2018 yearly reviews

[graham]

Ladies and gents, as another spotting year draws to a close, let's hear about your "best bits", whether they be UK airshows, foreign trips, museums, or whatever, and while you're at it, how about your "best pot of the year?"

[graham]

OK folks, I'll start the ball rolling.

So far this year I've made 2,203 pots and 338 scrapes. I'm pleased with this total as the only shows I attended in 2018 were Yeovilton and RIAT. I went on one major road trip, with Bill and Viv, taking in some fields I'd either never visited, or hadn't visited for years and years. Our tour took in Luton, (not visited for years), Eltree (never visited), Southend, (not visited since 1970!), Rochester, (never visited), Damyns Hall, (never visited) and Biggin Hill ( not visited for about 20 years).

Bill, our professional organiser, also arranged a trip to Yeovilton to visit Cobham Hall and the RNHF hangar, both of which yielded some long needed frames but as I'd only toured the Naval Aviation Museum there about a month earlier, I let the boys see that by themselves. Bill had also arranged a hangar tour at Staverton, and despite me visiting here at least on a monthly basis, I'dd never done the tour and ended up potting about 25, leaving me just a handful of residents needed.

Living where I do in Wiltshire, meant I visited my local fields on a semi regular basis, these being Kemble, Middle Wallop, Old Sarum, Thruxton, Oxford, Staverton, and Fairford, as and when the Yanks were in town. Working across the south and southwest for work, also meant that I could usually find a spare half an hour or so to visit a close by field, and this included a couple of visits apiece to Yeovilton, Dunkeswell, Bodmin and Perranporth, the latter of which is still defying plans to turn it into a wind farm or housing estate.

I also met up with the lads at Blackbushe and Lasham a couple of times, but these days, it's more about the fry up in the cafe and a good catch up than what I'm likely to pot.

2018 was also the year when I finally took the plunge as far as using a "proper" database. Both Bill and Jeff enthused about the benefits of using such a database and I eventually opted for Plane Base in early March. It took six months of every available minute to transfer all of my Excel spreadsheets, a thankless task, but now it's all done, the benefits are plain to see. All I need do now is to press a button to see for example, how many Boeing 727s I've seen, the log from Kemble in April 2013, needed frames for any airline on the planet and residents' lists, including those I've seen, for any field I've ever visited.

In September, the good lady and I embarked upon our annual Greek pilgrimage, this year to Crete for a fortnight. As usual, we had an apartment right beneath the final approach to Heraklion's Kazantzakis airport and as usual, the frames came piling in. I was by this time also using Plane Base mobile on my phone, and it was an easy job to feed in each reg as it went over to see immediately whether I needed it as a frame, a scrape, or had already seen it.

Of course, my home base in Wiltshire was the source as always for most pots, and the wonderful summer weather made it my best year from home since I picked the bins up again in 2013, after a lay off of more than 20 years.

Best pot? - hard to recall, and with 360 days of 2018 behind me, I think I'd need to revisit the logs. Kemble of course has to be up there as a great place to see unusual frames and there's no doubt that the four EZ B717's and the arrival of a few Chinese Airbuses later in the year would be up there, albeit as they sit there waiting for the cutting torch.

So, as 2018 draws to a close, I have to say it's been a good year, one I'm more than pleased with, so can only hope that 2019 will be as equally fruitful.

[keefyboy]

Highlight of the year for me was watching the RAF100 flypast from the eastern side of Waterloo Bridge and seeing the 21 Typhoons in the 100 formation ( the RAF must have worked bloody hard to organise that one). I'm not a photographer but the bridge was very full of people with lots of photographers on both sides of the road across. I did chuckle a bit because as the flypast started, traffic on the bridge almost came to a halt - with convoys of buses heading north and south - this effectively blocked the views of the flypast for those on the western side of the bridge till they were overhead for a very brief period before disappearing over the top of Charing Cross station. Those of us on the eastern side of the bridge could probably see them coming from 15-20 miles out.

Living in Wiltshire - I do a monthly trip to Kemble to catch up on the latest (hope the AV8 gets back to normal soon). I've not really done any other local airfields this year (girlfriend issues!). However, I did do Yeovilton and RIAT (on the Friday). Also took the kids to Weston super mare for their airshow but the kids conspired to keep me on Brean Sands for most of the day.

