Best places for viewing planes
 

Ever since I was a kid, I have been fascinated with watching planes take-off and land. Just wondering if any of you care to share airports that you know of that have prime viewing areas.

For example, I just flew out of FLL. The entire airport is being renovated, and they just finished building a new parking garage. If you go to the top floor (8 I think it is) you get great view of the entire airport. You can even see Miami !

I'm always looking for these spots when I have lay-overs, so let me know of any good ones.. Thx http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

Planespotting is way cool. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/biggrin.gif Good to see that I'm not the only kid at heart who enjoys watching the planes come and go.

I don't know much about US airports, but here's a couple of other ones you might like. I'm sure others will have more suggestions.

Toronto (YYZ): Go to the roof of the parkade in Terminal 1. Take the elevator to level 8, walk up the stairs to level 9. You can go right up to the edge of the parkade and look down and see the apron areas of T1 and T2. T3 and some of the runways are visible. Caution: It can be very windy up there.

Amsterdam (AMS): Check out the panorama terrace. It's an outdoor rooftop viewing area and you can see a lot. It's a really big viewing area and was just recently renovated. One of my favorite airports.

Cheers,
FewMiles.. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

At Heathrow, the roof of the terminal 2 car park. At Frankfurt there are a couple of great viewing galleries. Plane spotters are an ingenious bunch... look for the British/Dutch men with notebooks, radios, telescopes and flasks of coffee and you will have found the perfect location.

LAX is a great place to watch the planes come and go. Along the north runway is Westchester Parkway. At any given time you will find all sorts of people parked here along the runways (about 50 yrds aways watching the planes come and go.

On Sepulveda Blvd. (where Lincoln Blvd. and Sepulveda Blvd. join) just east of the beginning of the north runway, you are directly under the runway approach and the planes are about 50 ft above your head! There is a road overpass near the Lot C long term parking which allows you a great view of the approach and landing onto the north runways.

Also, at LAX try the observation deck on top of the Encounter theme restaurant.

Here's some more for you.

Enjoy.
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/Forum94/HTML/001266.html

If you're not limited to commercial aviation.
You could try Kearny Villa Road, near Ammo road in San diego. It's just east of MCAS Miramar.

Haines Point, at the north end of DCA.

I found out - by accident - that one of the best places in LAX is Avis car rental lot off the Century Blvd (I think it's Century). We were getting into our rental car once, when this huge B-747 flew maybe 50 ft overhead while landing. I think I could see the faces of the pax in the windows. Wow!

For nostalagia buffs: the Cathay Pacific business class lounge in the old HKG airport afforded great views of the take-offs and landings from the single runway. The Regal Hotel at the same airport had some rooms with a great view of the special checker-board approach into HGK.

It might be a little annoying (stop-go-stop-go-stop-go, and with all the passenger traffic), but the monorail at EWR is pretty good to get a "bird's eye view" that's pretty close of what's going on along pretty much the entire length of the airport.

That is when its working, FQTV! http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/biggrin.gif

VPS is interesting. The civilian carriers share runways with Eglin AFB, and you have to taxi past the military flightline to take off/land. Lots of fighter jets and support planes, and if you pull into the (overly small) parking area at the right time, you can watch the fighter pilots going through low altitude manouvers.

Also, if you're ever in the Pensacola area, Big Lagoon State Park has good viewing for stuff coming into and out of Pensacola NAS.

In San Diego at the Hotel Del Coronado, get a north facing room up on the high floors of the original part of the hotel. Have a great view of the North Island NAS. Everything from S-3 Vikings to C-5 Galaxies. Great to watch.

Another San diego spot, if they let you.

If you can get to the roof of the Laurel Travel Center parking garage. Of course if you're tall, you might need to duck as the planes fly overhead.

I'd imagine the top floor facing east would be almost as good.

Houston Bush on top of the parking garage
DFW Founders Spot London Heathrow atop garage

In Toronto, at YYZ, about 1/2 mile north of the pax terminals on Airport Road, is the old McDonald Douglas, now Boeing--soon to be closed, factory employee parking lot. (It was in these hangers that they built the "Avro Arrow", first Canadian jet fighter before it was scrapped)> From the parking lot (open to the public), you get a good view of runway 5-23 (E-W), and most of 15-33 (N-S). Usually packed on weekends with planewatchers, but a good place to spend a few minutes with a cup of coffee to get a very close-up look at landings and take-offs, especially in the afternoon, when the international carriers arrive. bj-21

[This message has been edited by blackjack-21 (edited 07-19-2000).]

[This message has been edited by blackjack-21 (edited 07-19-2000).]