how many professional pilots are also spotters?

[RUDAS]

I hope this is the correct forum for this question.

Anyway,i was just wandering if there are any professional pilots who,like me,are also planespotters?

It seems there is a lot of disdain amongst pilots for spotters,they seem to see them as kind of sad geeks...which i must agree with partially,it does seem to attract a higher than average proportion of wierdos but anyway...would be interested to hear from others like me.

[411A]

Well, I certainly can't speak for other professional pilots, but I suspect they all were 'spotters' at one time before flying professionally....you know, hanging over the airport fence, trying to get a closer look at all the fine flying machinery.

As aviation has been rather kind to most professional pilots, I wonder just why then these same folks look on 'spotters' with disdain?

Seems totally unreasonable to me.

Or, to put it another way, don't these same professional pilots also have a hobby?
Other than sitting on the bar stool, that is....

[HEATHROW DIRECTOR]

Can't speak for pilots, but I know plenty of controllers who are very serious spotters.. I started that way and, although I stopped collecting numbers sometime ago, I still derive huge pleasure from watching aircraft. Couple of days ago I watched the video I made of the 50th anniversary fly-past at Heathrow... had me in tears!

[RUDAS]

that's exactly where i started off,and still try to get as many numbers as possible wherever i go.glad to hear from other like-minded people

[Hotel Tango]

Don't know pilot number crunchers, but I do know several who partake in the photography aspect of "spotting". As already mentioned, there are quite a few ATCO number crunchers, although some don't advertise it too loudly for fear of being ridiculed. In fact, their additional knowledge often helps to identify anomalies in FPLs and flight data.

[PPRuNe Pop]

I think everyone who has ever been smitten by aeroplanes still has a keen interest in them. I am retired now but my head always goes skywards when I see one, and it would be fair to say that most pilots are still 'basically' spotters of one kind or another.

I also have a few ATCO's as friends and some can't go anywhere without their personal 'radios' to keep up with who is saying what to whom!

[Ranger 1]

We have certainly 1 here in BRS ATC also 2 confimed spotters who work in my Dept, all of them a mine of info

[Notso Fantastic]

RUDAS,

It seems there is a lot of disdain amongst pilots for spotters,they seem to see them as kind of sad geeks

I don't know where you got the above impression, but I think you are wrong. I have always been a 'spotter', I am proud to have been one now, and always will be. I fly 747-400s now, and always felt a bond to spotters! I don't bother with regs.

Now as for train spotters.....no mercy!

[Navajo8686]

When you talk to 'non spotters' there is a definite pecking order of spotting activities which seems to pervade even though they probably nothing about any of the hobbies...

Usual type of remarks you get from the non-spotters from the top:

Bird spotting - "Oh how wonderful & you can identify a million starlings individually in your garden? Aren't you clever but just a little weird"

Balloon Spotting - for anyone "Oh how nice - I would love to go in a ballon. You're slightly weirder"

Plane Spotting - "They're great for going on holiday but you want to see ALL of them before you die. You're definitely weird"

Train Spotting - "Those sad weirdos on the end of platforms watching trains? In my day they were steam you know and......"

Bus Spotting - "Blimey - you stand on street corners looking at BUSES. You're mad"

Lorry Spotting - " Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha"



Navajo8686

Also admitting to partaking in four of the above - makes me a total

[Evanelpus]

Oooo Navajo, all the Eddie Stobart fans will be sending you poison pen letters now!!

[kala87]

Rudas

Certainly, many pilots started their interest in aviation by hanging out at their local airport, and visiting air shows. As to how many were 'spotters' I don't know, but certainly some were. I certainly was in that category for several years, but soon found aviation photography to be more interesting.

There was a thread on this topic some time ago in the 'private flying' forum. The consensus of opinion seemed to be that the 'real' pilot should march to and from his/her aircraft without even a glance at the other interesting hardware parked on the apron! In other words, even showing an interest in another aircraft was evidence of that terrible crime, aircraft spotting!

I don't believe this attitude represents the majority in flying, just the opinion of a small boring minority. It certainly exists though. I once mentioned to a fellow pilot at our small local airfield (I had a part share in an aircraft based there) that I sometimes liked to hang around near the runway at a well-known airport, mainly to judge the quality of the landings, but also to see if anything interesting turned up (which in my case means a DC6 or Lockheed Electra, or something similar)

The response was emphatic: "don't mention that to anyone round here, else they will call you a xxxxxx spotter, or worse"

Sad people. Amazing how some people can fly aircraft while being so disinterested in the larger world of aviation.

[PPRuNe Towers]

Well it makes for a satisfying little rumble somewhere on the site several times a year. It seems the protagonists are determined to misunderstand each time.

