How often do you get Snapped?
 

Always amazing me how obsessed the plane spotters are taking photos with sophisticated camera equipment!
Taxiing in you Can see them Cameras pointing through security barriers in their droves.
Staying in a Hotel by Luton a whole club had booked rooms and chatting to some of the guys they knew every detail of my movements into Luton.
It must cost them a fortune charging around the countryside just to take photos and grab numbers and I for one cannot see the appeal or the obsession?
Googling your aircraft reg brings up some pretty good shots of your aircraft in varying locations.
What is the appeal of all this because there must be one?
Do they ever annoy you with an invasion of privacy or wandering around smaller airfields into various hangers?

Pace

Don't be shy!! They are looking to check your tan after your visit to the south of France.

Nope. Each to their own. I see no point whatsoever in 22 over paid ponces swanning around a patch of grass kicking a pigs bladder. Clearly many millions don't agree with me.

Our aircraft are unusual enough to bring them out in droves. Makes me feel like a minor celeb.....:p

It's quite scary those spotters log quite a few bits of info such as; time of arrival, nature of visit and time of departure, just another avenue for the wife to verify whether you really flew to blah blah... on a particular day and question - "who's the blonde perched on the wing" (the new refuelling girl)! :O

On one occasion, I took some notable people somewhere in a very distinctive and classic big aircraft. Having parked up, I opened the DV window and relaxed into the turnaround chores before we went for our day-stop.

A few days later, I was informed of a few pics on a well-known spotters site, perhaps one where airliners get caught in the things fishermen use. They were close-ups of me through the DV window... The comments had more detail about the aircraft and trip than my passengers would have been comfortable with.

Naturally, my handsome radiance causes these problems from time to time, but I thought: this is going too far.

I emailed the photographer with my concerns and he pulled the images straight away, and sent me a high-res one which I have printed on my office wall.

I find it very amusing actually, being both a pilot and photographer at the same time.

Truth is, there's a ton of people out there who know a s**tload about aviation and the aircraft that come to their airports. They can probably tell you the previous five owners / operators from the top of their heads.

If you have ever been to LSZS you'll certainly be familiar with dozens of them around the perimeter fence and even on the apron (the airport is very cooperative there, having guides for them and making them take briefings online, similar to the one crew have to do).

Even though I am crew I still like to occasionally wander around the airport in my free time and snap some photos when the light is nice or the aircraft are somehow rare.

I don't get the "logging registrations" thing really, I just like combining two passions - aviation and photography. I also do commercial work for various business aviation operators, simply because a photographer who has a passion for aviation will certainly supply better material than one who doesn't care much.

That being said, if you don't like a photograph of your jet / yourself online, a short email usually makes the photographer remove it.

http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2197/5...66fd5e94_o.jpg

http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3020/5...ecae94d9_o.jpg

Innflight

Stunning photographs!

Nice photo of the Legacy landing (it is a Legacy, right?).

INNFlight

Have to admit that second shot is stunning (You can take a few shots of the old girl whenever you want) :E

First one looks a bit more like MSFS?

Not against the photography at all but just found it hard to understand a plane spotter club booking themselves into Luton to mark every detail and movement at vast cost to themselves?

Even at small airfields I have seen some drive 100s of miles just to check on a beat up old single sitting at the back of a hanger!

Cannot get my head around it??

Pace

Believe it is G-THFC, EMB-135BJ.

Photos: Embraer EMB-135BJ Legacy Aircraft Pictures | Airliners.net

I can't get my head around football, yet people spend a fortune following their teams around the world.

I can't get my head around children put people keep on breeding....

Each to their own!

Pace
 

I totally am on the same page - I'd rather not sit out there getting sunburnt all day scribbling down your ATA and ATD. Still I guess it's better for 'em than sitting at home all day in front of their telly. :cool:

The first picture isn't MSFS - was taken on a lovely evening in LOWI.

Bose

Always loved the Durex advert! That Horrid child running riot around a supermarket, throwing itself on the floor in temper tantrums and the Dad pulling his own hair out not knowing what to do.
Then the simple advert for the above product flashed across the scene:E

Think how simple life would be without all the procreation thing between sexes;) We would not be here churning out all the rubbish in these threads that we do ;)

Pace

Really, nature of visit, I don't think so. Did you include these three words to try and give your post some credibility?

I know spotters who record dates, times and even parking places but not the nature of visit of a particular aircraft. Unless perhaps they have a link to the database of a particular handling company!

Evanelpus.

Take it easy dude, was just kidding. I've seen some photos where spotters have put details down, like so and so's private jet here for the Euros and so on... landed at such time and departed at such time. Was making a joke about ones wife or girlfriend using those pics as reference to verify trips.

I don't get the "reggie-spotter" thing either. When I used to work in sport aviation, it wasn't unusual for spotters to try and be the first person to spot a new kitplane as soon as it was registered - when said aircraft was currently three rivets and a bit of bent tin in somebody's garage. Some people need to get out more, and the same reggie spotters can often be an almighty safety hazard around things like fly-ins and busy smaller airstrips.


However, I'm another person who both loves aviation and photography - my personal aircraft photo library is a few thousand good images, and I spend my life around aeroplanes, which has opened up a few pretty good opportunities over the years.

Plus images of aeroplanes I'm either privately or professionally involved with have, over the years, often been quite useful - photographers are generally very happy to provide a good quality copy in response to a polite email, and I've yet to see any harm done.

G

Innflight, absolutly brilliant pictures! Any more?

E.

2012 Spotting Weekend Photo Thread - Sydney Airport Message Board

Have a look at some photos on this thread. Photos of plane spotters.....spotting. There is some seriously expensive lenses here.

The group is from the Sydney airport message board, and several of the airfield ops managers are also members, so they organised a day for the spotters to sit right next to the runway.

Good on the spotters I say, I have been flying myself for 22 years and still love a day down at an airport just watching, and munching some fish n chips. But I have to say nothing beats a day steam train chasing, especially when its chugging up a steep hill.

What ever the activity, if it gets people out of the house, active, doing stuff, living life then fantastic. Much better than the losers who just drink and do drugs.

I agree, some of the stuff published would be seen as a total invasion of privacy if it was a car rather than an aircraft.

I once landed a corporate helicopter on privately owned land (with the owner's permission, the passengers were there for an arranged meeting with the titled landowner). A member of the public immediately marched up and took some photos of us. He then approached the aircraft and demanded to know who my passengers were!

Needless to say, he didn't get the answer he was hoping for; I simply told him I wasn't at liberty to tell him. He angrily stomped away, as if I'd paid him a terrible personal insult.

Try that in a a private car park.....(as if anyone would) and the answer might not be so polite; might be just two words, the second one of them being "OFF!".

Don't think so as it appears to have a German flag on the fin. There are many Legacies around with that colour scheme.