What counts as "Spotting" an aircraft?

[-FireFox-]

Long wondered this, but what counts as spotting an aircraft?

For me, it's:

• You can see this full aircraft

• Can easily see the serial

• It's under 2-3K ft high.

I really don't understand how people claim frames when they are Fl350 going OTT between clouds.

Opinions?

[Alf]

Long wondered this, but what counts as spotting an aircraft?

For me, it's:

• You can see this full aircraft

• Can easily see the serial

• It's under 2-3K ft high.

I really don't understand how people claim frames when they are Fl350 going OTT between clouds.

Opinions?

Surely its what ever you want it to be, its just a harmless hobby... there are no rules..

[Kurnass]

For me the OTT spotting only counts when serial is confirmed, and when I can identify the aircraft clearly (so not a dot far away, but ID by binocular/camera will do)

[Nighthawke]

Fully agree with Alf. Your hobby, your rules. No one's business but yours. Just enjoy it.

[DavieB]

It's your personal world - do what ever you want within it, so long as it doesn't upset others.

[jakdaw]

Absolutely anything that flies that has an identifiable registration or serial. I need to be personally satisfied that the aircraft seen is the correct registration/serial if in "doubt it stays out". Any grounded aircraft including cockpit sections or substantial remains. (a very long way from FC remit but logged my first German Glider Association registered glider thanks to an immaculate nose section at South Yorkshire Air Museum this week). But respect anyone having their own/different rules its what makes our hobby so interesting that we all have different passions and interests, while enjoying the same hobby.

[raptor9]

Absolutely agree with Alf., although never been a 'spotter' myself, but I can understand the interest in it. When my friends used to call me a spotter, I always corrected them and described myself as an enthusiast. Once in a coach with ''spotters' in Switzerland, one of the group could read tail numbers with his telescope as the coach went past the airfield. The other 'spotters' all logged them 'as seen'. But that's up to them.

[Unknown74]

My question may be a little difficult to answer but on various Websites like Y@@ T@@E, There is mention that the hobby is split into various types of Spotter like for example, the spotter who likes taking Photos, theres the spotter who likes logging serial numbers/ registrations etc, What if like me you do all in one like taking photos and logging registrations/ serial numbers etc.

[slogen51]

I don't 'do' dots. I do write them down but don't do anything with them. Perhaps one day when I am in my care home with nothing else to do I might go back through my logs and put the dots in my records, that's assuming I can still remember what a plane is!

I know many who do dots update their records when they read them off 'properly'

I don't need to see the whole plane a view through a crack in the hangar door is more than enough. Also I don't personally have to read it off myself if I am with someone who has read it - sometimes there isn't time for everyone in the van to read every T-34 at Whiting field or every Bizjet at Teterboro!

But at the end of the day it's your game so play it how you like.

[slogen51]

My question may be a little difficult to answer but on various Websites like Y@@ T@@E, There is mention that the hobby is split into various types of Spotter like for example, the spotter who likes taking Photos, theres the spotter who likes logging serial numbers/ registrations etc, What if like me you do all in one like taking photos and logging registrations/ serial numbers etc.

Sphotter or Photter?

I think taking the reggies and photos have always gone hand in hand. But photographers who don't care about the serials but do care about the photo are they toggers?

[roger4]

Some years ago at an Oceana airshow, a US Navy cop (as wide as he was tall) came up to me and asked what I was doing. "Recording the tail-numbers" I replied. "You aren't allowed to do that" he said, as took my notebook and tore out the two pages I had written on that day. "What about all these people with their cameras?" I asked. "Oh yes, that's perfectly fine" he replied. "I can photograph anything?" I asked. "Yes, feel free" he said. Out with the camera with the extra-long lens, and in went about a hundred photos of close-ups of the lower rear fuselages of row upon row of F/A-18. Job done.

Happy to admit to being a sphotter that day!

[iainpeden]

I guess most of us start with a basic interest in aircraft and branch out from there. I started with The Victor comic in the early '60s, dad starting to make Airfix kits and then being buzzed by a Lancaster as we drove past Blackbushe which prompted a family trip into the airshow that was going on. Then it developed with Airfix bringing out a Phantom, a move to Rutland with Argosies, Canberras, Harriers and Hunters filling the local sky, holidays in Scotland where the a/c flew below you and a growing obsession with Phantoms.
Collecting numbers - never started and once I realised it happened I'd seen too much to start - although I did get all the RAF F-4J (UK)s. Take photos at airshows - from the early 1970to date. Mildly interested in the radio info on here in that it prompts me to dive off to LN or Coningsby - although I had many happy days doing the Corby to Wattisham run via AR, Wyton, Mildenhall and LN in the 80s and 90s (before the Phantoms ended up on the heap.
I've managed to visit bases in Netherlands and Switzerland, ended up in a Dutch guardroom at Volkel, been to museums (and D-M) in the States (trailing daughter and wife - I had 90 minutes to do the Udvar Hadzy centre......) and had my camera knocked out of my hand by a very large Kenyan policeman at Mombasa airport as I tried to get some Hawks and F-5s.
Did I mention an obsession with Phantoms - the current count in 1/72 is about 185 with 40 or so in the stash waiting to be made.
And having started at about the age of 4 - (nearly) 60 years on I do a day at DX every 3 weeks or so generally annoying the paying customers in H4.

When anybody asks I explain it's like train spotting - only louder and faster.

[iainpeden]

I think taking the reggies and photos have always gone hand in hand. But photographers who don't care about the serials but do care about the photo are they toggers?

Does that make those who do care about serials as well as photos doggers?

