Certainly looks to be a good vantage point at LHR. Might have to try to get up there myself the next time i head out to LHR. Were you stopped at all by anyone? I take it you went on foot into the car park – is it from the top floor?

I did go on foot to the car park. It is the top floor, on the check-in level. There was someone “official-looking” at the spot, but I do not know whom he represented or if he was in function at the time. Brightblue and white chequered high-vis jacket, isn’t that St. John’s ambulance service? Definately not police.

Anyway the chequer-man mentioned that the official BAA policy was not to allow people with “big cameras” (his words) onto the deck. Only small pocket cameras as used by amateurs are allowed. He shared my opinion on this… hmmm, how to put this politely… bolocks. Had a nice chat with him and another spotter about spotting in general and BAA’s attitude towards it in particular.

Most of the top floor has tall fences that do make photography impossible. About a meter (4 foot) is left. The chequer-man did mention that the area not already fenced of would be fenced of as well. Again I can not stress enough that this fence is impossible to shoot through! It is not your typical chain-link fence. If the same type of fences is used on the lower floors I do not know, but it seems likely.

I’ll put up a seperate thread on LHR in the coming days. Later tonight or tomorrow afternoon I will add a LGW thread. The LHR thread will follow a few days later as I will be sorting that for a few days to come. My work obligations at the moment do not leave as much time of as I would like.

Lovely shots from LCY… glad to see you caught the swiss special. One thing that is fustrating about LCY is the amount of posts that get in the way in shots. 🙁

The poles are indeed a problem, but even with the posts you can get pretty nice shots. I really like LCY even though traffic at times can be dull. There’s only so many VLM F50s and BACon ARJs you can see before one goes bonkers. I had been hoping to catch the VLM ‘146, but did not see it. Maybe already retired?

As for the Swiss ARJ. That little ****** is following me around. If an airport normally gets Swiss ARJs, then you can be damn sure it will show up when I am around. Already seen it several times at AMS, DUS, FRA and now LCY. Same goes for the Gulf Air birthday A330 (the red ‘n gold one). That’s another stalker I got. I’ll admit I’d prefer to have Megan Fox stalking me, but beggars can’t be choosers.

Another good location for photography there is if you take about a 10-15min walk down a small pathway underneath the bridge to the left of the airport

I know the spot, but it is not really usefull in summer since it would face the sun. Only in winter that place is OK. I suppose sunsets can be seen from this spot with Canary Wharf in the background, but only when planes are coming in from the west as otherwise I would guess the planes to be too high for photography.

Great shots Peter

Please post the LHR shots as they are taken from the T5 car park arnt they? I would love to see what its like, so i can go there before they block it off.

Well, here’s the best photo I have seen thus far from LHR. And the one of the only usefull photos from T5. Only some 50odd photos where shot from this vantage point, and most of them are not that good. Planes taxi by close by below you, and ruining those shots is next to impossible. However, all those movement are BA A320s and A321s so hardly worthwhile picking up your camera for.

I got this one in the Jetphotos queue. Wish me luck on getting this one accepted.

BAA airports are not designed for hanging around landside.

The idea is you check in and head through security. Once through security at T5 you enter a whole new fantasy world of retail and dining where you could easily forget you are on your way to a flight.

Hope you enjoyed LGW.

1L.

Back in NL again. Enjoyed my stay at LGW a lot better then the other fields, weather was very good indeed!

I decided to take the shuttle bus to the Airparks parking thingy. From there just a small walk back. Unfortunately they would not drive me back. They saw me walking into the front gate and decided I was an insurance risk or something. Their policy would not cover non-customers.

I did tell them I would be willing to pay a busfare making me technically a customer, but alas no ticket machine. Me having full travel insurance would not work either. So I walked back to the industrial area and took the line 100 back to the terminal. Was probably faster then taking the shuttle bus as well as it did not take a direct route when driving to the parking lot.

Fortunately I left plenty of time to get myself back to the terminal. Next time I shall act more like “crouching cactus hidden hippo”, or something like that anyway. Maybe then I can blend in with the other people waiting and pretend I came by car. 😀

Photos will follow in a few days.

Cracking pics, like the LTU 330 touchdown. What is the A330 in the first pic on the left?

That’s an Air Berlin/LTU plane with the new livery and logo.

Nice to see a different selection from lands not too far away, cracking shots. Also to note the TU-154 is it parked up or pushing back using his own stream as the thrust reversers are deployed?

Rgds

Andy

The Tupolev was parked like that all day, and apparantly already since wednesday. The thrust reversers being open means nothing.