LONDON GATWICK MAY 10TH 2024

I have been plane spotting at Gatwick since 1973.I was 15 years old and road my bike here hundred of times. I had passed my cycling proficiency  and was allowed out on the road on my own. I used to go with my friend Christopher Plunkett. 

Today the airport has grown up beyond all my childhood memories into an airport that's is the busiest single runway airports in the world.  Gone are the Dan Air Comets, British Caledonian One Elvens and Laker DC-10's to mention just a few of those great days. My favorite  was the British Caledonian VC10, G-ASIX or G-ASIW. G-RTA was written off and a part of that is in the Brooklands Museum. One became Air Malawi and that had a very bad ending as well.  

Onto to today. Easyjet rule the roost and are boring in my book. One day there be gone as time does change things and then youngsters today will look back wishing an easyjet would land, like I do with my era. Since the pandemic Gatwick has worked hard to get new flights into the airport. This has been slow but very consistent and I applaud them for this. I am always checking Flight radar 24 to see what is coming in and get in my car and pop up to photograph it

All these picture came about as i was waiting for a Azerbaijani 787 to land. The photo is a few pictures down from here and on another post.  

Since uploading my photos it has became apparent to me that people viewing them like to know where I go to get these photos. Please follow this blog as i will be telling you where to go and how to get there as well. 

All these were taken on the A23 near the Gatwick Road and does involve a 15 minute walks as there is no parking nearby. As long as you have a camera with a lens of at least 300mm you are set to capture what I have captured.  

All my photos are not taken on automatic and are on manual settings. You need to understand you camera and how it works to get the best photos. Again I will be posting here and on YouTube what I do. Then you can decided how you like to get the photos and find your own best settings.

This is the plane that made me divert to Gatwick. It is quite old, 9 years I think but never seen it in Gatwick before. This is a photo of it landing and taken from Prestwood Lane Charlwood. 

TAP also landing, love the vapour trails behind crossing.

Air Transat a small plane from Canada. I saw a review on this flight and it was a good service. 

Turkish do around 4 flights a day into Gatwick and use the A321neo. No so much the 737 anymore. 

I hope you enjoyed this short read and please pop to Airspotters.com if you like models as we have lots there to see. Please follow and I will be doing about 2 updates here a week

Bye for now

Malcolm 

 

 AZERBAIJAN 787 AT GATWICK TODAY : One photo landing with a nice vapour trail X behind and two taking off.

Was nice to see but had to dash from one end of the runway to the other. I normally like to get the airport in the photo but time was not on my side today.

Enjoy what I did get and lots more photos to come from todays trip.

Malcolm at Airspotters.com

ST JUST CORNWALL. "LANDS END AIRPORT" 1974

 

ST JUST CORNWALL. "LANDS END AIRPORT" 1974 : My dad took me here from Penzance in hope to see some aircraft. There was one bus out and one bus back per day. We arrived and only saw this Rapide. The owner signed the back of this postcard as well. There was no coffee shop so we were stuck for four hours. Lucky for us one of the airport workers was just going home to Penzance. He gave us a lift in a MKIII Cortina. I do remember these days very well. It was quiet wet time we left, so glad to get back. I think we had a caravan in Marazion.  Airspotters.com

NEW Herpa Model now listed and ready for your pre-order

 NEW Herpa Model now listed and ready for your pre-order at http://Airspotters.com .

A very nice selection models from Herpa this time in the snap-fit models. Braniff and Pan Am feature in the 747 range. I have seen both these aircraft in real life. For the younger collector we have the Virgin and TAP A300neo's. For the Cargo collector the DHL A330 with extra bulge on the front cargo door. 

These models take a few minutes to put together and can be ordered at Airspotters.com and they are due in August 2024.

You can order and pay now , pay later with paypal or pay when the models are released. #herpawings #herpa #modelaircraft #panam #boeing747

LOOK BACK AT PLANE SPOTTING AND HOW IT USED TO BE AT HEATHROW

I was old enough to actually see the Pan Am 747-100 at Heathrow many times. Pan Am and TWA did use a lot of 707’s but eventually got the 747 and 747SP on the routes. This was because it was the 1970’s and like today, airlines are waiting on the newer aircraft to be built. The date for this photo was August 1977, taken on my Kodak Box Brownie. I was 18 years old. I took the 727 bus up from Crawley. Had to get out at epsom as I was travel sick and then catch the next one. No M25 in those days up through Tadworth and Epsom. Just 12 photos per reel of film I had. If I was lucky my dad would give me money to buy another reel in the shop on top of the Queens building spectators. So a max of 24 photos per visit and then a long wait to see if they developed ok. Could be a few weeks as money to pay for that had to be earned in Sainsbury where I worked. I was on about £28 a week then full time. These days take as many as you like and then download them when you get home. No flight radar so you had to spot the aircraft and read the registration manually. Missed a lot of aircraft back then. Used to try and get the registration as the bus went past the hangers by hatton cross. Not easy, you had one chance in a few seconds. Only ever remember one bus driver slowed and stopped. He must have been a plane spotter himself. 

JC Wings Thomson Holidays / Britannia Airways Boeing 767-200ER G-BRIG Scale 1/200 XX2656

 Another stunning model form JC Wings in a scale of 1/200

The Thomson Holidays / Britannia Airways Boeing 767-200ER G-BRIG was a wide-body jet airliner that was part of Britannia Airways fleet.

Model: 767-200ER (Extended Range)

Airline: Thomson Holidays / Britannia Airways

Registration code: G-BRIG

Britannia Airways operated a mixed fleet of Boeing 737 and Boeing 767 aircraft. The 767-200ERs were used for long-haul routes, including flights to Australia [AIRliners.net forum, Britannia/Thomsonfly's Oldest 767-200...].

Thomson Holidays eventually merged with Britannia Airways in 2005 to form Thomsonfly. The airline itself was later rebranded as TUI Airways in 2017.

BOEING 727 TIME : These photos were sent to us by one of our customers' and followers. They were all taken back in the day and lovely to see these. They were not too big so could not enlarge to much. I have more to do and will upload over the next week. Meantime enjoy these treasured photos. Malcolm of Airspotters.com

Thnak you for looking