What is spotting? I think it has to do with collecting aircraft, military and civil, both as a tail number entry in a log, as on film/slide/negative. A pretty wide definition, but I believe that everyone who has a more than average interest in at least one of those activities has the right to call himself a spotter. Only the details differ for each person.

For me it all started with photography. Later I also took up writing down tailnumbers, and I still do. But the main effort will always be photography. I'd rather wait near the approach of an airfield the whole day hoping for five great shots, than driving to as many airfields as possible in a single day to get as many tail numbers as possible. It's ideal if both can be combined, but that's not always possible. A good example for me was Zhukovsky in 1995. During our first visit to the OKB's I fully concentrated on photographing because I was pretty sure at the time this was the first and the last time that I had that chance. Climbing up every single wheel-well hoping to core a few construction numbers simply would have cost me too much time. And I was very fortunate to have a companion with me who did. But that doesn't mean that, passing an airfield where there are no photo opportunities, this stops me from trying to read off as many tail numbers as possible. Last September I spent a day and a half outside the fences of Davis-Monthan AFB and made only a few photo's.

Fact is however that there is often not enough time to get the best possible pics and the maximum amount of tail numbers at the same time. That spotters trips with a mixed group of both photographers as tail number collectors aren't always the best solution to this problem was made very clear to me recently in the USA.

Normally I try to travel with a group with generally the same interests when it comes to spotting. I prefer taking photographs on "operational" occasions. I pretty much dislike airshows because they are in most cases too crowded, with not enough photo opportunities available and the settings are hardly attractive. Fortunately there are some exceptions to the rule. Our group generally does one big trip every year, plus another one or two smaller trips (a week or so). Besides that we often go to airfields that can be reached in a single day (like Spangdahlem and Florennes) and airshows we think are worth the effort. Lack of time is however often a big problem.

Thanks Arnold!

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