The big bird is coming!

The Airbus A380 is gonna be coming in to Dulles on Sunday night, any DCMM folks going to check her out?

I'm gonna try to be there sunday night.

 

Deja Vu to Casino Royale! ACK!

 

I'll have to try and avoid Dulles on Sunday, there may me runway damage!

 

Darn, I wish it weren't arriving so late. I'd love to take my son out to see it, but the estimated 10 pm arrival time will keep us away.

 

I wonder how many MINIs can fit inside of one of those!

 

555 people equals about 500 MINIs or 700 Minis

 

Amazing to see this thread here. My folks came down for this weekend just for this, and I took the day off Monday to take Dad to see it. It arrives Sun eve, but is going to do a VIP flight to nowhere out and back Monday afternoon. Then it leaves again later Monday to go back to Europe. I've got my laptop cell phone combo ready to do internet on the road, and the web sight www.flightaware.com (search on aircraft type a38* once it's in the air) lets you track aircraft in the air in near realtime. We'll be listening to his scanner to check the active runways and trying to position ourselves in the right spots to see it come and go.

So yes, some DCMM folks are going to a good bit of effort to catch this. When I was a kid I was a 'plane spotter' and after my Dad retired he's gotten back into it.

 

10 pm is too late for me too, but I wish it was earlier because I would love to come out and see it.

 

What is a plane spotter?

 

While it is an impressive feat of engineering and an aerodynamic marvel why in the heck would you want to:

1. stand in line with 500 other people to get your boarding pass.
2. stand in line with 500 other people to board.
3. stand in line with 500 other people to get off.
4. stand in line with 500 other people to get your bag.
:impatient

They only need to sell at least 300 more just to break even. Buy Boeing !!

 

Hangs out and watchs planes land and take off, usually they're into knowing all the types of aircraft. Mostly civil (public transportation vs. military) Different people are fascinated by different aspects of watching. Often they're interested in understanding flight operations, how the air traffic control centers juggle flights etc. The tools of the hobby would be a scanner radio, binoculars, and a camera. A plane spotter will tell you which VERSION of a plane you're looking at vs. just the model. Some more serious than my dad get into logging them and trying to see all the versions of a plane or all a airlines equipment.

Then there are airlines like Frontier with different tail art, different animals and scenes depicted and they'll want to see all those variations. If you look at a Barnes & Noble or Borders there are several magazines called airlines or airliners devoted to news of commecial aviation.

http://www.washbaltspotters.net/spottingfaq.shtml

 

The viewing points at IAD suck for spotting, makes me wish it were landing at DCA(National Airport) cuz of Daingerfield Island & Gravelly Point.

Daingerfield Island has those big ol' cups of Blue Moon for like four bucks too

@MiniNurse: If you wanna check out the geekdom that goes into spotting, go to airliners.net and check out the pictures for your favorite model of aircraft and the discussions that go with em

 

Airplane spotters are geeks plain and simple. And we love it!
Just like train spotters, car spotters and bird watchers...to each their own.

I remember growing up in suburban Orlando and our house was under the flight path of the B-52s based at McCoy Air Force Base (MCO = Orlando, did you ever wonder why Orlando is called MCO?) It was amazing to see these giant birds with all wheels down crawwwwling across the sky right over our house. They even have a BUF sitting at the entrance of the airport (now Orlando International) as a tribute (and thanks for those long runways).
I'm a plane spotter and proud of it

 

Just read on Airliners.net that the flight to nowhere might actually be a low-fly pass over the Potomac between 11:15 and 12:30.

Anybody out that way with a camera right now?

 

When it cames to ORD last week I took these....a few of the many.
You really have no idea how large it is until you're standing near it.

 

Those are some sweet pics?

Any others of MINI/A380 in the same pic other than the mirror+A380?

 

I guess when I was very young I fit this description. One of my favorite things to do was bike to the local airfield in Beverly MA and watch the planes take off and land. But I didn't (and still don't) know anything about them.

 

I saw it flying low over DC this morning. I was going north on 295 just north of the poo plant, and it was flying south at about 2000ft following the potomac. Flying real slow like it was showing off or something... That thing is h0000ge!

 

they are getting press photos over the monuments. supposed to have done several passes

 

I spent the day at Dulles. They did a fly over of runway 19L then went around and landed on 19R... Will have video up later

 

If it ain't Boeing I ain't going!!

 

Thanks!, I was involved with it's arrival into ORD and there was no way we could get close enough to take pics with my Mini next to it. If I could have, I would have.

 

Just got back from watching the A380 head back to Frankfurt Main.

Gotta say one thing about the noise, it was quite a bit quieter than some of the small commuter jets that took off right before it did!

Took a few pics with my phone cuz my camera is out for service, nothing good.

So here's an A.net thread with a few good ones (Click the show all button to see the whole thread)

Well, now I return you back to your regularly scheduled M(INI/ini) talk.

You guys remember the jet-powered new beetle? Anyone try that with a MINI yet?

 

My (downsized for YouTube web) videos of the A380 at Dulles yesterday.

First of the fly over...

And here's the landing.

Oh and yes, if I end up spending 300 million on a plane some day, it'll be a Boeing not a Airbus don't worry. But that doesn't mean I wouldn't go out to watch the beast.

 

Great videos Mark!

What would you buy instead though?
(I'd go with a 737-800 or something like that)