Numbers wise, I haven't a clue as I have no central database and most of what I've seen this year have not been marked off against anything. I was going to go for Plane Base earlier this year but I've had some serious issues with Microsoft in particular who have failed to sort Professional properly. My best guesstimate for the year is probably in the region of 1,500. This high figure is down to the 500+ that I reckon I bagged at Sywell in September.

Not a great year for spotting but not a bad one either - some days when the sky is blue with plenty of trails, I just can't be arsed! Other days when I'm full of enthusiasm, I may bag 50 in a day.

No foreign holidays this year but 5 of us are planning to do Route 66 very soon - trouble is none of them are aviation enthusiasts - though they have agreed to Wright-Patterson Museum and a flight over DM. OK we have to make a few diversions along the way to take in their considerations - but hey I'm planning it:-:

[billsamuels]

Hi Guys,

Well I’ve had a complete stonker of a year spotting wise. I’d hung up my work clothes at the end of 2016, and my wife followed suit at the end of March 2018. So we both took a while to work out our plans for the rest of our lives... Fortunately, they both included lots of  ‘travel’. We’d both been in the industry for some time, me 47 years and my wife for 41 years so our bucket list was quite long...

I’ll start with the travelling. January started with our first day excursion to Toulouse/Francazal for the Airbus outing. February - no overseas trip. March we returned to Toulouse for our second Airbus outing. April we went to North Wales which included RAF Shawbury, RAF Valley - both first visits and Caernarfon. May we did a day trip to Geneva and Ebace. June got really hectic, Yeovilton and Cobham Hall visit, we then did a weekend to France (with Dave Basing) for the French AF show at Evreux plus an excursion across to Chateaudun - again both first timers for me. Then at the end of the month we returned to Toulouse for usual Airbus tour and this time we also did Lourdes/Tarbes which is another Airbus fest. July went a bit crazy. First was the RAF 100th anniversary fly past, then Fairford for RIAT, then 4 days working the Farnborough Air Show, and immediately after that we went across the pond heading for 4 days at Oshkosh... August started with us still in Minnesota, we got back on the 12th. September started with Sywell, by the 11th we were back in Toulouse for you know what. By the 15th we were off to China which took in Beijing, Shanghai, Changdu and Xian - potted about 450 on this one. The only thing of note for October was USS Harry S Truman visit to Stokes Bay and a hangar tour of Staverton. November I finally got to Hamburg for the Airbus tour, these are undertaken on Monday’s and these are normally impossible for me... Great day out and potted loads... I thought December was going to be quiet but on the 5th we went on our fifth trip of the year to Toulouse. By the 13th we were in Berlin for the weekend which included a quick visit to the Gatow Military Aircraft Museum - great place. So that’s all the travelling...

Now down to numbers. Deano, Kevin and I have been running a little book on the numbers we all pot every month. Here’s my calendar year results; Frames and Scrapes...

January: 214 / 72
February: 113 / 54
March: 241 / 68
April: 145 / 53
May: 446 / 93
June: 574 / 108
July: 1,993 / 64
August: 272 / 26
September: 766 / 64
October: 246 / 117
November: 234 / 34
December: 259 / 95

Over 5500 frames plus another 700+ scrapes - shocking really!!!

So it’s definitely been my best year ever. 2019 will definitely be a few more Toulouse trips and hopefully a couple of Hamburg’s. We’ll be taking the family to Spain or Portugal for summer vacation but our big trip next year will be Australia/New Zealand next October/November. We may also sneak another US trip in there somewhere!!!

I was recently asked if I’m Still enjoying retirement, OH YES!!!

Happy New Year boys.

