense.
Spotting Books
There are many books on aviation and true to form there are quite a number of books aimed at plane spotters, from the ubiquitous Civil Aircraft Markings all the way through Military, Airliners, Airline Fleets and a number of other specialist publications. All these books provide a way of logging, generally by underlining or marking an entry on a page.
Check what you need
What do you need to start the hobby, well at its most basic a Pencil, a Notebook and a pair of Binoculars. You can keep your logs online, there are a number of sites that offer the facility. Or you can keep a local copy of a master log and continue to use Pen and Paper, this does have some advantages over online.
Meeting People
People tend to think of spotting as a solitary hobby, that is not the case. In general plane spotters are a fairly gregarios group, don’t be surprised if other spotters engage you in conversation. As a rule, if you are standing on the perimeter of an airfield taking photographs and writing down numbers, there is a good chance that you are going to meet others doing the same thing.
Check Lists
These can be worth carying, it can assist you in identifying a new sighting and can also save wading through every registration that you logged that day to check. Although many of the lists that used to be published are no longer available, there are still some available from specialist publishers likeAir Britain.
Photographic Equipment
As far as taking photographs goes, what I would say is – you can spend what you want. I have a number of cameras and the best one is the one I have in my hand at the time, when the shot is there you have to use what you have. There are reviews of cameras on the site, they are my own personal reviews of my equipment and I will cover photographic equipment in some detail in the blog.