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So you spent three nights of watching “Planespotting Live” on BBC4. What next?

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If you watched three nights of PlaneSpotting Live on BBC4, no doubt you’d either enjoyed it, or shook your head at some of the errors.

a screenshot of a tv show

However, there’s a great number of resources out there to help you enjoy the hobby – in all sorts of directions. Here’s just a sliver of some of the resources out there…

Tracking Aeroplanes

I’m sure you would had seen the aircraft tracking tools on PlaneSpotting Live – and they are using FlightRadar24 as its data source.


The BBC Custom Version…

a map of the world with yellow planes
…. and in the real world in a browser.

This is one tool I hearty recommend (either in its free edition or in its paid edition – Silver at £9.99 a year is a good option).

And remember, this thing scales – I have seen a certain United Arab Emirate based airline use it… FlightRadar24 also host a great podcast as well which is good to catch up on the hows and wherefores.

There are other tools such as https://planefinder.net/ and https://www.radarbox24.com.

It’s amazing what ADS-B has done for this industry

Spotting Aeroplanes

Well, this is very much get out there and shoot sort of thing. Some airports are very welcoming of their #avgeek guests. Some are… less than friendly. Places like Mrytle Avenue are great if you want the raw experiance, whilst the Manchester Runway Visitors Park and East Midlands Airport Aeropark offer a much more comfortable experience.

British Airways Airbus A319 departing Manchester Airport - Image, Economy Class and Beyond

Some airports like Stokholm Arlanda have great viewing areas indoors… and airside too.

Stockholm Airport

For those who want to look up close, a pair of binoculars will be helpful.And sunglasses – because staring into the sun is not recommended at all.

There are various spotting books out there if you want to collect them all too.

You can also use sites like Airfleets.net as well to track and identify aircraft

But please use common sense – especially around military fields.

Collecting Model Aircraft

If you like aircraft, collecting models of them is a fun past time (I get this from my father – he is very much a military aviation collector where I’m more commercial aircraft).

a group of model airplanes on a table
Just some of my collection. Off you go. Guess some of them …

If you are setting out on making a collection, scale might matter to you – so just be aware.

A few brands to get you started

Be warned, this can turn into an empty wallet of a hobby quickly enough…

Taking Pictures of Aircraft

Another part of the hobby I enjoy. To be honest most modern smartphones will get a reasonable photo if you’re close enough and not relying on digital zoom. If you want to get crisper photos, consider a good bridge camera or a Digital SLR/Mirrorless Camera paired with a 70-200mm/75-300mm lens to get started.

But be warned, the money pit can get deep.

Fast.

Canon 100-400L on a Canon 6D extended

I post a weekly new picture called airplane art. You can explore them here.

It’s a big community

The #avgeek community is a large one, covering all the social media platforms – be it Twitter, Intagram, Facebook so on. There’s also sites such as airliners.net too to get your discission fix. If you’re into miles and points, you’re in the right place as BoardingArea has many voices of the frequent flyer – as well as how to earn points and miles.

And exploring these is a good jumping point to meeting people, and enjoy a bit of planespotting.

And if you want to watch the programmes again…

If you want to catch up with the programmes, Planespotting Live is on BBC iPlayer

Happy spotting!

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