Idiocy in Spotting (Post Your Stories!)

Hi, guys. Didn't know where to post this, but I figured this was appropriate.

I'm sure we've all seen (and maybe done) some stupid things while spotting that could have gotten us in serious trouble (Like, oh, IDK, shooting at the mounds during school hours?)

I saw something today that takes the cake, so I thought I'd make a fun thread where we could discuss things we've seen.

I was at MIA today for a bit after work (the El Dorado spot is on my way home from the work site) and met up with a couple of the locals. Parked a few spots away were a couple of young Spanish-speaking guys. The airport was quiet, and they complained of not having much to shoot. One of them decided he'd rather enjoy himself in a different way. He went into his car, and pulled out an M-16 replica BB gun! He crouched down behind the traffic barrier and started shooting at pieces of litter between him and the airport fence. The spot is in full view of the control tower and right along a street used quite a bit, especially at rush hour. None of us could believe our eyes. As we left to change locations, I felt I had to say something, but he didn't seem to see my side of it when I told him I really didn't think what he was doing was very smart. I didn't stick around to see if anyone called him in, but that kid must have very little going on inside his head to pull out a gun replica in public and crouch behind a barrier, let along at an airport.

Share your stories!!

Antonis

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Originally Posted by ANITIX87

Hi, guys. Didn't know where to post this, but I figured this was appropriate.

I'm sure we've all seen (and maybe done) some stupid things while spotting that could have gotten us in serious trouble (Like, oh, IDK, shooting at the mounds during school hours?)

I saw something today that takes the cake, so I thought I'd make a fun thread where we could discuss things we've seen.

I was at MIA today for a bit after work (the El Dorado spot is on my way home from the work site) and met up with a couple of the locals. Parked a few spots away were a couple of young Spanish-speaking guys. The airport was quiet, and they complained of not having much to shoot. One of them decided he'd rather enjoy himself in a different way. He went into his car, and pulled out an M-16 replica BB gun! He crouched down behind the traffic barrier and started shooting at pieces of litter between him and the airport fence. The spot is in full view of the control tower and right along a street used quite a bit, especially at rush hour. None of us could believe our eyes. As we left to change locations, I felt I had to say something, but he didn't seem to see my side of it when I told him I really didn't think what he was doing was very smart. I didn't stick around to see if anyone called him in, but that kid must have very little going on inside his head to pull out a gun replica in public and crouch behind a barrier, let along at an airport.

Share your stories!!

Antonis

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I'm going to take issue with your first statement, technically there is nothing wrong with spotting at the mounds during school hours. The mounds is not school property.

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Originally Posted by eric8669

I'm going to take issue with your first statement, technically there is nothing wrong with spotting at the mounds during school hours. The mounds is not school property.

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He speaks the truth. The Mounds is NYC Park property, not affiliated with the school, it just happens to be next to it.
Back on topic, everyone here knows who takes the cake for "idiocy" in spotting. That would be me and Dennis our very first time out for AF1. Though I still believe we did nothing wrong.

My dumbest spotting move was when I slid down a hill and cut my hand open on a broken Corona bottle that led to stitches, surgery and being left with partial feeling in my right thumb.

posted by mistake....

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Originally Posted by eric8669

I'm going to take issue with your first statement, technically there is nothing wrong with spotting at the mounds during school hours. The mounds is not school property.

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Ohhh really ?? hmmmmm problem starts when someone is calling cops.... Mark remember ?? You know what I mean :)

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Originally Posted by chrisparypa

Ohhh really ?? hmmmmm problem starts when someone is calling cops.... Mark remember ?? You know what I mean :)

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not really, I've met with cops and TSA security there, no problems what so ever. Very friendly encounters if any.

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Originally Posted by chrisparypa

Ohhh really ?? hmmmmm problem starts when someone is calling cops.... Mark remember ?? You know what I mean :)

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Anyone can call the cops about anything they want, that doesn't mean what you are doing is wrong...

I once shot a Eurofly A330 from the top of the mounds while urinating. Does that count?

No Kenny, We expect that from you ;)

I have a picture to go with mine!

Mine came at Nellis AFB back in 2010. I had been trying to get a nice, tight, overhead bank shot from one of the SHAW F-16CJs for the entire week, with no avail. It was my last night in Vegas, and I was getting desperate. I saw the Shaw's enter the pattern, and it became clear they were going to cut inside of where I was standing. Now anyone who has shot from the Speedway is used to having to move around a bit at times.

