Heathrow spotting

No problemo 🙂
You should upload some so we can see them 🙂

This link should help…

http://www.plane-mad.com/airport-spotting-guides/united-kingdom/london-heathrow-lhr-egll.html

Thanks EGTC for the link, it really came in handy. Took some photos from the Esso Garage for a few hours and some have come out all right so a good afternoon all in all.

Joemicroman

This link should help…

http://www.plane-mad.com/airport-spotting-guides/united-kingdom/london-heathrow-lhr-egll.html

OK thanks everyone, I eventually went to Heathrow yesterday and spent much of the afternoon there, first at mrytle avenue until 3, then when they changed over to RWY 27R I got on the bus from Hatton Cross and went to the visitors center, where I could carry on getting even more new registrations. I will post a full report of the day sometime soon under a new thread.

Thanks for your help

Spotting at Heathrow is great, provided the wind comes from the West. When you get of at Hatton Cross station you are already in the final approach path of 27L. With a 50-200mm camera everything can be photographed.

If you are lazy you may stay at the station and make pictures facing the sun. If you are a bit more active you can walk and get pictures with the sun in the back. It can’t be much more then a 5 minutes walk.

If the planes are landing on 27R you can get off at Hatton Cross and walk towards the north. After about 10 minutes you will find yourself a nice place where the planes fly over you. Please do not stand near the crash barriers as you WILL be send away. You can stay near the industrial area. Unfortunately there are light-poles you will have to try to avoid, but it is a good place nonetheless.
When you walk there you will also come over that place where the planes cross the road!

Gatwick ain’t bad either provided runway 26 is used (wind from the west). At the website below you will find an excellent explanation on how to get into the final approach. You will also find information on Heathrow.

http://www.csdl17613.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/

I think it’s just a short walk from the tube station – I’ve never been on foot so I couldn’t tell you exactly. I’f they’re on 27R, you’ll be in for a longer walk I’m afraid, either that or get the bus to the visitors centre and walk back. And if they’re on 09L/R – I don’t know where to go!

There’s usually people wherever the planes are landing, Myrtle is busy if the weather’s good – a good 20-30 people last time I was there, but you’ll get spotters and photographers at 27R aswell, by the roundabout under the approach.

its just that the thing is, my grandad is coming with me and he gets worried about having to go too far from the places we ‘know’, ie. the terminal, and so it makes it a bit more difficult. If I were to get off at Hatton Cross is it very far to watch the planes and are there many other people around? Secondly, if we arrived and found that they were not on 27L, is it fairly easy to go somewhere else to see them, if so, where?

How could anyone mistake a camera for a gun

Gatwick says no spotting on car park top. They threatened me with arrest in June! There is a sign saying no photography allowed but we did. Technically with the wording of the sign u can watch but just dont take pictures of planes (they say the cameras looks too much like guns! LMAO)

Gatwick is just as bad as LHR. You can see nothing departing 26 until it lifts off from the deck. You can see nothing on the left side of the central pier or on the ‘domestic’ peir. The carpark might give a better prospect but I have not used to for ages. The top was closed to cars,not sure about the attitude to pedistrians.
As for LHR the visitors centre is the best bet. It can be got to by bus,but I dont know which ones though. I am sure the info desk in the bus station would help? It has a cafe,toilets etc and has good views of 27R and T1 stands.

In a word, no. You can’t get anywhere inside Heathrow to watch, the viewing terrace is closed, and all the car parks have armed guards and signs saying “do not watch the planes”. If you’re going by train – you’d be better off going to Hatton Cross I’d say, and watching from the green at Myrtle Avenue (provided they’re landing on 27L that is) – you get much closer, and it would be a far more relaxing time there than in a car park. Plus, there’s shade! 🙂

The police are being very good about the whole situation due to the lack of decent spotting facilities (The visitors centre is fairly limited).
I was speaking to a police officer the other day who was a die hard spotter, and he said that the police were being told just to monitor the situation and check for “suspicious characters in suspicious places” so if you are at Hatton Cross, or Myrtle Avenue then they are not going to bother. They are praying for the opening of the spectator gallery even harder than we are!

Hatton Cross is by the 27L threshold. On the opposite side of the A30 dual carriageway is a small grass field giving a slightly clearer view of approaches over the house tops. Don’t forget that landing and take off runways change over around 3pm.
mmitch.

ILL GIVE THAT A GO MATE

REGARDS BANDIT

Im going to Hatton Cross Station on the east side tomorrow after work. This is right underneath the flight path for landing, sorry but I dont know the runway number.
Ive been there a few times and as yet have never had slapped fingers. Police drive around loads and sometimes the stop and look, but Ive never had trouble.