Bill

[jerryrowe]

1,264 frames for me this year and counting. Apart from LAA at Sywell (226 made) and Popham microlight fair (94 made) most of my spotting has been from home - I am lucky enough here in Weybridge to see LHR Dover departures which go overhead, and with a few seconds notice from FR24 or ADS-B I can dash upstairs and weather permitting (not today!) see 09 inbounds and some outbounds, and 27 outbounds. 27 inbounds are not visible. Notable this year have been new Chinese airlines, Hainan, Tianjin and Shenzhen and recently Etihad 789s but otherwise I rely mainly on new deliveries as I have fleeted most of the regulars. Some LTN, STN and NHT inbounds are also visible. OTT there are a number of airways visible, but again I mainly rely on new deliveries (e.g. Delta 350s and Norwegian 738MAX)

Our holidays this year have been to Madeira and Ireland (my wife is Irish) but neither involved any serious spotting.

Very difficult to say which is the best of the year - would probably pick one I have no chance of ever seeing again, perhaps CC-AWH 320 on delivery to Chile, but would prefer something seen on the ground rather than a dot in the sky, maybe 9H-XYZ Diamond 62 at Elstree!

Holidays planned for 2019 are Gran Canaria in March and Corfu in September, again not spotting but particularly in Corfu should get an interesting selection of OTT.

[davebasing]

Since I long ago gave up on collecting light aircraft, balloons etc my annual totals will be far below those of others on the Forum. The year was marred by a heart attack in July which cost me RIAT, the Bastille Day flypast in Paris and the RAF 100th anniversary flypast all in one week; a trip to Davis Monthan; and also the chance to throw a Harvard around the sky. But am still here courtesy of the excellent ambulance crew and the superb staff at Basingstoke Hospital’s cardiac unit, which includes the charming wife of fellow AFA contributor David Allum. I can’t recommend a heart attack as it falls somewhere on the ouch side of ****** painful but if you have to have one, Basingstoke is the place to have it. Like Moses I am still taking the tablets.

The year began in Myanmar (Burma) where the pot(s) of 2018 were already without doubt confirmed as the Myanmar Air Force Mig 29s (of which I made 5) but the sight of my first flying Mig 21 (albeit a Shenyang F7) for several years was special as were the flights I made on a couple of the 19 Burmese ATRs which I saw on the trip. This was followed by a trip to Iceland, which was almost entirely and boringly dominated by WOW and Icelandair; another visit to our friends in Slovenia, with a trip to the fairly new military museum at Pivka; the French Air Force show at Evreux with Bill Samuels, taking in a few other places including the vast store at Chateaudun; the usual periodic work trips to Brussels throughout the year where I always seem to make something; other work trips included Paris and Basel; the Yeovilton & Farnborough shows; the USS Truman; and a visit to HMS Sultan at Gosport where I finally saw my long needed and last UK military Sea King (XZ589) which was the only thing I made there of the 67 choppers (56 Sea Kings and 11 others) that we logged, but well worth the trip to finally polish off that elusive Sea King. As they say, happiness is a big chopper.

Total flights I made were some 50% down on normal years at just 25, though BA’s new G-NEOR to CDG in December became the 790th different frame to carry me aloft (G-ALTT having been the first all those years ago, also from London Airport as it then was). One of the 2018 flights with my son in the Cessna 150 took us to the anniversary event at Kemble where for reasons best known to someone they parked us in the static line (it saved us a walk).

So 2019 is almost upon us. Already booked for the Bastille Day flypast in Paris in July. The French show at Cazaux has to be done for the Singapore Air Force training unit with the Macchi 346s as they were still using A4 Skyhawks when I was last there; the Tiger Meet at Mont de Marsan and the Dutch show at Volkel with the promise of F35s are all on the list, as of course will be RIAT. Already know that my pot of 2019 will almost certainly be the Honduras Air Force F86 in the museum in Santiago, Chile when I visit there in the spring. No doubt I will again embarrass Bill Samuels by making shed loads while with him at Heathrow. There will hopefully be some nice surprises along the way but whatever our hobby brings us I hope you all have a great and heart attack free 2019.

[rugbyref]

I logged something on each of 241 days this year, with 1945 new in the log book, or rather on Planebase. 297 of these were added during our April trip to Sydney, flying China Airlines business class from Gatwick via Taipei. I can recommend both China Airlines and the A350. Best pot of the year was probably Fiji Airways B737 DQ-FJN, as this completed their fleet. Disappointment of the year was returning still needing just 1 elusive Qantas 737 (away on servicing). I watched the RAF 100 flypast from the wobbly bridge, making 46 in just a few minutes. Then at RIAT on the Friday another 105 were needed. Most of my viewing is from my back garden, not just for trails, as I can see aircraft on approach to Heathrow on 27s, Biggin on 21, London City in both directions and some trans polar or northern Europe departures from Gatwick. I also managed my first trip to Kemble, but still need most of the latest arrivals.