I took off in a full sprint with my Rebel Xsi and 100-400 in my arms. About step 3, I became acutely aware that it felt like someone had shot my toe off. Limping, and feeling worse and worse with each pace, I limp-sprinted along. I ended up running the distance between my gate and the next, and then half again as much in killer pain. I got my shot, sat down, and pulled a nail that you might use to built a tree house or attach boards to a patio deck out of my big toe. Thankfully, my tetanus shot was up to date.


The killer, my father was right behind me, with his truck, the whole time trying to get me to jump in and we could have driven the whole thing...


But hey, I doubt I would have looked so cool rolling up in an F250 as I did looking like the charge of the cripple brigade.


And the shot:

http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5006/5...c22b8d2e_b.jpg

I've gotten into the habit of calling myself into the police while out shooting. Often, I'll pose the call as if I'm watching a "terrorist" terrorize the airport with a camera, just to gauge the reaction by the opeartor on the other end, and determine what kind of over-zealous power-tripping visit by the po-po I'm ultimately up for.

"Come at me bro!!!"

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I've gotten into the habit of calling myself into the police while out shooting. Often, I'll pose the call as if I'm watching a "terrorist" terrorize the airport with a camera, just to gauge the reaction by the opeartor on the other end, and determine what kind of over-zealous power-tripping visit by the po-po I'm ultimately up for.

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I feel like that has the potential to backfire one of these times...

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Originally Posted by eric8669

I'm going to take issue with your first statement, technically there is nothing wrong with spotting at the mounds during school hours. The mounds is not school property.

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Eric, you're absolutely right. It was a joke, taking a stab at the paranoia the school officials had, not any statement meant to offend anyone. Apologies.

Antonis

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Originally Posted by NickPeterman

I have a picture to go with mine!

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lol, I forgot about my picture

http://i880.photobucket.com/albums/a...Image20558.jpg

Great shot, Peterman! Worth it!

Thanks, Phil. Sadly it kinda bit me in the butt the next week when I was moving a little too slow to get a few shots as I was favoring the other foot a little bit.

You know how it is, you're spotting, it's a slow day, so you decide to pack it up. As you're in your car, driving away, something actually appears.

I was in my pickup getting ready to pull away from the parking lot north of the tower at KBFI when a Boeing 737 AWE&C began taxiing by for a test flight, so I spun my truck around so I could at least watch it when all of a sudden *WHAM* and my truck stopped immediately. I'd hit a bright yellow concrete-filled pipe in the parking lot, short one (out of sight below my hood), but stout one. My interest in the 737 was gone as I got out to look at the damage. Miraculously, aside from a cylindrical dent, I was able to drive home (turned out I had a bent tie rod). Stupid, embarrassing and ugly. And I didn't even have a chance to get a shot. LFMF.

http://www.bahneman.com/liem/tmp/dinger.jpg

As you can see from the rust, I haven't set about to fix it...

I have a pretty good story from way back in 1992. I almost always attend the very AWESOME Airliners International Conventions (I still don't know why more from this site don't attend them, they ROCK) anyway the 1992 one was held in Orange County, California and one of the cool tours I took was about a 3 hour ramp tour of LAX. On one part of the tour we where allowed on a roof of a United Airlines Building overlooking the south complex at LAX, Runways 7LR-25LR. I was shooting arrivals and trying to juggle a large camcorder and 35mm camera with a large zoom lens, everything was going great until I fell/tripped about 3 feet. Luckily no damage to my camera gear but my short fall was broken by a metal railing which I impacted about mid chest level. I felt moderate pain from where I impacted the railing but it was tolerable and I kept it low key. This was the last day of the convention and back at the Hotel the pain was still I didn't feel bad enough to seek medical attention and I didn't want to miss the Banquet where Captain Al Haynes of United 232 fame was the guest speaker and I wasn't about to miss that, and it was so worth it. I went to bed hurting but still tolerable pain then about 5:00AM my 2 friends and I awoke to a rather large earthquake, my first and only and it was a beauty see below.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1992_Landers_earthquake
We where on around the 23rd floor of the Hyatt Regency Irvine (right next to SNA) and both our Hotel and the Office Towers out the window where all swaying back and forth. We where told to evacuate via the stairs and even though its easier going down than up I started feeling a lot more pain after about 20 floors. We where due to return to NYC later that morning and fearing aftershocks all I wanted to do was get out of SoCal the pain didn't matter, we ended up being in a second quake a few hours later while sitting on our ride home at LAX, an Air Canada 747-200 Combi bound for YYZ. Upon my return to NYC I was feeling much better so foolishly didn't seek Medical Attention. Strangely about a week later I was driving, hit a large bump and the pain instantly got much worse, I was off that day so I said screw it I am going to the emergency room. Ended up that I had two broken and two bruised ribs, I felt like an idiot and it took about 6 months to fully recover. Sorry so detailed but lots of parts to this adventure.

