For aviation enthusiast get permission first

[1flier]

Hey I have to post this because I can believe it and cant at the same time. This happened at Richmond International airport where I first learned to fly and Henrico police will arrest you for looking at them wrong. As a kid they would run you off for standing on the side of the road watching planes.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16794884/


Henrico Police say the man caught videotaping airplanes taking off and landing at Richmond International Airport will not face any charges for doing so. Investigators say Lovey Jones told them he was making a documentary of his hometown.

 

[Freight Dawg]

What do you expect from some local Barney Fife and Tackleberries. I bet the guy doesn't even fit the HSA profile, some local yocals looking to make the "BIG BUST".

 

[Alamanach]

As a kid they would run you off for standing on the side of the road watching planes.

This is only tangentially related, but at Palwaukee Airport-- excuse me, I mean the recently renamed Chicago Executive Airport-- they have a public viewing area on the southern end of the field. (I understand Van Nuys in California has something similar.) They've got a parking area, and some bleachers, and a small billboard to help the non-aviation types tell which kind of plane is which.

 

[TrafficInSight]

Here at San Jose there's a spot along the road that is both elevated and really close to the runways which makes it the perfect spot to sit and watch. I've been asked to leave several times but each time I challenge it and ask the police officer to call the airport police and ask if I'm allowed to be there and every time they say no problem. Usually the officers are very polite. I would imagine if you get adversarial and mouth off then you'd be forcibly removed or arrested.

 

[G21Agoose]

"DEATH TO SPOTTERS" was a T shirt I once owned. Man, I loved that shirt.

 

[avbug]

In California, many of the air tanker bases have viewing areas, complete with picnic tables, some with dedicated, fenced off areas with bleachers, parking, etc. It's not a spectator sport, but during times of high fire activity, a lot of people, especially folks who appreciated the older aircraft being flown would come out to watch. I always thought making room for them was very appropriate, especially considering they were taxpayers who had every right.

When things slowed, down, I gave hundreds and hundreds of tours of the airplanes, all over the country. I had a chance to meet a lot of folks with connections to my equipment when it was in public service the first time around...veterans who flew it during or just after the second world war. Veterans who would bring me boxes of pictures, souvineers, and stories, and who would cry when they saw the airplanes. I always made sure we had time to get them up inside to sit in the airplane and reminisce, when the chance came along. It was important for them, and important for me. One man and his elderly father chased us around for five days before he caught us sitting still for a day, and he brought us photos of two submarines being destroyed by our type aircraft. He old me a story about making a forced landing in one in Europe, and being so buried in the earth that he stepped out of his cockpit onto the soil...just below his window.

At one particular region 5 base (california) a young man used to regularly come to see us. He'd make models of the airplanes, tell stories, show us pictures he drew or that he had taken. He loved to see the airplanes. One day a pilot drew him aside and told him to get lost, called his mother, and demanded she come get him. The boy was mentally handicapped...he was proud of the watch he maintained over the four or five aircraft that routinely manned that base, and I thought that was just fine. I was disgusted by that pilot (who is now gone)...but he did have the legal right.

Truth is the kid wasn't hurting anyone. I only hope over time someone gave him another chance to hang out there. Most of the aircraft have since moved on to a decomissioned air force base, so there's not much to see (but a LOT of history still there)...I think plane spottes are just fine.

Now if the cops happen to stop by and see someone watching aircraft through the sights of a man portable missle launcher, then I think they're well within their rights to ask them to relocate to a better position...

 

[con-pilot]

The ultimate aircraft spotting place in the world.

www.sunsetbeachbar.com/Members/charlie777/phot_1159898275/de%20plane%20b.JPG?display=small

 

[TrafficInSight]

"DEATH TO SPOTTERS" was a T shirt I once owned. Man, I loved that shirt.

I'll bet that got you the chicks.

 

[414Flyer]

KSBA has those viewing stands too. I ended up seeing pics online of the airtanker I was on, from a fire we were dispatched to there.

At Hemet, we went in there for a couple reloads, and cars on the road just off the departure end of the runway would all pull over to watch us takeoff. God help them if we lost an engine on takeoff and had to jettison the retardant load on them.

How is the sandbox treating you?

 

[JimNtexas]

KAUS has a viewing area next to the golf clubhouse on the east side of the field.