[brizewatcher]

Aside from a few issues away from the spotting world, 2018 hasn't been a bad year at all.

Collecting largely military only, I've made 675 this year with the majority being OTT Chippenham, with the rest from the (fairly large) number of shows attended this year, those being Abingdon, Old Warden (Most of the collection needed), Cosford, Weston, Yeovilton, RIAT, Duxford Sept & Kemble Revival. Spent a few days up at Lakenheath and Mildenhall in April also, making my final 'Hall based aircraft and leaving me with just 6 LN F-15s. Once again, I've been unable to embark on a decent road trip, one thing I'm certainly planning for 2019! 

Airshows aside, it's been a light year on base visits with just two to both Kemble & Fairford and a further three to Culdrose and a brief stopover at Newquay, making just eleven across the board, six of them being at Fairford.

Just about caught up with logging shows from the 70s-90s in the database, taken a good four months, with a few more to be done. Decided to head over to Freebird despite recommendations for Planebase, not (yet) regretting the decision. 

As far as 2019 goes, I'm hoping to get out to Holland for 'Open Dagen' at Volkel, France for Tiger Meet and the 'Meeting Aerien' at Orange with further plans for two weeks at LN/Mildenhall and a few days up at the Lincolnshire bases (not done Scampton since 1992). 

Best pot for the year as was the case with Graham is a difficult one, I'd edge towards the Japanese C-2 at RIAT though, don't see many of them around that's for sure!

Hope you all had a lovely Christmas, here's to a safe and enjoyable 2019!

[rh226]

Not that many when compared to others' hauls - seeing as I only indulge in military, government and pseudo-military - so here goes.....

Only had two caravan stays at Mildenhall/Lakenheath this year, accounting for about 11 weeks spent up there – plus, of course, several emergency trips. Otherwise, a trip to Trafalgar Square to see the RAF100 flypast, RIAT on the Saturday and trips to Fairford for B-52/B-1 deployments accounted for my travels.

January (11) saw B-52s into Fairford for a three week deployment, plus another one diverted in whilst returning from the sandpit.

February (16) yielded a good haul of OTTs, but nothing special

March (20) saw an emergency trip to East Anglia for the 1st Saudi F-15SA delivery of the year.

April (12) found the rare NC-135W 61-2666 at Mildenhall for a few days plus, unusually, a Turkish C-130 in Lakenheath.

May (43) Mildenhall and Lakenheath were the places to be this month, seeing a Saudi F-15SA delivery, Michigan ANG A-10s, rare E-11, EC-130J and the 1st overseas deployment of an AC-130J Ghostrider. A night stop by a civilian registered US Army DHC-8 was much appreciated. A French AF invasion of Cambridge (for Duxford airshow) went down rather well too.

June (25) was quite eventful as the last few days of my stay in John’s Field yielded an AC-130W gunship, an Alaskan ANG HC-130J plus a U-28 (PC12) on their way back to CONUS. A trip to Fairford for the B-1s was very rapidly followed by an emergency trip to Mildenhall to see my final RC-135 (of all sorts) plus a bonus AFRC C-5M. Yet another emergency trip was made later in the month for the (delayed) 2nd U-28 and a KC-10

July (193) The main events of the month were, of course, the RAF100 flypast over London and RIAT. Another emergency trip to Mildenhall yielded an E-3 plus an AC-130U gunship, EC-130H (since retired to AMARG) and an HC-130P. Of note on OTT was another E-11.

August (33) Two emergency trips saw the Aviano F-16s deployed to Lakenheath and, later in the month, a B-1 into Mildenhall. The 2nd RAF F-35 delivery to Marham was seen OTT (having just got home from Mildenhall earlier in the day), as was another B-1 inbound Milde3nhall.