Cheers

LGA777

Every time I would listen to LGA777 and sprint across or out of the tower with my camera for a phantom airplane like a 727 or something only to find a boring ass ERJ145 limping by on Alpha. Or, the day I drove my car up onto a 4 foot snow bank on Rockaway at 40 MPH while the first ever JFK A380 was still almost 15 mins out, I was soo worried about getting the 380 that going east on Rockaway just west of the runway center line I floored it and smashed myself up into the snowbank on the curb to make sure I was parked off the road and in position. it took about 5 people pushing to swing the front end of the car around enough that I could launch off onto the road again and scrape the front bumper along the road in the process.

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Originally Posted by wunaladreamin

I once shot a Eurofly A330 from the top of the mounds while urinating. Does that count?

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Kenny, u can probably urinate and shoot at the same time.. :biggrin:
Dont forget the time at the mounds i blew a Swiss A330 shot because i decided to get a milkshake from Mr Softee... Also Adam Thrilling dropping bottles of water at the mounds trying to catch Air Berlin A330.. That was funny!!

Dumbest I have done is spot at -5F without a coat. Does that count as stupid enough?
Oh here is one of the shots:
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7029/6...2b94b3c9_b.jpg

Totally worth it, Kris!

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Originally Posted by Delta777LR

Kenny, u can probably urinate and shoot at the same time.. :biggrin:
Dont forget the time at the mounds i blew a Swiss A330 shot because i decided to get a milkshake from Mr Softee... Also Adam Thrilling dropping bottles of water at the mounds trying to catch Air Berlin A330.. That was funny!!

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HAHAHA! I remember that!! In the words of Brian, "Adam's run is pretty questionable bro!"

I was standing in Costa Rica at the Airport for a Condor 767-200..
After i got my shot i saw behind me two guys with a stick and one with a stone.
They told me to give them my bag, camera etc..
So i went slowly down to put my camera on the ground.. i grabbed some sand from the ground and throw it at them and start running..
The guy with stone throw it at me but missed and both start following me..
Luckily the Airport Police drove by and he let me in his car. I never saw them again when i was spotting..

Thats the shot,
http://www.dwaviation.de/wp-content/...img_1118_b.jpg

Quote:

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Originally Posted by wunaladreamin

HAHAHA! I remember that!! In the words of Brian, "Adam's run is pretty questionable bro!"

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yep. it was a fun laugh though, i couldnt stop, it was way too funny

-Once went through a drive-through of a fast-food restaurant in reverse - going about 25mph in order to catch a high priority airplane.

-In my very early days of spotting I once wanted to grab some pics of AE 145s and WN 737s landing at a certain east coast airport. I couldn’t figure out if a location near the threshold was public, so rather than find one that was, I decided to stay hidden behind a line of pine trees and bushes and then “run” out to the fence in knee deep snow – grab my shots – and then dive back into the bushes. I did that with a buddy for about an hour. To this day I still can’t believe the cops didn’t show up: that had to look unbelievably sketchy.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by NickPeterman

I have a picture to go with mine!

Mine came at Nellis AFB back in 2010. I had been trying to get a nice, tight, overhead bank shot from one of the SHAW F-16CJs for the entire week, with no avail. It was my last night in Vegas, and I was getting desperate. I saw the Shaw's enter the pattern, and it became clear they were going to cut inside of where I was standing. Now anyone who has shot from the Speedway is used to having to move around a bit at times.

I took off in a full sprint with my Rebel Xsi and 100-400 in my arms. About step 3, I became acutely aware that it felt like someone had shot my toe off. Limping, and feeling worse and worse with each pace, I limp-sprinted along. I ended up running the distance between my gate and the next, and then half again as much in killer pain. I got my shot, sat down, and pulled a nail that you might use to built a tree house or attach boards to a patio deck out of my big toe. Thankfully, my tetanus shot was up to date.


The killer, my father was right behind me, with his truck, the whole time trying to get me to jump in and we could have driven the whole thing...


But hey, I doubt I would have looked so cool rolling up in an F250 as I did looking like the charge of the cripple brigade.


And the shot:

http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5006/5...c22b8d2e_b.jpg

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Phenomenal Shot Nick! Bravo Sir!