a brief guide to Winter Plane Spotting at Innsbruck (INN) & Salzburg (SZG)

With the end of summer looming into sight in the Northern Hemisphere  im starting to look at some Winter trips especially over Russian New Year (Different to us here in Europe) to go to the Alps in Austria and the Tirol region to get pictures of planes at the major ski "Hubs" of Salzburg (SZG) and Innsbruck (INN).

With amazing snow covered land scapes,  Shear rock faces, Pine Trees as well as more general houses, with snow tops roofs forming unique Backdrops, its a great chance to photograph some rarely seen planes in Europe.

Spotting is easy at both locations, even for those on foot. Both terminals have Viewing decks with excellent views. For Salzburg, a short walk takes you to open fields where mounds offer views over the fences for easy picture taking shots.Follow your nose and you wont go wrong!

For cheap flights, Easyjet, BA and Ryanair are given a run for their money by Flybe, Monarch, Thomsonfly and even Thomas Cook! So shop around. 

Below is a look at some of the highlights of previous visits, for more check out :
www.plane-sight-images.photoshelter.com   

Innsbruck Pictures

Salzburg Pictures

Take Off shots are possible from the Viewing Deck at Innsbruck

As are Night Shots, with care

Often the ramp gets congested at Innsbruck, making for a great photo with stunning backgrounds

Although just one plane is all you need!

Salzburg in Busier, with more diverse types, but the castle makes a great backdrop

As do Logo jets!

At Russian New year, YAK-42s are much in evidence

Sometimes you can get lucky with the weather at Salzburg

And Lucky with aircraft, here a TU-214 Taxi's to stand

At sun up, the ramp is covered in bright light

Making the colourful visitors stand out

Spotting here is very easy and there are few problems

A Russian New Year visitor in 2009

One of my favourite Salzburg shots

Guide to plane spotting in Saint Maarten (SXM)

Thought it was about time to blog a quick guide to plane spotting in Saint Maarten (SXM)

St Maarten, shared between Holland and French interests, is the ultimate location to visit for most plane spotters. The great thing about it is that the hotels around Maho Beach, offer great views, easy walking to teh beach itself, some nightlife and even gambling!

Maho Beach itself is dominated by the sunset bar, filled with spotter and holiday makers alike. Great for beers, food and views of the comings and goings - it is complete with surf board come arrivals board. Its well known, any taxi driver will gladly take you to the beach bar.

For those after other views, around the terminal side of the airport, apart from the problems with taking pictures into the sun, there are very few spots. Pictures from inside the terminal once airside are possible with care.

Driving along the road from the terminal, it wraps around the end of the runway, from which some pictures of departures, especially heavies are possible. The large hill at the end of the runway, which aircraft turn to avoid, also offers great views of aircraft as they depart and turn, plus some great, if distant views of the airport and maho beach.

For a full look at my pictures taken last winter, please follow the link to :

Plane Sight Images - St Maarten Photo's

Movements are sometimes well spaced out, but on the most part Insel Air MD80's, Carribean Airlines B737-800, LIAT Dash 8's and DAE F100's will come and go regularly. Supplemented by daily US carriers and most excitingly the Heavies from France, the traffic is exciting enough, but then throw in many regional aircraft from the neighbouring islands and based Winair Dash 6's - it becomes a perfect place to watch planes. Finally getting up early on several mornings will reward any spotter with Amerijet B727'F, Shorts 360 and best of all DC4's!

For flights to SXM, all major East Coast cities are served, as well as direct flights to Paris and Amsterdam. Intra Cariibean links are numerous and frequent allowing you to visit for a day or two, or holiday for a lot longer! check out teh following websites amongst others....

www.liat.com, www.jetblue.com, www,flyklm.com, www.airfrance.com, www.winair.com, www.delta.com, www.fly-inselair.com, www.flydae.com 

Don't forget for any aircraft or aviation images, log onto my site to buy or download images, pictures and branded merchandise @ Plane Sight Images, Galleries 

Caribbean Airlines B737-800W taxying onto runway 20 at sunset

B727-200F of Amerijet arriving at 8am

A Fokker 50 at Sunset

The mighty Boeing 747-400 shortly after take off

The Danger signs around the runway can frame a perfect picture

Classic B727-200F on short final

Not often you see a Shorts 360!

Even less a DC4!

Dusk makes this J31 shot all the better

Classic B747-400 over Maho Beach

Bizjets arrive regularly

Pictures from the terminal are possible with care

Sunset Bar arrival "Surf" Board

You'll see this Dash 6 a lot

Perfect Dash 8-300 shot

Dreamliner turns into a Nightmare at Oslo-Dear!

For a recent trip to Oslo I managed to combine my work with a desire to try out the Dreamliner. Norwegian.com an airline with a heavy presence in Oslo were using their newly delivered Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner for crew training on their busy Oslo to Gatwick services. For just £49 I managed to get a seat aboard the Gatwick bound service on a Sunday evening. 

A typical line up in Oslo

  Outbound from London that morning I used the SAS service from Heathrow's Terminal 3. At only £110 one way versus in excess of £200 on BA and Norwegian - by combining airlines and being flexible with airports I saved over £100 if I had just booked a straight return flight with any of the 3 carriers flying this route.