As you've seen many of the pro's are as much enthusiasts as you. Danny and I both began as helplessly enthusiastic spotters on the spectators' balcony at Liverpool Airport during the British Eagle and Cambrian era.

Our definition is brutal but honest. The disdain has been created by the element of the fraternity that is obsessive/compulsive/bipolar possessing no social skills and where the counting/ordering/collecting is or becomes the sole driving force. The aircraft are, of themselves, secondary to that aspect. They'd be bird spotters if they had serial numbers. Remember, we are forced to spend time in airports and we can't help but run across the stereotype spotter on a regular basis.

The subsiduary aspect is whether someone sees themselves as a passive or active participants. If this was the TV and Film rumours network you'd see the same problems arise beween those on the production side (in no matter how minor a role) and viewers. It would be the same on a riding site or one for yachting. Human nature I'm afraid - in those realms I'm the one with a passive interest and I know what goes with the territory.

We're tribal creatures, there is an inside and outside. Disregarding PPRuNe itself it's there within the enthusiasts' community as with any human grouping - including pilots! The rest of the site bears testament to that. You lot actually get off very lightly if you have a look outside the box.

Regards from the Towers
Rob Lloyd

[GlueBall]

Last month I had taken a long stroll to the fence at LGW beside the Travelodge (Former Concord & Gatwick Hickmet) with my cam, but lo and behold the fence was covered. The half dozen spotters on the scene were squeezing their cams between the gate posts. An alternative viewing platform could be the rooftop of the hotel, but that's up to the hotel manager. Perhaps one of the regular LGW spotters could talk to the hotel manager about that

[RUDAS]

i suppose,since many of you are uk-based,and with spotting being pretty big over there,its kind of better accepted.out in my part of the globe,its quite a rare passtime,and almost all my colleagues as fellow pilots tend to look down on spotters as wannabes.

I agree though that anyone who loves planes and still turns their head skywards when one comes over is,fundamentally,a spotter.

[Notso Fantastic]

Well there's no clue there as to what part of the planet you come from, but there are established spotter clubs here and they organise spotting tours. Unfortunately, some countries (like Greece) don't seem to understand enthusiasm for aeroplanes for aeroplanes sake as opposed to espionage.
I used to get up to LHR any way I could and spend happy days there 'spotting', and all the airshows I could get to. I can think of no better way to build up enthusiasm for the business- once you are actually working, dragging yourself out of bed at 03.30 am or going to work at 23.00 needs motivation- money isn't enough for the tedium in the job- unless you are truly motivated by love of aeroplanes you probably won't last the course.
So are spotters 'looked down upon'? Not by moi!

[MAN777]

I am a "spotter / enthusiast" and proud of it, Although not a pilot (OK i am a frustrated pilot) I fly on an almost daily basis, all my colleagues know of my hobby (one of many hobbies i might add) they find it amusing and take the mick, but its all good natured. If the truth be known I suspect there are others in my workplace who just wont "come out" !!

I know many spotters from all walks of life and professions, it is true there are the obsessive types who have scant regard for the bigger picture, but equally there are highly educated individuals who could shoot down any pilot on the subject of aviation.

Personally, my interest gets me all over the world, have been to every continent except Antartica. The average normal non spotter does well to get 2 weeks in Majorca !

I would like to start a list of famous spotters, my contribution is

Sir Michael Bishop (Bmi)

[GrahamK]

MAN777 I think you can add John Travolta to that list

[ehwatezedoing]

I started as a "spotter"

Also this term was not known to me at this time (early 80's). I went to every airshow I could and still have photo's albums about it. I guess it's what brings me in aviation!

It remind me a story when I flew a B-18 for a skydiving outfit.
Every once in a while someone would come see the a/c, take some picture and have a little "chat" with me...
One of those guys came out in an old Volvo. He spotted me flying on top of his house couple of time and just wanted to see it closer. We had a very nice conversation about B-18 and aviation in general.
Then he left me with a smile and....a CL-415 sticker.

Couple of weeks later I recognized his face in a Flight international article.
As Bombardier CL-415 Chief Pilot.

[San Expiry]

I'm constantly amazed by a large number of my (flying) colleagues who show/have shown no interest in aircraft, the aviation industry or aviation 'things' whatsoever. I'd love to know what drove them along the very long and winding road to a seat up front of an airliner without any real interest flying machines. Still, takes all sorts, I guess.

[Kestrel_909]

I know (of) several controllers and pilots who still have a keen interest in 'spotting. '

Ok none who book a day trip to LGW or MAN. Most of them also deny their use of flight sim at home to their collegues but happily admit it to enthusiasts