I can't be a@sed dragging my way through umpteen pages of this, but got the gist after about 20 responses.
My partner (In our aircraft-not the poofta variety) is a 23,000 hour heavy pilot (Still - at the age of 62- that narrows it down a bit.!!) Even grade A triple gold anoraks regard him as the God of all Gods. I once put him thorugh a recital of the most obscure reggies, and he got the all one after one.!
I can't do that, but I have been a pilot for 33 years and I am just as plane crazy as I was then. So dear prooners, it is not only people in camo jackets and bobble hats, looking as if six months with a personal fitness trainer would do them a world of good, that are spotters. Mind you I often wonder about the ones trailing the wife with the notebook and muttering reggies for her to dutifully write down. Surely they should be at home cooking....No NO I didn't say that. It was an aberration...honest.
Mind you there are quite a few female of the breed. (And two I am aware of who used to be anoraks and are now anorakettes)