Hi all:

I am writing to ask your suggestions about plane spotting for kids. Many children in this country live close to runways and I thought perhaps there might be a program whereby they can actually learn to enjoy plane spotting. Any suggestions?

It would help if you tell us where "this country" is so we might move your question to the appropriate country forum.

NewbieRunner
Co-Moderator, CommunityBuzz

Sorry NewbieRunner:

I am hoping to hear suggestions from parents around the world. I live in USA

Since USA has so many airports and conditions may vary I am moving this thread to TravelBuzz.

NewbieRunner
Co-Moderator, CommunityBuzz

My son and I used to take these books and it helped. He does not need it anymore as he is fluent now. But we used to pack them on all trips.

When he was younger, I used to seat him on top of my car. It used to be fun for him to lie flat on the car and watch planes approach overhead.

There are several nice spots around JFK to do that. Or at least there used to be.

http://www.amazon.com/Janes-Airline-...dp/0061137294/

http://www.amazon.com/Janes-Aircraft...dp/0061346195/

The variety of jets is way down from previously.

Now, you are likely to see just 737-700/800 and A319/A320 narrow bodies and maybe 767-300ER, 777-200ER, and A330-300 wide bodies.

The heyday might have been in the late 1980's, when you might see:
727-200
MD-80
DC-9-30, -50
Fokker F28
BAe 146
737-300
A320
757
767-200 and -300ER
A300B4
747-100
747SP
747-200
747-300
747-400
L1011
MD11
maybe even a Concorde.
If in France, you might have seen a Mercure

Not all is lost as you can try to spot a:
717
737-600 (Westjet)
747-8
A340-300/500/600
MD-90
757-300
767-400ER
777-300ER
787-8 or the rare -9
A318 (rare except at a few airports)
A321
A330-200 (not that common but DL has them)
A380

Great thread! Now I have to think of what planes one might spot!

F70 (rare)
F100 (rare)
737-500 (rare)
737-300
737-400 (uncommon)
737-400F (rare, try Alaska Airlines)
737-400Combi (rare, try Alaska Airlines)
737-600 (rare, try Westjet)
737-700
737-800
737-900 (rare, try Alaska Airlines), -900ER (more common)
747-400
747-8
757-200
757-300 (rare, try DL and UA)
767-200ER (rare, try US)
767-300ER
767-400ER (uncommon, try DL)
777-200 (rare), -200ER (common), -200LR (uncommon, try DL), -300ER
787-8
787-9
717 (uncommon, try DL)
A318 (rare, try BA at JFK)
A319
A320
A321
A330-200 (uncommon, try DL)
A330-300
A340-200 (rare, maybe Air Tahiti Nui at LAX????)
A340-300 (a few Virgin Atlantics)
A340-500 (rare)
A340-600 (not that common, try LH)
A350 (rare, just released)
A380 (not that common)
quite a few commuter jets, like the Canadair series, Embraer ERJ135/140/145, and Embraer E170/175/190/195.

Luckily, I can brag that I've been on a flight aboard the 747SP, L1011-500, BAe RJ85, Fokker F70, MD-11, and BAC One-Eleven-500.

alpenrose, what's your home airport?

Some US airports have clubs for this where people are cleared by the airport police. There are some websites, youtube videos and articles about these groups. Some airports do not like it when people park near the perimeter and have even been known to harass these people.

Might be best to contact the airport authority as they may have a program available. I grew up near a USAF base that doubles as a public-commercial airport. It's fun to see an RJ in line in front of a C-17. As a class trip we got to tour some of the operations of both the airport and the USAF base.

Hi all--thank you so much for your insights. I live in MSO. We have several flights a day that come in from DEN and SEA. We do get a lot of air force traffic and fire fighting equipment. The runway takes off over a large hayfield. Next to the hayfield is a large development. The kids in that development have no place to play and are never seen outside. My thought was maybe to get folks interested in plane spotting out there by the hayfield. Gotta, gotta, gotta do something to get kids outside again!

In the computer age, many kids are not pursuing outside activities with the same fervor that we did many years ago when the television had only 5 channels and you had to open the hi-fi and put on a record if you wanted music.

If you want to get kids interested in airplanes, I think it would help greatly to have a knowledgeable and enthusiastic adult along to explain it all. When I grew up jets were still a novelty and adults - my mom included - were just as interested in them as kids. I definitely embraced my mom's excitement for travel in both destination and means. We would go out and park along the east/west runway at Denver's Stapleton and see if we could guess what kind of plane would be landing next.

Her excitement was key though and that's why I emphasize Enthusiastic. Someone who doesn't know or care all that much about airplanes but is just taking the kids out near the runway because it seems like a good idea to teach the kids about planes will probably just end up with a bunch of bored kids who can't wait to get back to their computer games.

Excitement and enthusiasm is contagious. Good luck!

There can't be that many commercial flights out of MSO but what about tracking flights in and out through FlightAware or another tracking site? There is a lot of info on the FlightAware site that might be of interest to the kids - especially the timing of arrivals and departures. Outside with binoculars!

I don't know if the web has access to private flights, but maybe it is out there somewhere. Military, I bet not.

Cheers,
Pogopossum

I'd contact the Fire Department or local USAF Public Relations office. They'd probably love to interact with younger generations if for nothing more than good PR. Getting kids active in something aviation related and outside sounds great to me but I'm not a parent there. There is plenty one can do that combines plane spotting, outdoors and the interwebs (I'm 32 so I can say that right?).

I like your enthusiasm and hope it works. Talking to the owner of the hayfield about permission to go on the land is probably a good idea if this goes forward.

I just moved off Long Island after several years. One house was pretty much smack in the middle (under) of flights going to JFK. They used to start at about 5:03 am and continue all day until 9:59pm. Hundreds a day seemed like and all flying at about the same path, altitude and speed.

I used to watch my neighbors when they came over and they wouldn't even look up while I would be trying to see what type and airline it was from.

The 380 (we used to get 3 or 4 a day) often caused them to look I think the sheer size was impressive. That baby blocked out the sun sometimes It is remarkably quiet for it's size and was actually kind of graceful.

We would also get a mixture of 777, 747 ( Sadly this seems to becoming a rarer model), 757, 767and Airbus models. I couldn't tell the variants except the 737.

I used to get the kids to try and identify the aircraft and the livery and it was fun but the best on high traffic days.

Best of luck, OP! Whenever people ask me why I like planes I talk about how when I was a child, my Father would drove my brother and me down to our local airport (HPN, similar in size to MSO) and we'd sit on the hood of the car and he'd give us details of the planes flying in and out.