Jay71

The ANA Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner with an R2-D2 Star Wars design is visiting YVR on October 18.

Any thoughts on where to best catch a glimpse if we're in Richmond that Sunday and decide to hop over to the airport for a looksee?

DJ Bitterbarn

If they're landing on the north runway, which they likely will, I see a LOT more people these days parking up on the big pile of dirt. You have to drive up toward Iona and you'll see a sort of gate on the left side, just past the farms, that's usually hanging open with some cars parked up there. Never been there myself, but I do want to try it out. When I landed last time there were at least ten cars up there.

Alternatively, there's always people over at the end of the runway down by the new outlet mall. Good for watching landings if they're coming in over Vancouver. If they're landing from the other way, I personally like the jetty at Iona.

Jay71

Thanks for the tips.

DJ Bitterbarn

No problem!

I may try it out myself for that day. Something interesting and/or uncommon at YVR, at least.

nomadic.relief

Cool, didn't know about that! Might check it out, if in town that weekend.

DJ Bitterbarn

Just a bit of an update, if anyone's still considering it:
As part of our Saturday, Barn the Younger and I decided to grab some coffee and watch planes from the dirt pile, only to discover that they've actually closed the gate. I don't quite know why, nor why it was open so long, but the gate itself is now closed.

Which means you need to park in front of the gate.

That being said, from where we sat we didn't get the most spectacular look at the landings (coming in over Vancouver) as I think it was a bit too far down the runway. Coming in from over the strait, though, it should still be good. But you still get great taxi shots that you wouldn't get from the end of the runway.

Also: Lots of people set up with lawn chairs at the end of the runway down by the outlet mall, so there's always that.

gglave

Here a picture I took on Saturday, September 15th, late morning, with my camera phone. This was the north runway, with planes landing to the west. You can see the new outlet mall in the background.

No guarantee they'll be landing to the west on the day in question, though.

(And yes, my boy's shirt says "Wing Man" and he has his hands on his ears.)

DJ Bitterbarn

That's a pretty good spot. Most of the people I see there are just to the right of your photo, parked near your car but chairs right under the flight path.

And (in my very unscientific analysis) the odds of landing to the west are better than landing to the east.

gglave

In the summer, yes. In the winter, no.

Question is what about the fall? It's a coin toss, really...

DJ Bitterbarn

Hmmmm... I prefer eastbound anyway, so looks like winter could be fun. Hopefully.

But it's not like it doesn't take five minutes to drive end to end. So there's that going for it. So long as they don't land on the south runway just to be difficult.....

Jay71

Oh well, looks like we're going to miss this as we're flying back from Vegas that night. I'm assuming it'll be at YVR between 2:55pm and 4:20pm as NH116/115. Someone take some pix.