Ever had a spottingtrip not going like you expected??

[E-Diddy!]

This one time I was chilling down in Las Vegas for the day and I had my cameras with me so I figured eh, what the hell, I'll take some photos of the strip. The next thing I know I'm being kidnapped outside the Venetian and thrown into a 2 and a half seat car with myself, Jason Thacher, Chris Burns, Ryan Davis, and this guy named Chris Kilroy driving. Well after being blindfolded, bound, and gagged, then drove around for some time, they kicked me out of the car, took off the blindfolds, gave me my cameras. The place they dropped me off at was at the LAS spotting area, and I guess I had the camera and nothing else to do (as they'd all left me behind at this point) so I started taking pictures of the planes. I've been hooked ever since.

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On a serious note, I did get arrested and handcuffed by a SWAT team at KDRO once when a pilot thought my camera was a rifle, that wasn't fun, except its fun to talk about now.

[ollieholmes]

Now we have had alot of storys of trips going badly is there anyone with stories of trips that have exceeded your expectations. Maybe something incredilby rare appeared, a new scheme appeared etc.

[MaltaAirSpotter]

Well, that must be the landings at Malta Airshow in 2001, or so.

It was a good day spotting, but the surprise was three ex-Israeli A-4s which decided to stop over for a refuelling stop!

[RobinB]

Yes, One Sunday morning I decided to head out to FALA for a spot of "blazing away with my trusty camera". Started off normally with security registration and then I walked obout the hangars, taxi ways, ramps etc - all pretty uneventful, wandered over to where Rovos Air have their hangars (Rovos have 2 Convair 440's, a DC-3 and a DC-4) - this is how it ended up - DARN, I'll never do this again, yeah Riiiiiight

Weather was coming in - good old Highveld THUNDERSTORM



Some distractions as well



Now we get to ZS-AUA



ZS-AUA being pre flighted



Rev them P& W's

Slaking a thirst



Pax go here



I go here



"Tower, this is Rovos 146 - permission to taxi........



Sigh ! It's wonderful to get such a response to my "do you mind if I shoot a few pics while you are pre-flighting" - life in Africa is HELL !!!!!!!!

[CPH Aviation]

Now we have had alot of storys of trips going badly is there anyone with stories of trips that have exceeded your expectations. Maybe something incredilby rare appeared, a new scheme appeared etc.

Was in Manchester in 1997 and while spotting there A6-ADC DASH 8-200 of Abu Dhabi Aviation came in on delivery flight, not bad indeed

When I was in Hong Kong at the old airport a Hapag-Lloyd B737-500 landed. Not something you would expect to see there 10 hours flight from Europe!



Soren

[NeilA330]

Ok.

1.October 25th saw the first PAX flight from Hong Kong to London Gatwick for OASiS. After waiting at the airport for several hours in extremely hazy coniditions, we heard on the transmitter that it was denied clearance at the last minute. I left and when I got back found out it was delayed for 24 hours or something. So, the next day I went to get pics of it, and, when it finally departed, my battery warning sign started flashing, my LCD flickering and the AF on my Bigma failed. All in all a good day....

2. When spotting in Bali! Climbing up on those 5m sea barrier, triangular shaped rocks (dunno what you call them) next to the runway. A million crabs running around you, and the danger of the tide coming in, that bit wasn't a problem. So, about 20 minutes later a policeman with MP5 attached drove up on his moped. Not what I was expecting at all! Never the less, he was a really nice guy and we actually had a decsent conversation going.
So, moral of the story, when a guy on a moped comes up to you with a gun commonly used by S.W.A.T, ya shouldn't be there!

3. Here is one last short one which those who have visited Hong Kong will be able to relate to!!
The other day I went spotting, and it..................................................................................................... wasn't hazy. The End!!

Neil.

[seahawk]

Now we have had alot of storys of trips going badly is there anyone with stories of trips that have exceeded your expectations. Maybe something incredilby rare appeared, a new scheme appeared etc.

Malaga this year. It was no real spottting trip, but the spring holidays with my girlfriend. Well we went to explore the region around Malage with the rented car and it turned out we were coming back to the hotel a bit early, so I decided to try my luck with spotting, as I had been working out a good place and how to get there with google earth. Well, jsut after we dound the spot and took out the Coolpix 5700 (as said to spotting trip) the plane below came in and the photo turned out acceptable.

[Justin_AUS_Spotter]

Well my first and worst experience i was booked to fly a CRJ-700 AUS-SLC then a Delta MD-90 SLC-SJC the flight was an hour late but I was thinking to myself "Hey at least I get to go on one of the few MD-90s in the US!" I walk on thinking I'm standing in an MD-90 just to see a 3 3 configuration the MD-90 had troubles so that onne dayyy I decide to fly on the dying bird they give us a 737-800!!! Man was I pissed...

[BA747-436]

Hence why i prefer to go on holiday and if the oppertunity comes up to take a few snaps on-route or at the airport then awesome, if not then no biggy. I havn't bothered going to the airport (let alone fly somewhere) just for aviation photos.