Photographing planes at airports?

Merlin5

Merlin5

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Hi guys. I was thinking of taking the london underground to Heathrow airport, not sure which terminal stop is best, and wondering if they allow people to watch planes and take photos and if there's a good place to get great views of take offs and landings? Not sure I'd be allowed to do it during this lockdown, but thinking of going after it's lifted.
 
I was once in stationary traffic on the M25 at the end of the Heathrow runway when Concord took off, a brilliant sight but perhaps not the best place to hang around:)
 
sirch said:
I was once in stationary traffic on the M25 at the end of the Heathrow runway when Concord took off, a brilliant sight but perhaps not the best place to hang around:)
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I hope you had your camera at the ready. Or phone? :D

andrewc said:
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Plane Spotting Locations at Heathrow: Overview

An overview of all my blog posts detailing plane spotting locations at Heathrow Airport, London.
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Fantastic! I've just looked at the sample photos from the Premier Inn, looks great, planes come really big and close. It would have been nice to be able to see the actual runway with the planes taking off and landing, but the Premier Inn will be fine. Thanks for that link, andrew!
 
There used to be observation platforms that gave a good view, but under the present health situation I have a feeling these will be closed to the public.
 
darkroom12 said:
There used to be observation platforms that gave a good view, but under the present health situation I have a feeling these will be closed to the public.
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And seeing the runways? That's what I was hoping for but yeah, I kind of wondered if they'd maybe stop that because of covid.
 
Actually, I think the on-site viewing points at Heathrow (and other airports?) were all closed years ago in response to the percieved increased terrorist threat.

The grass area at the end of Myrtle Avenue is very popular, apparently.
 
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sirch said:
I was once in stationary traffic on the M25 at the end of the Heathrow runway when Concord took off, a brilliant sight but perhaps not the best place to hang around:)
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I once got back to the expensive business car park near the runways just after dark with my then boss. As we were climbing into his BMW we spotted Concorde taxiing so decided to watch the show.
The blue flames out of the afterburners and the sheer gut churning, ground thumping volume as it passed were absolutely incredible.
What was even funnier was a second or so after it passed us there was an unholy noise and a wave of flashing lights as every alarm on every shiny exec mobile in the car park went off from one end of the car park towards the other - you could see progress from one end to the other as they all reset a few seconds later.
 
ChrisF15 said:
Myrtle Avenue is a good place for aircraft landing on Runway 27 left.
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Agree with the above, with Concorde being mentioned I was lucky enough through work to know one of the Heathrow fire crews, back in the 80's he took me on the big fire engines, the ones with the foam jets on the roof, we were stood next to this, pretty much next to the runway as Concorde took off, the whole vehicle shook and what a noise, had 2 camera's running ( film in those days ) wide angle on 1, telephoto on the other, 72 ish frames in a little over 30 seconds or so.
 
Since we're anecdoting, I live just a couple of miles from RAF Upper Heyford, and had the 'pleasure' of driving past the end of the runway as an F111 was taking off. The car shook from force of sound waves.
 
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