The Dart Kitten was one of the last flying shots I took before heading for shelter as digital cameras + H2O do not mix. Despite the wind and generally poor weather the vast majority of the landings were fine – there was only one that I thought ‘ouch’ at but will say no more.

One very minor point was having the aircraft taxi along the crowd line – not a problem for smaller aircraft but some of the larger aircraft were getting very close to the PA system poles – the Twin Pin wing tip only just cleared the top of the speaker and I would not like to see this or any other aircraft suffer damage as a result of this.

2nd batch

Thanks for nice comments ! – as for spotting locations, I went to 2 – the main one in inside Terminal 2 and is a seating area for a cafeteria and can be found by just heading up – all the pics with aircraft landing were taken through the glass here (will leave you to guess which of the others were taken here:) but only a couple of the windows are untinted. Had no problem staying here most of the day as long as drinks / food were bought every so often. No problems either taking pictures as security presence was minimal.

Spent 3 hours on return from Cuatro Vientos (see historic forum for pics) we were taken to another spot by a local friend. This spot is elevated so you can see all departing traffic as it heads towards runway – landing traffic is missed (unless it lands long) Pictures with a roadsign were taken from this spot. (again will leave you to guess which others) This spot can be found by taking the metro to Barajas from the airport and walking towards the road tunnel that heads towards the new terminals – head towards the left of this and climb up the mound – again no probs with securiry as you are off airport land. No facilities here so bring water / food if you intend spending all day here – even in May it was very warm.

Yes it was nice to see the Tu204 – shame it was one I had already seen

The new terminals & runways are almost complete and it should be open by the end of the year or early 2007. We landed on 33R as the old 36R was closed. Took off from the new 36R close to the right hand new terminal (was dark so not 100% sure). One of the pictures above shows the new tower for the right side terminal. The new 33R passes behind the building with the arch on the top (IB hangar visible in Italian AF A319 pic) but is parallel to the current 33R (which I assume will be renumbered 33L)

The picture in batch 3 of the Spanair MD with 2 Iberia aircraft in the background shows the approx position of one of the new runways in relation to the right side terminal. The Gulfstream exec jet does not show the left side but it is behind that aircraft by a few hundred yards.

its a 767-300 series