Norwegian have brought about a lot of competition for SAS across Scandanavia, using low fares, high frequency, and latterly new aircraft to create a good reliable service. Nowhere more so is this evident than at Oslo's Gardermoen Airport. Norwegian is introducing long Haul services to Bangkok and the US, using the B787 Dreamliner. With all the extra flights, transit passengers, and natural growth in services from Europe to Oslo, the Terminal has become very congested. For my visit, the excitement was tempered by the Long Que at security, then another long Que to get to the Non Schengen departure lounge where the 250 passengers on our flight mixed with another 500 or so passengers going to New York on Norwegian, London on BA & SAS and a Thomas Cook A330-300 with 405 seats preparing for departure in a few hours to Bangkok. In addition the small collection of Cafes, Bars and one fast food outlet were inundated - yet the massive Duty Free shop you are forced to walk through was doing a roaring trade!



Too late by two years, Oslo has started to expand the airside piers of the airport, with a major addition of a 3rd Pier extending outwards. For the next 18 months however passengers will be very frustrated at busy times with Oslo's poor planning. 


The Dreamliner however, was a very good flight, with the extra size of the windows, better lighting and overhead storage creating a sense of space and comfort for all. Norwegian have a small Premium cabin at the front 5 rows, sets in a 2-3-2 configuration. In the Economy section that becomes 3-3-3.

  

For plane spotters keen to spend a day at Norway's Premier airport, then views are limited from the Main terminal area, save for the main 01R/19L Runway, where after mid day from the end of the terminal complex on the departures level, great views of the ramp can be had, along with the runway (albeit subject to heat haze in summer). Those needing elevation can also go to the adjacent car park and go to the top level. Initially you'll be disappointed with the fence that is too high to photograph over, but walk along to the point where the car park re-angles itself and a gap allows views over the Schengen part of the pier, the main pier, as well as anything taxing to or using Runway 01R/19L. For those wishing to see the Domestic, GAT and Cargo area, then views are had from inside the terminal and turning left after security. Or for the more intrepid a walk or bus to the Comfort Hotel near Runway 01L will allow for better views.

For more pictures like the ones shown, or to have a look at other aircraft related images then please click through to my website : Oslo Pictures @ Plane Sight Images

EI-LNA, The first dreamliner for Norweigian.com; arrives from Malaga

SAS continues to battle with Norwegian at Oslo

in flight with the dreamliner in a right turn

Spotting Heathrow Boeing 787-8's

A glimpse of the future today, near back to back Boeing 787's including the delivery of the second British Airways Boeing 787-8, G-ZBJA. A large crowd of spotters had gathered at Myrtle Ave, just to the south of the landing runway today 27L.

Enjoy a selection of the pictures I took today below, however more can be found by clicking on my website at: Plane Sight Images

VT-ANM Air India Boeing 787-8

G-ZBJA British Airways Boeing 787-8 landing - with a nice view of the wing!

Another view of G-ZBJA 

A late running Ethopian Boeing 787 was welcome at LHR operated by ET-AOS

Terror in the Skies - Channel 4, Episode 4

So, today's dose on sensationalized crap, shows a plane struck by lightning. "Stunned onlookers" Basically they had a lightning strike, it overpowered the Circuit Breakers. What I hate is that they just gloss over that the plane lands safely and they say "Everyone Survived". What is the point exactly, what are they trying to say??? They don't mention the fact that there are very few, if any, Lightning strike planes that have crashed, and none in the past 20 years alone!

The China Airlines crash had a lot more factors than the Wind shear alone, the Thomson plane landed safely, the BA plane shook for 10 minutes !!!! All very scary stuff, but surely not enough to draw a conclusion that Aviation and flying is a terrifying event?? Ash forecasting has improved a whole lot more since the BA 747-200 incident south of Indonesia. Yet no more detailed information on ASHTAMS is given. Basically if you want to watch shaky footage of aviation incidents, go on you tube. Its not a basis of a documentary where the title pre-conditions you to feel that 

So please Channel 4 - sod off with your sensationalist crap! Professor Brendon Walker, i'm embarrassed for you

An Austrian Airlines B777-200 cruising high above London - Today!

Watching planes in Toulouse

So a sunny day in Toulouse saw a number of interesting flights in and out, that included A380, A330's, ATR's, A320s with Sharklet's and even a flyby of the A350 XWB! Had a lot of fun driving my little Smart Car, on hire from AVIS to a spot on top of a hill that looks down over the main runway, in fact due to runway works - the only runway! Everything that moved had to taxi, fly or "roll past us!

To find the spot basically just come out the terminal and keep turning left. For walkers - its a good 45 minutes in hot sun, so cant recommend it. However contained in the hangers on the walk/rive include several highlights, A380 engine run bays, an ATR finishing plant - where two Jet Connect ATR 72's were hidden away. The original A300-B2, the Original Caravelle and Concorde!

Below a few highlights on the day, please feel free to contact me for more info on the "hill" as well as for any pictures required. To download/buy shots of these and many more planes log onto www.plane-sight-images.photoshelter.com

MSN 139 F-WWSB - Emirates next Airbus A380

The first A350-XWB registered F-WXWB

Nice to see the A340-600 doing some circuits F-WWCB

A Firefly ATR72 doing some test flying F-WWEF will become 9M-FIA

Spotting in Toulouse is almost restriction free viewing!

To Win.... Or Toulouse?

Tomorrow I'm off to Toulouse to find an A350 to take some pics of, so watch this space......

With a bit of luck, there will be some A380's, A330's and ATR's all being readied for delivery!

Will post pics of the trip on www.plane-sight-images.photoshelter.com - please stop by and have a look at the site. Everything is available for purchase on there in every conceivable way it can be printed!

An ATR72 built in Toulouse - seen at Farnborough Airshow 2010

Hopefully there will be a few of these coming and going through the day!

My Chariot to TLS - A British Airways A320