[Dieselritzer]

Glad i found this thread. Wished to share pictures of aircrafts i took while on my way back from Japan.

[Dieselritzer]

[Dieselritzer]

The Land of the Rising Sun... my first glimpse of the sun rise over Japan

[Dieseltuned]

Is plane spotting a legal activity in India ? I have seen many plane spotters around Heathrow airport in London, but never seen such groups around airports in India ?

Regards

[Dieselritzer]

I really doubt. Me and a close friend, Saket who is also a BHPian visit the Parle east west bridge (Milan Bridge) to spot aircrafts taking off at late night. We have been lucky enough not to get whisked by the police but i know some people who have been questioned briefly on their intentions of staring at these beautiful machines taking off or landing. I find it senseless. If we staring at these aircrafts was of such threat then then should start monitoring the people who live in the slums all along the approach path at Kurla.

[Jeroen]

Originally Posted by Dieseltuned

Is plane spotting a legal activity in India ? I have seen many plane spotters around Heathrow airport in London, but never seen such groups around airports in India ?

Regards

The short answer is, apparently, yes.

For more details see:

http://www.bangaloreaviation.com/201...graphs-of.html

Jeroen

[Dieseltuned]

Originally Posted by Dieselritzer

I really doubt. Me and a close friend, Saket who is also a BHPian visit the Parle east west bridge (Milan Bridge) to spot aircrafts taking off at late night. We have been lucky enough not to get whisked by the police but i know some people who have been questioned briefly on their intentions of staring at these beautiful machines taking off or landing. I find it senseless. If we staring at these aircrafts was of such threat then then should start monitoring the people who live in the slums all along the approach path at Kurla.

I agree to your point, it is definitely baseless to question people on what they are viewing. As far as the slums towards Kurla are concerned, I probably think they are never going to go, no matter how much we say and read about making Bombay a world class city and the only reason for that which I can fathom is "Vote bank politics"

Regards
Dieseltuned

[yatrik]

Originally Posted by Dieseltuned

Is plane spotting a legal activity in India ? I have seen many plane spotters around Heathrow airport in London, but never seen such groups around airports in India ?

Regards

We too have groups for this activity in India, a premier example being the Aviation Photographers India(API), the facebook page of the same can be found at --> www.avph.in

Yes it is legal in India as well, just the area around Mumbai airport is too sensitive so has its fair share of cop troubles but still you can find active Plane Spotters in Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore, Chennai, Coimbatore... You can find their photos at -->
1) http://www.jetphotos.net/showphotos.php?country=India
and
2) http://www.airliners.net/search/phot...nct_entry=true

In Bangalore API has along with BIAL and CISF has a dedicated platform for Plane Spotting which members of API can access.

You can find members of API here on T-BHP as well, those I know are Aiel, Aalokg, Stratos and myself.

[Chetan_Rao]

Plane spotting at cruising altitude (crossing the pond from Heathrow to Boston)

[yatrik]

Here are some of my pictures...


PS: Most of them are 1200px. so please click on the image to view high res

[akshay380]

All pics shot with Canon 600D with 18-55

SR 71 Blackbird in CA Science Musem


The "pig' at Houston International Airport


KLM Jumbo at Houston International Airport



Jumbos at Shanghai International Airport. I was struck here for a day thanks to bad weather so just roamed around clicking these birds.


Vietnam Airlines A321 at T2, Shanghai International Airport.

The 'Pig' landing at HongKong International Airport.

[sinharishi]

Five A350 flying together.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gI4jWYZLeHQ#t=297

[Senna4Ever]

Clicked this pic a few months back, thought I'd share it here. VT-IFM at Terminal 1D, IGI.

[jinojohnt]

Originally Posted by Stratos

I made some good friends with people who had the fascination of watching planes, just like I did. I learnt a lot of things from these people.

Cool hobby. I am also fascinated by planes.
I have a few questions:
1. Why is it that planes have only three sets of wheels (like an autorickshaw) and not four sets of wheels?
2. Why do planes land on rear wheels first? Is it possible to land 'nose first' if we had 2 sets of strong wheels in the front?
3. Why is it that cars have 3 point seat belts, but planes have only a lap belt?
4. Why is it that planes need to be 'taxied' to the runway using pushback tractors? Why can't the plane move on it's own?
5. While landing, when the wheels touch the ground, there's so much friction and smoke because of the stationary wheels touching the ground at high speed. Won't this problem be solved if the wheels are rotated just before landing (to prevent many tire-burst-accidents)?
6. How is the body of the plane able to balance itself on the wings during a flight, as the tail and the nose of the plane have different weights?

I think I know the answers, but let's hear from the experts.

[Jeroen]

Originally Posted by jinojohnt

5. While landing, when the wheels touch the ground, there's so much friction and smoke because of the stationary wheels touching the ground at high speed. Won't this problem be solved if the wheels are rotated just before landing (to prevent many tire-burst-accidents)?

I'll leave all the other question to others, or you could check with wikipedia.

On this particular matter. In the past there has been a lot of experimentation on various devices which would spin up the wheels prior to touch down. The main down side was the weight penalty. Everything that you add to an aircraft structure needs additional fuel to get it into the air and land it somewhere else. Or reduce weight of the airplane, by carrying fewer passengers and or cargo.

So although it was technically feasible to reduce the tire wire, in the end it was cheaper to accept the tire wear, rather then to carry/use extra fuel or reduce payload.

There were endless problems with these spin up devices as well. So it never got really much beyond limited / experimental usage I believe.

One of the most interesting applications was on a US fighter. Cant remember the exact type. But it was an aircraft carrier fighter with a very long nose wheel strut (to absorb the typical very hard carrier landings). The struts kept breaking and one of the options they tried was to install a device that would spin up the nose wheel prior touch down on the deck, thus reducing the force on the strut due to having to withstand the initial wind up as the tire touched the deck. It wasn't a success.

Jeroen