by Lufthansa Flyer | Apr 28, 2014 | Airlines, Featured, Plane Spotting |
A brief post this morning since I’m up in Anchorage on a part Mileage Run / part Plane Spotting trip. After my first trip to this fantastic city last year it was an easy decision to come back. However this year I waited until April instead of January so no sub-freezing temperatures and blizzard on this go-around.
I’ve been lucky with weather so far and even had the good fortune for the winds to turn 180 degrees today which increased the amount of traffic that I would see on the North/South runway. Last time I was only able to shoot take offs, but this time Mother Nature gave me a hand and turned the winds to blow out of the South which forced the ‘heavies’ to land in front of me for half the day as well as taxi down to my end of the runway prior to takeoff. No complaints from me!
These images are just a few of my favorites from Day 1. I’m testing some new equipment ahead of my trip to Europe next week so there was a bit of a learning curve to get through today. After 900 shots, I’ve narrowed it down to a few dozen at this point. Fortunately I have another entire day to capture a few more ‘moments’.
Click here to see Part II
Then there is this one, chewin’ & chompin’ for what felt like hours…..
by Lufthansa Flyer | Apr 20, 2014 | Featured, Plane Spotting |
After enduring what has been the worst winter I have ever seen as far as snow and lack of ‘positive’ temperature is concerned, I am really excited about the next few weeks and months.
For those of you who are familiar with my site you’ll know that Plane Spotting is a passion of mine and in most cases my travels and vacations have their foundations based on the desire to photograph as many aircraft as possible. To this end, I typically have a normal rotation of my regular airports that I visit during the year and I try to add a few new ones along the way.
So with the last of the snow finally gone, along with serious weather related cancellations and other ‘irrops’ thanks to winter, I finally can be on my way out the door with cameras, lenses and memory cards in hand…..
Starting next week, I’m off to Anchorage where I’ll spend a couple of days standing along side runway 32 and watch a varied collection of long haul cargo arrivals and departures from EVA, UPS, Panalpina, Atlas, Fedex, Korean and others along with Alaskan specialists Everts and Era. Last year I made the trip to ‘ANC’ in January and had to contend with a day with blizzard conditions as well as a day that was absolutely perfect. This year I thought better of it, and decided on a spring visit and looks like the weather will be perfect.
Some examples of what is possible in Anchorage:
Then things really start to pick for my travel calendar as I head to Europe in the first part of May. It starts in earnest when I connect to my LH flight to Frankfurt from Washington DC where I’ll have a chance to spot from Lufthansa’s Senator Lounge. The lounge overlooks the tarmac between terminals and provides a good opportunity to see a few international ‘heavies’.
Once in FRA, I’ll spend a day visiting friends at Lufthansa as well as spending some quality time on FRA’s excellent observation deck before finding a duck or pork knuckle for dinner.
From there, it’s on to Hamburg for the Port Festival and HAM-DO.
While in Hamburg I’ll finally have my first ride on Lufthansa’s Junkers Ju52 when it flies over the opening parade of the Festival. In addition, HAM-DO will take participants behind the scenes at Airbus as well as Lufthansa Technik. No doubt, some outstanding photo opps are waiting.
Lufthansa’s Junkers Ju52 flies over the Hamburg Port Festival
After 2 days in HAM, it’s a quick run to Istanbul for a day in order to pick up a gift for a certain someone. I’ve built in a long layover in Munich in between flights from HAM to IST, which gives me plenty of time to take a photo or 2. Istanbul also presents spotting opportunities albeit through green-hued windows. In this case, the subject of the photos are more important than the quality. IST is full of unique carriers that I normally do not get to see, so several hours have been built in for spotting in IST.
From Istanbul it’s to Zurich via Vienna where I will spend 2 days dedicated to nothing but plane spotting in and around ‘ZRH’. The airport is perhaps the most spotter friendly airport in the world with 2 dedicated observation areas within the Airport perimeter as well as several spotter friendly areas around the airport. I hope 2 days will be enough! A big thanks to Twitter’s @easyspotting along with Tis, whose website, www.PlanePics.org, provides a fantastic resource and great advice for spotting in Zurich.
I had a few hours on a recent trip to Zurich which convinced me to go back. Here was some of my motivation:
I caught her through a window last time…This time, I’ll be outside waiting for her…
From ZRH, I head for home via Frankfurt where again, I’ve built in time specifically for spotting before boarding my LH flight back to the states. In all, 8 days, 6 cities and plenty of plane spotting opportunities. I can’t think of a better way to see Europe! 🙂
The calendar only gets busier….a couple weeks after this trip, it’s off to Seattle to see what new toys are coming out of Boeing’s Everett facility.
Winter is slowly becoming a distant nightmare of a memory!
