Planespotting from Imperial Hill at LAX

By gailpowell  |  El Segundo, California
  

Spring break means lots of fun in the sun for college students. For some airplane aficionados, like my son, it means a road trip to Los Angeles to gawk at all those big international planes that land & take off at LAX.

Planespotting is a unique way of enjoying aviation, whether by means of taking photographs of planes, by writing down the tail numbers of passing aircraft, or by just sitting back and enjoying the action in the sky & on the ground.

The first order of planespotting business: go to an airport where you can safely watch aircraft. Not all airports have decent locations where the public can view activity. Seek out specific spots where the general public can get a good view (and good photos too) of aircraft activity.

Planespotters first will want to learn to identify the various types of aircraft found at most airports. There are two ways to do this: visually, & by looking up the registration number. To visually identify an aircraft, first determine how many engines it has & where they are located.

Read more:  http://ireport.cnn.com/docs/DOC-772423