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 | APEC arrivals lure plane spotters to airport
The world leaders in Sydney for the APEC summit have all come in
planes which reflect their style and status.
Picture: President Geaorg Bush arrives in Sydney |
The US and Russian presidents arrived in giant airliners modified to function
as flying command centres. But leaders from less prosperous nations have booked flights with their
national airlines or turned up in business jets.
Watching the leaders' fleet with intense interest are the aviation
enthusiasts known as 'plane spotters', who swap stories of plane sightings as
though they were stamps.
Sydney Airport is the best place to be for aviation enthusiasts like
Kurt Ams, who has been a plane spotter for 10 years. "Some of the
planes that we've seen come over the last week or so have been quite
interesting and I'd probably say a little bit unusual to the Australian
sky," he said. "So that's probably what's attracting mostly the
attention."
Plane spotting is a curious hobby. It involves waiting, sometimes for hours,
to spot a plane and then sharing the experience on internet sites like the
Sydney Airport Message Board.
"As early as August 30 we had the Russian Government bringing in
their Illusion planes, and they're quite large," Mr Ams says. "So
for the guys to get down there at Sydney Airport and take photos of
those types of aircraft is fantastic."
Gerard Frawley, the managing editor of the magazine Australian
Aviation,
is well acquainted with plane spotters and their obsession. He
says they tend to photograph all sorts of planes and log their
registration numbers.
"I guess it's like collecting stamps or collecting anything. It's to say that
you've seen it. It's the aviation version of train spotting, if you like," he
said. Welcome at airport
Getting started as a plane spotter is relatively easy. There are
coin-operated telescopes on the observation deck above Sydney Airport, where
staff are quite used to spotters.
Sydney Airport Corporation general manager of corporate affairs Rod Gilmour
says they don't cause any problems.
"They are at the airport 365 days a year, but of course, a few more have
taken advantage of APEC to see some aircraft that are not regular visitors to
Sydney Airport," he said.
Mr Ams says he and other spotters are well known to the police as well.
"Our group of aviation enthusiasts do have a very good relationship with the
Australian Federal Police and the New South Wales police out there at Mascot,"
he said.
"They made us fully aware of the issues and the security presence that was
going to be at the airport during this week and at the times where the big-noted
people are going to be coming in and out of the airport."
The biggest attraction for the plane spotters this week is the United States
President's Air Force One, sometimes known as the flying Oval Office.
"I can only imagine the miles that it has travelled and the places it has
been to," Mr Ams said.
"I heard that they can also run the country from inside that aircraft, which
is quite amazing." SOURCE | http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2007/09/08/2027524.htm
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