September (31) The beginning of the month saw a very muted B-52 deployment into Fairford. The back end saw another F-15SA delivery through Lakenheath, plus some Oregon/Massachusetts ANG F-15s return home through there. Mildenhall saw two more U-28s returning home (sadly their top cover HC-130 was the one at Fairford) and two HC-130Js on diversion, plus an AC-130U gunship.

October (51) Lakenheath saw the goodies this month seeing the “MO” F-15Es deploying through to replace the Lakenheath ones “out East” (including my final one), F/A-18s from the “Bush” also deployed, as did “FF” F-22s and California ANG F-15Cs. Mildenhall saw an AC-130W gunship, a California ANG HC-130J and a real gem – a 2 hour diversion from an E-8C J-STARS as Ramstein was temporarily fog-bound. Bonus OTT were an Italian AF KC-767 with accompanying EF2000s returning from Icelandic policing duties. As I was in East Anglia, I did not bother with the “Bush”.

November (1) A very nice OTT Israeli B707 going into Brize Norton.

December (2) Due to being on holiday, I missed the Saudi F-15SA delivery through Lakenheath, but I still managed to pick up a couple on OTT.

USAF………….150 including 2 pseudo-mil
US Navy……….29
Other AF…….149
RAF…………….110 including 8 pseudo-mil

Total…………. 438

All in all, quite pleased with this year.

Highlight of the year? A very close call as there were too many rare or unusual aircraft around, so I won’t pick one out.

As I am now down to needing only 6 KC-10s and 10 C-5s, I think I might have to start chasing them – but not yet, despite there being a “broken” C-5 in Mildenhall that I need.


Hopefully, 2019 will be full of enjoyable deployments and visitors. Very much looking forward to getting up to East Anglia again.

[Jeff]

2018 was more productive than I thought it would be, no abroad spotting trips but a holiday in Rhodes that was quite handy for arrivals but only resulted in 151 new ticks. As many will know I work at LHR and plane base tells me I was airside on 85 days which produced 347 new ticks, although saying that Im relying on new build frames these days. I had a few days out with the boys this year which added quite a few mostly general aviation and I intend to be available for more next year 😊

So on with the yearly figures... a stonking 2158 reggies this year broken down with the following

274 bizjets
38 bizprops
993 airliners
52 props
6 russian
215 military
448 general aviation
132 helicopters

Sighting of the year... OE-LDM the Red Bull DC6....

[christoff]

My first attempt of posting something that vaguely defines my year of spotting. I can hardly boast of visiting anywhere exotic in the past twelve months, as all my viewing is done here from home, with the exception of my annual pilgrimage to Heathrow and the odd visit to the local fields. With the gloriously long summer we had it allowed me to have a bumper year with a good haul of 1,554 gracing the pages of the log book..

January.. 76 in the book with 5N-HAI B733 Azman Air into Bournemouth being my pick of the month

February..127 in the book with VH-NJA E190 Chobam Aviation Services out of Bournemouth being my pick of the month

March..86 in the book with N628JN C208 ( floats ) Overfly being my pick of the month

April.. 65 in the book with LN-OEC S92 Overfly being my pick of the month

May.. The weather really kicked in with 241 stunning my log book into submission, with N533VL A20N Volaris on delivery being my pick for May

June.. Could the weather continue its good run...Damn right it could, a staggering 264 in the book, with G-CKVA BN2T ( Sorry but I am a bit biased towards BN products ) and CC-BGB B788 LATAM Chile being the best of the bunch.

July.. And still the weather was playing ball, 244 this time, with XA-VRE A20N on Delivery and D4-CCF B752 TACV on delivery out of Lasham on a late summers evening.

August.. For what ever reason I seemed to lose my mojo for aviation this month and only added 83 to the books, still plucked N335FR A20N Frontier out of the blue whilst on delivery for the best of the month for me.

September.. I was a bit more with it this month, but still lacking some real enthusiasm. 122 for the records which surprised me little as I didn't think I had done that well, this months picks being 5002 BE20 Turkish MOD out of Bournemouth and CC-AZC A20N Sky Airlines on delivery.

