Tümü
← Back to Squawk list
Myrtle Avenue: Plane-spotters' paradise
Myrtle Avenue in west London looks like your typical suburban street of semi-detached houses with family cars parked on the driveways. But when you walk to the end of the road, you notice a patch of grass where dozens of middle-aged men are sitting in a row, armed with binoculars, flasks of tea, high-frequency radios and expensive cameras. (www.bbc.co.uk) Daha Fazlası...Sort type: [Top] [Newest]
The Renaissance Concourse Hotel is a must see and stay for aviation enthusiasts. It sits right next to the Northern side runways at ATL. Absoultely Great views of the action from the balconies on the runway side and great reception for scanners to hear the action. My family loves it and we stay there on weekend visits to Atlanta when we go there for a getaway. Best seats in the house from the comfort of a great room. I highly recommend it if you have a chance to stay overnight in Atlanta. I kept our curtains open all night and got to see a lot of late night flight ops. There is a maintenance depot right below the windows and you get to see a lot of towing ops to and from the terminal up very close. A quick walk along the road next to the airport and you are standing nearly face to face with airplanes at a maintenance facility.
And by the way on my previous post, I forgot to mention that the occasional go-around is spectacular, right over top of the hotel most of the time depending on how late a plane starts the go around procedure.
I miss the obersvation decks that KIND (old terminal) used to have. You would be able to go up there and see your plane arrive before you would board it. The new terminal at KIND does have great sight lines out the concourses and in the Civic Plaza to the middle of the U.
I miss the good old days when you could sit on Inner Loop South Road at Atlanta-Hartsfield, at the very end of 27L and have dozens of airlines an hour whiz a few 100 feet over your head. Everything from a 747 to a Saab 340. Some would just completely rock and shake your car with a near violent action. There were trees lining the road you could park under, get some shade, have the windows all open, your scanner in the cup holder and your comfortable car seat tilted back. Now, if you even stop, airport security is behind you with flashers.
I rember in about 94, I had a conference down there for 3 days. My son was about 12 and went with us. Conference and our room was at what was then the Stauffer-Concourse, which sat by the runway on the North side I think, and I got us a room on that side. My wife did not really understand the Hub concept at the time and she looked at me one evening and asked" Where are all these people going"lol. They spent most of their day on the balcony plane watching and at night, I did too. What was neat though, you could have a 747 taxi by just below and once you closed those glass doors you couldn't hear anything. I don't know how think that glass was but it was quiet.lol
Before I moved to ATL, I stayed there on nights before a flight out. One night we had a big sign in the lobby to leave our windows/sliders closed because of the jet exhaust which due to some strange weather event, wasn't dissipating. It was incredibly hot, humid and still. You stepped outside and it was like tear gas in your eyes with all the dead exhaust hanging in the air near the ground. When you have a few hundred planes all coming and going and sitting around waiting, that's a bunch of smoke.