A Brief Guide to Plane Spotting at Taipei Songshan TSA

Back in March 2011 I had the pleasure to visit Taipei's mostly Domestic airport or Songshan (TSA). For nearly two hours there was a steady precession of airliners from a variety of Taiwanese airlines, along with a planes few from Japan and the Taiwanese Air Force. 

As always pictures for purchase or your personal viewing are available on my website, in the Taipei Gallery :

Plane Sight Images Gallery List

For cheap flights to and from Taipei / Taiwan have a look at :

Eva Air Website
China Airlines website
Uni Air Website

Great views are possible from the Runway 10 End of the airport. This is the predominant runway used at TSA. "Lane 180" is about a 5 minute taxi ride from TSA's terminals and is well served and within walking distance of the Metro system. Walking down Longjuang Road, Turn left and follow the small road/lane that leads to Lane 180. When you arrive, expect few issues with Police, but also some locals a mix of spotters with camera's and those just interested to see what your doing! The undershoot to the runway appears to be an allotment / rubbish dump? Along the side of the runway great views are possible, but these are south facing. After midday is best at the end of the runway for sun placement.

Aircraft range from Islanders, to Dash 8-300's to B737 types. In additionl some A330's are possible from Eva Air and China Airlines. For most pictures a small 18-100mm lens will do the job.

An ERJ-190 approaches, seen from Minzu East Road

EVA Air A330-200 on short final over the allotment, with the landing lights clearly visable

Local Spotters and visitors on Bikes clamour for a picture as an Eva Air A330-200 lands on Runway 10

Special Liveries also appear, such as on B-16829 of Mandarin Airlines ERJ-190

1315, a C-130 of the Taiwanese Air Force shares the runway with Civil Movements

B-15233 is a Dash 8-300 of Uni Air operating domestic flights

From the other side of the runway, Taipei 101 can frame your pictures.

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