We made a short visit to the viewing area at Perth Airport, on our way back home, after travelling up the coast for lunch. The viewing area is ideally placed for capturing photos of planes as they take off. Unfortunately that placement isn’t so good for incoming flights as they slow down and taxi away before coming anywhere near the end of the runway. But I guess you can’t have everything.
Some incoming flights do become visible towards the end of the runway, especially if they are big. An Airbus 380 is big, and it uses more of the runway than most other planes.
The A380 visits Perth on a, once, daily basis.
It’s a shame most other airports don’t embrace the publics enjoyment for aircraft observation in the same way as Perth has done. As a boy I had visited Gatwick to watch the planes. Had a fabulous time watching noisy Vickers VC10s, Hawker Siddley Tridents, BAC One-Elevens and even a Lockheed Constellation.
That last just goes to show how old I am. The point is back then we were encouraged to go and watch. Now, at most airports you can only see aircraft if you are departure side of security and if you are stopped anywhere around an airport perimeter or on top of a multi-story car park you are likely to be moved on rapidly.
So, that just leaves air shows and, with this years disaster at Shoreham, even they are under threat.
I’d just like to point out that not every member of the public is a ground-to-air rocket wielding lunatic.
WrAnTz 