Heathrow plane spotters?

toString · 7 Oct 2006 at 13:50

Anyone know of any good locations?

Don't have a car to hand, but I can get to Hatton Cross station pretty easily, just wondering if there was any good spots next to the runways, takeoff or landing.
Want to try out my new camera

Charlie Bravo · 7 Oct 2006 at 13:59

This is a good spot but only if they are landing on that runway.

Other than that, get yourself over to London City around 1500 tomorrow.

Scuzi · 7 Oct 2006 at 14:00

It depends if they're on easterly or westerly operations I suppose. They're currently on westerly operations.
I'm not a spotter but I remember going to a hotel somewhere just off the Bath Road which had a balcony out the back which looked over the northern runway, close to the threshold of Rwy 09L.

Apart from that I'm not familiar with any other spotters hideouts.

Scuzi · 7 Oct 2006 at 14:02

Charlie Bravo said:
This is a good spot but only if they are landing on that runway.

That's near the threshold of 27L. They're landing on westerlies at the minute but I'm not sure if they're on right or left as I'm not in work

toString · 7 Oct 2006 at 14:07

Charlie Bravo said:
This is a good spot but only if they are landing on that runway.

Other than that, get yourself over to London City around 1500 tomorrow.

Thanks, I was thinking of that location while checking google maps. Seems pretty close.

What's happening at City tomorrow?

toString · 7 Oct 2006 at 14:08

Scuzi said:
That's near the threshold of 27L. They're landing on westerlies at the minute but I'm not sure if they're on right or left as I'm not in work

Thanks for the info, if they're landing on the 09's at the moment, I assume that means they're taking off from there too?

Charlie Bravo · 7 Oct 2006 at 14:12

KingAdora said:
Thanks, I was thinking of that location while checking google maps. Seems pretty close.

What's happening at City tomorrow?

Theres a large green there which is where most people go.

City- thats when it gets busy mate, right up till 2100.

Scuzi · 7 Oct 2006 at 14:20

KingAdora said:
Thanks for the info, if they're landing on the 09's at the moment, I assume that means they're taking off from there too?

If they're on the easterly runways they will always land on 09L and depart from 09R. On westerlies they alternate the departing and landing runways due to noise regulations.

They're on westerlies at the minute so are either landing or departing on 27L or 27R. Do you have an airband scanner? If so, tune in to 119.775MHz and have a listen to what runway they're being vectored onto.

toString · 7 Oct 2006 at 16:48

Thanks for the info Scuzi, I do have a scanner, can't pick up anything much on 119.775 from my current location.
Having a dig around on the net I can get "Director 120.4" pretty clear at the moment. Seems to be guiding for 27R. Is the director the point of contact before approach?

Scuzi · 7 Oct 2006 at 16:52

KingAdora said:
Thanks for the info Scuzi, I do have a scanner, can't pick up anything much on 119.775 from my current location.
Having a dig around on the net I can get "Director 120.4" pretty clear at the moment. Seems to be guiding for 27R. Is the director the point of contact before approach?

120.4 is Heathrow final director. That's the controller that controls the spacing on final approach. He/she will transfer them to the tower controller at about 4-5 miles from touchdown.

BTW if you fancy having a listen in tomorrow between 0700 and 1400 you might hear me on any of the following frequencies...

119.775 - Northwest Departures
121.275 - Bovingdon
118.825 - Northeast departures
123.900 - Lambourne

toString · 7 Oct 2006 at 17:37

Hehe, will do! Don't suppose you have an NI accent? To make things easier

Jonny · 7 Oct 2006 at 19:45

Just out of interest where (if you can) abouts could I listen in to this online? I'm a dispatcher for the police and wonder how much more hectic this is! Thanks

Scuzi · 7 Oct 2006 at 19:59

KingAdora said:
Hehe, will do! Don't suppose you have an NI accent? To make things easier

Probably one of the most broad NI accents you'll hear

Jonny said:
Just out of interest where (if you can) abouts could I listen in to this online? I'm a dispatcher for the police and wonder how much more hectic this is! Thanks

I'm afraid it's technically illegal for the general public to listen in hence any websites that broadcast it are quite quickly closed down. Although I can guarantee you, during busy periods it will be a hell of a lot more hectic

toString · 7 Oct 2006 at 21:04

The police band these days is a bit of a poor show. Damn tetra!

inferno · 8 Oct 2006 at 15:25

What is the reasoning behind planes not landing on 9R or taking off on 9L ?

Scuzi · 8 Oct 2006 at 15:30

inferno said:
What is the reasoning behind planes not landing on 9R or taking off on 9L ?

There is a directive in our operations manual relating to an agreement between the airport authority, air traffic control and the residents of a village called Cranford which is just east of 09L. It's called the 'Cranford Agreement' and is a gentlemans agreement which stipulates that there should be no departures from runway 09L unless there are mitigating circumstances. I believe the reason is that because Cranford is so close to the airport that the noise of departing aircraft is such that it wouldn't be fair on the residents.

As Heathrow operations generally dictate that one runway is used for landing whilst the other is used for departing aircraft, if aircraft are not allowed to depart on runway 09L they must depart on runway 09R. Some aircraft do however land on runway 09R where there is a gap in departures in order to increase the landing rate.

Yas786 · 8 Oct 2006 at 15:41

Usually im down there with my camera in hand on a sunday morning/afternoon but sadly this week ie today i wasnt able to get there as i had to pick up my boss from heathrow then go into the office to do some mind numbingly boring work

.

Hopefully ill be there next week, the places i tend to go to are the hatton cross tube/bus station and also where the green bit is.