Backyard Spotting

[Gerard]

Yesterday and two Fridays ago with really nice weather and no one at home except for me and my dogs I sat in my backyard here in eastern Nassau County around 5PM armed with my scanner, mini Pentax binocs and some cold Stoly Snapples watching the JFK 22 arrivals and lots of helo traffic into and past FRG. Lots of fun especially with the 22 arrivals which come over and past my house at all different altitudes sometimes pretty low. Get departures from JFK also climbing out but they arent as fun to watch as the slow and low arrivals.
Anyone else have similiar stories of just lounging around their backyard
spotting aircraft?

[hiss srq]

I do it all the time in my backyard or on the roof with a cold one. 31 arrivals are dropping the gear over my house. I can from my roof watch them just about till touchdown a few miles away at JFK. I have a clear view of JFK tower from the back of my house.

[AirtrafficController]

Planes drop the landing gear over my house arriving to LGa over the Express Visual 31 approach.

[727C47]

Back in my Jersey days I did the same thing,sat in my backyard with telescope and scanner,and watched the Jfk inbounds at hi altitude,(above 10K),LGA outbounds,and EWR inbounds. This was the late 70's,and the variety of ships was sublime,everything from CSA IL-62s, and Aer Lingus 707s descending for Kennedy, 727s from everybody smoking out of LGA,and the occasional round engine tramp freighter rumbling into Newark.I was in heaven. This was pre-web and i was the only one doing this that I knew of back then. These days I live under the POLAR arrival for DTW,80% of the inbounds are red tail,with the occasional Champion 727,Fed Ex MD-11,or Lufthansa,or AF A333 spicing up the mix.(the Volga -Dnpr IL-76 was a show stopper). Of course the best back yard spotting ever was when I still called South Ozone Park my hood,and I had all that the Canarsie Approach could offer,less than 1000 agl directly overhead. Cheers,this august I think I will make a pilgrimage to the old sod,and spend a day at crossbay and good old SOP watching the JFK traffic. CHEERS,GOD BLESS !

[airmale516]

been doin it since i was 10, and still doin it to this day (plane spotting that is)
live on approach for r/w 22

[Nycfly75]

Been doing it ever since I can remember. 13L Canarsie Approach

http://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f249/nycfly75/c8147782.jpg

[NcSchu]

I get low CO erjs and 737s coming in for landing on EWR runway 11, now all I need is the camera to shoot them.

[Gerard]

>Of course the best back yard spotting ever was when I still called South Ozone Park my hood,and I had all that the Canarsie Approach could offer,less than 1000 agl directly overhead.<

So low you could throw a rope up and grab a wheel!! LOL!! I loved when they made that left turn and came real low
right over the Belt Parkway. I'm surprised there arent accidents from drivers watching the low flying jets and not the
traffic in front of them. Hehe, ALMOST happened to me once or twice.

[nwafan20]

These days I live under the POLAR arrival for DTW,80% of the inbounds are red tail,with the occasional Champion 727,Fed Ex MD-11,or Lufthansa,or AF A333 spicing up the mix.(the Volga -Dnpr IL-76 was a show stopper).

Forgot about the NK birds, thats the second biggest carrier at DTW.

How far away from DTW are you under POLAR?

I live under the LAYNE route, taken for DTW-FNT flights, so those are really the only birds I see that are somewhat low, usually around 4,000 feet or less.

[Iberia A340-600]

My house in Poughkeepsie and school in Poughkeepsie is located under the SWF approach and departure pattern so I am always seeing the traffic which comes over very low as the planes are on pretty short final, the airport is located about 25 minutes driving distance but about 3 minutes flying time. My house and school are also under the contrail pattern of aircraft coming and going to Europe so I get a lot of interesting contrail traffic. On most days I can also spot the EWR, JFK, and LGA traffic that fly to the right of my house relatively high but I can still make out what they are. If the weather patters are different sometimes the JFK, EWR, LGA, and HPN traffic comes actually rather surprisingly low over my house.

[PhilDernerJr]

Mine and Mel's first apartment had a balcony view of LGA and the skyline which we loved.

For me, the apartment where I was born also had an LGA view....and that's what started my passion for aviation.

[mirrodie]

I second that regarding living in South Ozone Park. That was the best spotting ever, never had to leave the front yard.

It's also how I got my Concorde scar.

Nowadays, where we live, the planes from Europe or from the south, using the 22s, bank right over the house. Higher up but close enough to make out regis.

[Speedbird1]

I often watch departures and arrivals using the Canarsie Approach from my apartment window. I started doing this back in 1977 when I heard a loud roar and discovered it was a Concorde. I still watch although the Concordes are gone.