First let me point out in register of PpruNe members interests, that I am an aircraft photographer, and my number crunching is limited to getting the serials of the aircraft I photograph
Among the many sights of spotter knobbery I have seen, was a trip to Lossie in 91 to get some of the desert cam stuff. At the same time there was a detachment of 8 USAF A7's at Sculthorpe. I was on the pillbox at the 23 end and another bunch of folk turned up. (They had been at Leuchars earlier, and it was still morning!). We heard the call signs "Otis 51-54" on the scanner calling for clearance to pass the MATZ west of Kinloss. You could just make out 4 dots going S-N, and with binocs they were slightly bigger dots. One of the spotters said "I hope the other 4 turn up and we can "bag"them.
Another time going back to Edinburgh on the train after the Leuchars show, two guys sat opposite me and got out their Ian Allan abc "Military Aircraft Markings" books, and proceded to check off all the stuff they had seen. They stopped briefly to try and get a glimpse of the "Union Of South Africa" steam loco, that lived in a shed at or near Cupar. They also had the equivelent Ian Allan book for train numbers and ticked that, and a lot of others off. A bit strange I thought, but hey its a hobby and they seem to be enjoying it. But before we reached the Forth Bridge, the pulled out another Ian Allen book, this time for Coach numbers. They had been going round the airshow getting the numbers of coaches in the car park?