October.. I spent a bit more time looking skyward for those elusive pieces of flying aluminium, and was rewarded with 154 in the book.. I have got greedy this month with no fewer than four delivery flights, HK-5276 A320 and HK-5277 A320 of Viva Air Columbia being highlights along with N337FR A20N Frontier and N539VL A20N Volaris making their way from Toulouse.

November.. Darker evenings means less spotting time, and became noticeable with 70 in the book. Two daylight highlights were another Toulouse delivery in the form of CC-AWH A320 JetSmart and 17-0080 A400M Turkish Air Force routing to my north. 

December.. This always a bad month for me, as I have to help Santa deliver all those bloomin parcels and cards, hardly time to see the family let alone any aircraft, so only 22, with the best being VT-SQD DH8D SpiceJet on delivery out of Bournemouth. Most of this months sightings are with the help of heads up calls from good friends.

So it just leaves me to wish you all a very Happy New Year and wish you all the best for 2019

Chris.

[Deleted]

TELFORD'S 2018

My wife and I have been on our UK travels again this year and visited airports, airfields, museums and other sites with a total of 73 different sites visited ( which is the same total as last year ).

Total aircraft spots required totalled 4082. Including those OTT,s from many sunny days in our Shropshire garden.

JANUARY 2018 -- SHAWBURY

FEBRUARY 2018 -- HAWARDEN, SHAWBURY, SLEAP, STAVERTON

MARCH 2018 -- MANCHESTER

APRIL 2018 -- BIRMINGHAM, COVENTRY, CRANFIELD, DENHAM, ELSTREE, HAWARDEN, LIVERPOOL, LUTON, SLEAP

MAY 2018 --  BARTON, BECCLES, BLACKBUSHE, BOOKER, COSFORD, CROWFIELD,ELMSETT, FAIROAKS, FARNBOROUGH, FELTHORPE, FLIXTON MUSEUM, FRAMLINGHAM, HADLEIGH, HALFPENNY GREEN, HARDWICK, HAWARDEN, HONINGTON, IXWORTH, 
KEMBLE, KIDLINGTON, LASHAM, LAKENHEATH, LIVERPOOL, LOWESTOFT, LUTON, MANCHESTER, MILDEN, MILDENHALL, MONEWDEN, NORTH DENES, HORTHREPPS, NORWICH, NORWICH MUSEUM, OAKSEY PARK, OLD BUCKENHAM, POPHAM,
RATTLESDEN, RIXTON, STAVERTON, TELFORD (BALLOONS), TIBENHASM, TIBENHAN (PRIORY FARM), WATTISHAM, WEYBOURNE

JUNE 2018 -- CAMBRIDGE, LUTON, NORWICH

JULY 2018 -- EAST MIDLANDS, HUSBANDS BOSWORTH, OTHERTON, SEETHING, SEIGHFORD, SLEAP, STOKE GOLDING,

AUGUST 2018 -- SHOBDON, SYWELL

SEPTEMBER 2018-- ABERDEEN, ABOYNE, CARLISLE, DUNDEE, EDINBURGH, GLASGOW, INSCH, LEUCHARS, PERTH, PRESTWICK, STRATHAVEN, SYWELL

OCTOBER 2018 -- HAWARDEN, MANCHESTER

NOVEMBER 2018 -- BARTON, KEMBLE, MANCHESTER, STAVERTON

DECEMBER 2018 -- BRISTOL, KEMBLE, OAKSEY PARK, STAVERTON, WESTON SUPER MARE (HELICOPTER MUSEUM)

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2019 TO ALL AFA MEMBERS.
LES

[denwil189]

Having always wanted to travel to the Far East actually made the trip in March and April, flew to Hong Kong spent 2 days here what a place for airliners most go back someday, then on to Nha Trang and Ho Chi Min (Saigon if you prefer as the Locals still call it), next call Singapore for 2 days F15's, C130's, F27, Apache, SH60 plus loads of airliners brilliant 2 days plus doing the tourist bit with the Wife. Onto Malaysia Kuala Lumper and then Langawi Island again various airlines logged plus whats left of the Museum. Columbo Sri Lanka nothing logged due to limited shore time, then onto Goa again nothing logged here. 5 days at sea avoiding the Pirates !!! then Dubai for two days the ship was berthed perfectly for all the take off's and quite a few overflights. next stop Muscat we parked right next to a US cruiser with SH60 parked on the outside deck, but nothing much else logged here. Back to avoiding the Pirates !!! then into the Red Sea to Aqaba Jordan for 2 days logging various movements from Ellat Israel on the otherside of the bay, before going to Petra, through Lawrence of Arabia territory nothing noted this day. Suez Canal was transited with Mil.8 escort from the Egyptian AF fully armed good for Pic's. Next port Naples various airliners and Helo's logged and then final stop in Cadiz again nil seen.

