Hi!

 

Besides flightsim as a hobby one of the things I love is just going to airports and hanging out. Look in the shops, look at the departure board, drink a Starbucks, read USA today. Living in South UK my three main airports I go to are Gatwick, Heathrow and sometimes Stansted. They all have their own character. GA airports are also good too and I go to my local Redhill quite a lot. I can spend hours in an international airport. I just love being in them. I once spent two weeks staying at a cheap chain motel within walking distance from Toulouse Blagnac airport and passing my days jogging and eating and reading and hanging out in the terminal watching Air France A320's load baggage and be ground marshalled and stuff. And of course the A340's and A380 doing tests and go arounds and stuff (and the A380 factory tour). The woman in the hotel reception used to look at me like I was totally nuts!

 

Does anyone else like doing this? I always wander if airline pilots like hanging out in airports because here in the UK you rarely see them in the terminal. Sometimes they're sitting next to me at Starbucks and I try to eavesdrop in case they're talking about flying!

 

So anyone else like going to airports?

 

Any opinions welcome.

 

Many thanks,

 

Pierre

Im pretty much the same, I have a weird love for Airports... I used to go plane spotting with my dad, every second weekend or so when I lived in Manchester. Kind of miss those days as we would sit in Terminal 1 for hours just watching people and planes go by. Now all that has changed since they basically turned T1 into an all departures terminal.

One of my favourite airports to go to would have to be Amsterdam Schipol as everything there is just so simple and relaxed, Plus they cater for plane spotters. Now-a'days I sit in my back garden with the Flight Radar App for iPad/iPhone and watch the Transatlantics go over, Sometime we get the odd 'Rare' Aircraft fly over... Back onto topic. Just people watching in Airports gives me a buzz, Its pretty amusing to be honest... When ever we go away and are staying in a hotel for the night before we fly the next day we try to get an Airport view from the hotel so we can plane spot from the room. Stayed in a hotel called CitizenM in Amsterdam Schipol, a pretty quirky hotel but that isn't what we went for! We had THE best view ever! could see right out across the whole of Amsterdam Schipol "I was up most of the night plane spotting ^_^"...

I think people do that.

 

When I was single, I did that quite often on Sunday. Just took a shuttle bus early in the morning and had my humble digital camera with me. There is a good Waving Gallery at CGK where you can see parked and taxiing aircraft, mostly 739 and of course take off landing in runway 07L/07R at CGK. The trip with the shuttle bus itself is quite fun.

I used to love doing that at small GA airfields , but increasingly, it's getting to difficult to do, because of security issues, even at small GA airfields. Many that use to be open, are now sealed off with chain link fences. Happily, you can still find some, that you spend an hour or so plane watching and day dreaming about that King Air that just landed, being parked in your driveway, next to the wifes minivan.

Sure. I make a living (literally) of hanging around the local FBO and being an airport bum...

 

Otherwise, I used to love being at local Charlotte Douglas Int. and "wandering" around the terminals. Unfortunately, TSA won't allow that anymore.

My local airport has a viewing deck from the main "terminal" that is 2 stories high so you can see all the departing and arriving traffic.

 

On the other side of the runway, there is parking spots where spotters film airplanes landing.

I don't so much but I do have a friend that is a retired mechanic for Air Canada and since he gets free flights.....he books flights from Toronto to places like Schiphol or Heathrow just to walk around the airport at the destination for a few hours and fly back to Toronto the same day. He would do a trip like that about once a month.

 

Great guy though as he is very social so you bet he was talking up a storm on the flights with the crews.

I've always loved airports, I remember as a kid hanging around small GA terminals and sometime pilots would let me sit in the aircraft. What a huge thrill that was. Somehow now as a 40 year old, they don't seem as interested in giving me that privilege!

 

International airports are always rather exciting to me, I'm one of the weirdos who enjoys layovers. If I'm planning a trip that requires a layover, I'll try to make it at an interesting airport, or one I've never been to before. I've even chosen a layover over a direct flight, just to check out the airport! Its great people watching. When I learned to drive, my favorite destination was to go spotting at YVR, and even just driving around the terminal. Same thing when I got my motorcycle license. That's when I learned that a 500cc Honda can't outrun a Dash-8 400, and airport police are not amused by "plane racing".

 

Not long after meeting my girlfriend it was a really crappy cold wet Sunday (normal weather in YVR), and I felt like a good breakfast, The Fairmont hotel in the terminal had a really good brunch buffet, albeit a little pricey. So I said, "Lets go have breakfast at the airport!" She thought I was totally nuts. Well 6 hours later, we were still wandering around the airport, she had a blast checking out the shops and people watching. Until that moment, she had never really travelled, and had never been outside of Canada. I took her to the book store, stood her in-front of the travel books, told her to cover her eyes and grab a book. The book she picked up was Belize, and three months later we were off to Belize on her first international trip.

 

Since then its a regular thing for us to take a trip out to the airport, have coffee or a snack and just hang out for a bit. She can even tell the difference between a 737 and a 747!

I used to here at CYWG. Then they built a new airport and there is no viewing gallery unless you are flying. I don't go anymore. :Phbbbt:

 

Jim

CYWG

as a kid my dad would take me to YYZ and we would stand on the parking garage over terminal 2 and watch jets take off and land for hours. seen the concorde and alot of 747's, 737's, 727's(showing my age now).

Hi!

 

Many thanks for the replies. Cool to read about all the different airports people like going to. I just came back from a few days in France with my brother and I visited Lille airport and also the small airport at Le Touquet. Honestly I could have sat in that small airport in Le Touquet for hours just drinking coffees and being there. I'm definitely not an alpha male!

 

Many thanks,

 

Pierre

I took a trip to France with my family a couple of years back. It was my first transatlantic flight, and of course, it had to be on a 747. Even though it was midnight by takeoff, I watched that wing with a vengeance. Coming back, we got to CDG early, and I had time to walk around. I saw an A380, a couple of 744's, and I'm pretty sure I saw a 777 as well. I practically begged my mom and dad to take me to the other terminals, as Europe was a new spotting ground, but unfortunately, no one else was interesting in seeing "planes in different colors"

My previous job as a field engineer took me all around. Often getting to place to place by air - My other half at the time always used to wonder how the 2 hour return trip would take most of the day before I would return home - She still to this day believes that East Midlands airport suffers a lot of baggage loss and unavoidable 'delays' :Thinking:

I can go sit in the car at one of the local malls here which sits at the end of RWY 12 at ESSB. Nice while waiting for the wife while she is shopping.

I wish I could do the same here in the USA, But due to the TSA and all this POST 9/11 Stuff, Walking around the airport will likley get you arrested for tresspassing more than anything else.