Planespotting: Introduction

Sarasota, Florida: For those of you who follow the site on a regular basis, you will have noticed the increase of aircraft photos on the site and the addition of the “Above the Clouds” page to the site. This is in response to my newly found interest of planespotting.

Planespotting is a new hobby introduced to me by a friend. What a novel concept, it combined my childhood love of aviation and my adult hobby of photography. The result is a new passion that can be really addicting. 

I started by going to my local airport, Sarasota-Bradenton International Airport and have branched out from there. Now it has turned into an adventure, I liken it to collecting baseball cards as a kid. Each day at the airport is like opening a new pack of cards, you know the usual will be in there but you hold out hope for the rare card. In planespotting, the rare cards are the special paint jobs and military jets.

As I continued to learn more about planespottting, I have noticed there is a great wealth of information on the internet about large airports, but a lot of the smaller, local airports have little to no information. So with that, I will be adding a feature on each of the airports we visit. The first airport I will be featuring is my local airport, Sarasota-Bradenton International Airport. From there, I will occasionally add other airports as I visit them and get sample of them. So far I have visited Sarasota-Bradenton International Airport, Tampa International Airport, Southwest Florida International Airport, St Pete-Clearwater International Airport, Charlotte County Airport and Venice Municipal Airport. Expect to see stories from them in the future.

One important thing to remember when planespotting is to obey the law. Security around airport is taken extremely seriously. Never hide your actions, always remain in public access areas, carry identification and if in doubt ask. If at anytime airport police stop and question you or your actions, be polite to them and abide by their requests. They are not there to hassle you, they are there to keep the airport and its travelers safe, respect their duties.

A few good things that will help enhance your experience include; a camera with a zoom lens, binoculars, a handheld scanner to pick up tower to aircraft radio traffic and a smart phone with the Flightaware app to show plane schedules. While none of this is needed to enjoy, any or all of them will help make more of your visit. Currently I use a Canon Rebel XS with a 55-250mm IS lens, a Radio Shack Pro-404 Handheld Scanner and my I-phone with the Flightaware app. This helps me know who’s coming, where to look and what to expect.

So I hope I have given you enough information to help you get started with planespotting. Get out there and give it a try, you might get hooked like us.

Be sure to check back for more photos and stories. You can follow us on Facebook or Twitter to keep up on updates to the site.

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