RIAT was very good here on the Sat. apart from the missing flypast by the RAF due to the weather and then Mon for Departures always enjoyable. Next Farnborough bit dis-appointed this year compared to previous shows.

Next overseas trip was to Prague for 4 days celebrating 75 year birthdays for my Wife and myself, hotel was in good position with roof top bar, from which to log arrivals and departures be it from a distance good to have FR24 available, plus time to get Pic's on Departure day at the airport. BA was on time both ways.

All at Sea in August to see the USS Harry S Truman, only made 10 on this trip, plus a few more Pic's.

Have not spent any full days at LHR or LGW for nearly 2 years, so they will be priority next spring, as well as RIAT and a few more.

Wishing everybody on the forum a productive New Year, and thanks again to the Team who started the Forum, a must read everyday.

Den

[oakleaf1]

My aim is to make 1000 each year and just about made it with 1030 Frames and 151 Scrapes:

Jan : 12

Feb : 69

Mar : 4

Apr : 16

May : 86

Jun : 554

Jul : 121

Aug : 56

Sep : 131

Oct : 91

Nov : 38

Dec : 5

It's getting harder each year as now have a total of 62,571 Frames and 5072 Scrapes.

[davidallum]

Despite living only a 40 min car journey from Heathrow,the only time I go there (especially in the last few years) is when I take a flight,same could be said for Gatwick,therefore most of my spotting is done from home.

January

New years Day Fly In @ Popham,ruined again by the weather.
Icicle Refrozen Balloon Meet Newbury,again not ideal weather but did make 5
22nd-25th Zurich for the World Economic Forum where I made approx 150 frames/scrapes a similar figure to 2017.

February

All spotting done from home

March

All spotting done from home

April

All spotting done from home

May

Sat 5th-Mon 7th Popham,Microlight Trade Fair & Auto Jumble/Fly In,went all three days and potted 77
Tues 8th Day trip to Aberdeen,having not been for more years than I care to remember I needed every chopper that we saw and made a total of 61
Sun 13th Popham,Vans Fly In,made 1

June

Sun 10th Popham.Beagle Aircraft Fly In,made 2
Sat 16th Booker,Aero Expo,made 49

July

Sun 8th,Popham,Sportscrusier Fly In,made 2
Thur 12th, Farnborough Air Show,made 35
Mon 16th, Farnborugh Air Show,made 41

August

Sat 11th,Bristol-Ashton Court for the balloon fiesta,made 33,also visited Staverton,made 17,Aston Down,made 2 & Kemble,made 9
Sun 19th,Lasham for the gliding championships,made 13
Tue 21st,Lasham for the gliding championships,made 17
Fri 24th,Lasham for the gliding championships,made 22

Sept

Sat 1st,Luton,made 15
Sat 1st,Sywell,LAA Rally,haven't even began to check this lot off
Sun 9th,Popham,Auster Fly In,made 2
Thur 13th,day trip to Jersey for the Battle of Britan Air Show,made 30

Oct

All spotting done from home

Nov

19th to 30th Nov Trip to Florida

Dec

1st - 4th Trip to Florida,I've only checked the airliners so far and I made/scraped 503 of those

My New Year's resolution was to get out more but at the moment I've only done the Icicle Refrozen balloon meet @ Newbury and the only overseas trip booked so far is Mon 21st Jan - Thursday 24th for the World Economic Forum in Zurich.

I suppose my best pot(s) would have to be one of the Southern American twins I saw on my recent Florida Trip CP-3022 Cessna 310 or HP-7JR Cessna 421C