One more of mine, I love that the Enterprise was actually sitting on it's own landing gear for the the final leg of the journey !
http://flightaware.com/photos/view/1...rt/date/page/1
Cheers
LGA777
One more of mine, I love that the Enterprise was actually sitting on it's own landing gear for the the final leg of the journey !
http://flightaware.com/photos/view/1...rt/date/page/1
Cheers
LGA777
I love the shot with the Statue of Liberty, Ron! Good stuff!
Sad news. The Enterprise seems to be completely covered in a canvas tent so those of us who missed it are out-of-luck until the exhibit opens. However, evidently, visitors will NOT be charged an extra $24 to visit. It appears that the cost will rise to about $30 as rumor has it.
How is this "sad news"? The plan all along was to enclose the shuttle to protect it from the elements. They never intended to leave it out in the open on the carrier deck.Quote:
Originally Posted by Speedbird1
If you read carefully, I said the covering-up of the Shuttle was sad news for those who never got a chance to see it. 99% of my friends never saw it gleaming in the sunshine and now never will. Sadly, compared to philatelists and numismatists, plane-spotters like us are in a minority. In fact, when I told my friends on Monday mornings that I had a great weekend back in the 80's and 90's, watching planes arrive at JFK, they laughed at me. There was no NYC Aviation back then, so I thought I was the only one. I am happy Enterprise is being protected from the elements unlike the Concorde where visitors sit under the Delta Wing using it as a shelter from the rain and sun. The Museum promised to cover-up the prototype and they kept their promise. You must admit it looks weird now under the canvas!
You say "in the minority" as though we're under attack or something. I've never seen someone so insecure about being a planespotter before.
I have a feeling that unlike the Concorde which you can go into, the novelty factor of a shuttle that never even went to space will wear off relatively quickly, even among us aviation fans. They are probably relying heavily on merchandise sales and tourists to pay those extravagant admission prices. If I want to see some serious space hardware I'll go to the Cradle of aviation museum.....Quote:
Originally Posted by Speedbird1
Well, I have to tell you. You may not call them "spotters" but aviation enthusiasts are in the MILLIONS! Just go to St. Martin fro a picture of what regular people will do when they see a large 747 cross over them... When Air France A340 glides in, there were days where over 500 people were under the approach path alone.Quote:
Originally Posted by Speedbird1
Now, take any airshow: 100,000+ and there is one almost every weekend. Or go to any airport with a public viewing area... loaded with regular folks.
The Intrepid: ALWAY PACKED to the rafters, even in pouring rain.
The Smithsonian: So packed I literally said to my wife: "I have to get the eff out of here before I kill someone" ... I just couldn;t enjoy it with everyone cramped all over each other. They need to move into a larger space.
Udvar-Hazy: PACKED! Except they have more room :-)
Museum of Flight at KBFI: Pouring raining, dull Friday afternoon; PACKED!
And the above museums were mostly regular looking families and kids. All were not probably "spotters" like us, but, the enthusiasm is far from "minority"-like :tongue:
And what Manny describes, is atleast double in Europe.
EHAM with not one but 2 McDonald's just to watch planes and pass weekends!
And Asia is just as crazy when it comes to spotting... look at this... they had scanners!!!
http://jetphotos.net/viewphoto.php?id=6834803&nseq=0
Raj
That's an awesome shot, Raj...
Phil I can kind of commiserate with what Speedbird was saying, at least from a kid's point of view. Maybe it was because I didn't have a car and therefore was limited to spotting from my backyard, but I clearly remember being the ONLY kid in school that paid any kind of attention to what was flying around in the 1980's. Had I known a kid my age named Joe Pries was a couple towns over starting to do his thing I would have made some kind of effort to organize some spotting activities, but the thought that there were people out there that loved aviation like I did didn't cross my mind. Hell, I never saw anyone spotting from Bay Harbour Mall or TSS/Big Banana(now Costco) and we went there on a regular basis. I was definitely ridiculed for being into aviation instead of the things that kids followed back then like sports, Duran Duran, and Reebok sneakers. So once the internet and later this site and others took off yes I was surprised there was a crowd of us out there and that what I thought was a minority was actually a community.
Oh, I DEFINITELY understand that. But I feel that the tone of Speedbird's posts are more defensive, with an implication that we're under attack, or that people and organizations literally go out of their way to inconvenience us. That is what I dispute.
All I remember from the 80's is the 100s of cars that lineuped on the side of rockaway tpk to watch the planes. Between 97 and 2002 I spotted but never ran into anyone. It was not until 2003 when I discovered bayswater and finally saw other spotters.Quote:
Originally Posted by megatop412
In the 70's too. Before they finished Rockaway Blvd with curbs and the grass it was just sand and on a weekend there would be 100's of cars parked underthe 22's filled with families watching the planes land.Quote:
Originally Posted by eric8669
And the tow trucks loved the business they got from pulling the cars that got stuck in the sand out for a modest fee.
I remember seeing a bunch of cars at the threshold on Rockaway Tpke when that SAS DC-10 overran 4R in the 80's and they had the cranes set up to pull her nose out of the muck. Guess I should have asked for a camera for Xmas instead of a 10-speed bike haha