[2e1var]

I stopped doing serials yeas ago, in fact I only ever really did civil. Ahead of my recent annual week at Mildenhall I invested in a copy of MAMs to help pass the time and give the Mrs something to do. We both got quite excited about trying to get all the based airframes ticked off, didn't quite make it in the week but I had gone through my pics from the last few years so was ahead of the game. As the book is on the side back home so I do find myself ticking stuff off that I see locally but due to the location I'm taking the serial from VR as I have no chance with most visuals unless they are heading into RW26 Exeter. I am very well aware of the chance of miscodes but I'm not too fussed, I'll generally check what I've noted vs spotters groups if someone has had a proper visual. Keeps me mildly entertained for a bit but I'm well aware the purists won't like it. Have fun.

Rich

[sschofield]

I don't 'do' dots. I do write them down but don't do anything with them. Perhaps one day when I am in my care home with nothing else to do I might go back through my logs and put the dots in my records, that's assuming I can still remember what a plane is!

I know many who do dots update their records when they read them off 'properly'

I don't need to see the whole plane a view through a crack in the hangar door is more than enough. Also I don't personally have to read it off myself if I am with someone who has read it - sometimes there isn't time for everyone in the van to read every T-34 at Whiting field or every Bizjet at Teterboro!

But at the end of the day it's your game so play it how you like.

I do exactly that. If I see a "dot" going overhead, I'll log it, but with a note in my database saying it was OTT and if possible a callsign. If I subsequently see the same aircraft at an airfield where it is freely identifiable I will log it again, but I won't delete the first "seen" instance of logging it. A bit cumbersome maybe, but it works for me. Likewise I have logged many Typhoons and Hawks over the years in various states of build in the hangars at Warton, but I would always make a note to that effect if it was less than a complete airframe, and if I subsequently saw the same jet again in service I would log it again.

I also agree about not needing to read an aircraft off itself if it's ID is clearly known, so for example if 5 Saudi F-15s arrived at Lakenheath (good example for you Mike!) and they had been read off on arrival, but then I saw the same 5 and could only read 4 of them, I would be happy "taking" the 5th one without reading it.

On the other side of the coin, I don't take an aircraft seen at high level (for example, USAF C-17s or particularly P-8s with tactical hex codes) unless someone can confirm it at origin or destination, which tends to be quite easy when they are operating in Europe

[slogen51]

Aircraft spotting is a hobby that over the years has really expanded from logging and radio to incorporate many different aspects such as Virtual Radar, SBS etc and in particular the recent SatCom technology which I can't even begin to figure out how to use.

The advent of the microchip has changed every walk of life but aircraft spotting has really embraced the technology with the proliferation of databases, websites and forums like this but I think the greatest game changer recently have been mobile internet and ADSB with the development of websites and mobile apps such as Planefinder, FR24 on the civil side and Planeplotter , adsbexchange on the military side.

Who even in the 90s would have thought that you could be sitting in your hotel balcony at say Palma with a beer and a mobile phone and see which aircraft are taking off in Germany inbound LEPA and plan your day accordingly? Amazing.

I haven't even mentioned digital photography that has brought so many younger knowledgeable people under the umbrella of spotting. Most don't do ' numbers ' but it doesn't matter as many are really up to date ( much more than I am) with the current unit markings on a particular jet and will chase a particular KC-135 for the unit markings alone.

Spotting like many hobbies is important ( especially for men who I think need a hobby?) because it gets you out of the house, meeting other people and if you are lucky it will take you around the world and all you really need is a telescope a pen and a piece of paper and a optionally a mobile phone.

There must be some negatives - arriving at an airfield 5 minutes late - I am sure we have all done that!

Thread creep but something I have noticed that since I have retired my spotting has expanded to fill the extra time - I don't know if that is a good or bad thing. When in full time work spotting was was strictly a weekend pastime.

[plmc135]

Putting it simply, spotting is whatever you want it to be.

[Sprague]

At the risk of a bit more thread creep, I don't think aircraft spotting would exist in its current form if it hadn't been preceded by train spotting. That seemed very clear to me when I started noting numbers in the early 1970s. I've never been a train spotter but I understand that hobby only started when Ian Allen started publishing lists of train numbers, and I certainly wouldn't have started with aircraft if 'Civil Aircraft Markings' hadn't been available. If you don't have access to a full list you can't tick them off - it's as simple as that! I stopped noting registrations in the 1980s but sometimes when I look through my old logs I wish I'd kept going. It was a fascinating pastime. I've never been into dot spotting but I confess to being hooked on ADS-B and I can certainly see the attraction. One final observation...why are aircraft spotters/photographers/enthusiasts almost always male?

[AndyB]

I initially had a problem deciding how much of an aircraft needs to be seen to count it as seen.ie. If only tails are visible would that count? I eventually decided that if the tail is attached to the fuselage then I would log it. If however, the tail was detached and leaning on a wall it wouldn't be. Odd decision but it works for me.

[Canberra TT.18]

Spotting , pictures and/or numbers, is a bit like trophy hunting. Collecting anything from art, books, stamps, cars , well what ever you like, is more a male thing.

I think aircraft spotting is a combination of fishing (having a good day out and you hope to catch something in a special little river or you know for sure in the fishing pond) and collecting stamps (variation in colours and numbers, and collecting whole series). Well what ever you make of it.

I first do numbers , pictures when possible and the weather is okay. My old logs were written down. Later I used word nowdays excel . The later gives me the option of adding a lot of columns and additional info. Including if I got info from Adsb, colour scheme etc.
Things I didn't write down when I started aircraft spotting in the early eighties. So old logs are far from complete compared to nowdays.

Now hoping I can resume spotting and visiting airshow and leave my stamps and fishinggear at home.