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Playing Catch-up - Part I (by Chris Smith)

I'd been considering doing the crazy London-and-back-in-a-day and just out of daft I looked at hotel prices, not expecting to find anything as I thought they'd be extortionate at the best of times let alone just 24 hours prior to when I wanted the room. Much to my surprise however I discovered Travelodge had some very reasonable rates, so I decided to spread the trip over two days and venture a little further south than normal to Heathrow.

So it was up early the next morning, although with an extra day to play with I didn't bother setting an alarm and it was 9am when I left for the first stop at Gamston. Like with the hotel prices - I wasn't expecting to find anything, it's usually dire, yet I was surprised once again as there was a good few bits and bobs out today and I came away with more photos than I anticipated. A promising start!

Time was getting on and as such I was starting to regret not getting up and leaving sooner so I decided to cut out Cambridge and head direct to Stansted where I went to the famous spotters row. Here my luck changed, Stansted was a ghost town, it was probably on a par with Newcastle, perhaps even quieter! Also, if there was the smallest bit of free concrete, Ryanair had a pig stored on it! They had aircraft crammed into every corner in a similar way to how the Military cram aircraft into their hangars, at one point, I wondered if I was at Stansted or Kemble!

Things turned really sour when I went around to the old terminal area - before I'd even clapped eyes on a single bizjet I was being moved on by the Police. The copper couldn't have been nicer, but it did feel like more than the usual advisory words and based on the checks he started doing on both me and my car, I started to wonder if I'd be leaving Stansted in my vehicle or his. Luckily, he just advised I go back to spotters row and explained that the extra vigilance around this area was due to the upcoming Olympics (I get the impression a couple of cop cars were driving around with the sole purpose of looking for people who didn't need to be there) and even hinted that once the Olympics are over they'll start turning a blind eye to spotters once more. I've since learned that there is now a zero tolerance policy on aviation enthusiasts and plane spotters across the entire London area between now and the end of the Olympics - harsh and over the top if you ask me. What also didn't help is the vast amount of building work taking place here - a new hangar (bloody big one) is taking shape nicely, but that's only a part of it, there are smaller developments going on throughout that entire area. A very very slow drive out of the old terminal area got me a couple of biz but I can only hope and prey I can tie them up later!

Time to head to Heathrow and upon arrival I spent the best part of an hour just driving around looking for the spotting spots I'd been informed about the day before. I had zero luck whatsoever and seemed to be just going around in circles, getting very frustrated, I made notes on some of the foreign airframes but I was missing a lot of stuff, so, with the frustration from Stansted still very fresh and tired from the long drive, I gave up and went and checked into the hotel. Here however my luck changed once more after I was able to blag I top floor room overlooking the airport. Terminal 5 is the largest free-standing building in Europe, so this limits views of aircraft on the ground, but good view of both runways make up for this and you miss little or nothing. The hotel room isn't great for photos either but I can live with that, since this trip is more about logging - hence the title of this report! I logged until the curfew came into force at 2300, with an hours break in-between for a well earned Lamb Shank!

Next morning, I woke up at what I thought was 5am, updated the SBS and then made the horrific discovery it was only 2.30am! What possessed me to get up then I'll never know! So it was back to bed with little hope of getting back to sleep but hey-ho. On the second attempt I managed to wake up at the real 5am to catch the influx of A380s that occurs at that time of morning and instead of searching again for spotting spots, I took the "If it ain't broke don't fix it" approach and stayed in the hotel room until it was time to check-out and head for Luton. I left Heathrow two hours earlier than planned since the weather took a turn for the worse with no hope of it improving.

I arrived at Luton expecting a repeat of Stansted and being moved on by the Police (I've since heard a couple of reports of enthusiasts being moved on from here in the days around my visit), plus the weather was still atrocious so it was in and out as fast as possible, luckily, to the best of my knowledge, I missed nothing.

Once I got to East Midlands the weather had improved dramatically, it was glorious sunshine! Like Stansted though East Midlands was dead, there was likely more cargo in my car than in DHL's terminal! There was even less biz/GA although a highlight was a single Global Express which was curiously parked at the passenger terminal in-between two airliners!

When I left East Mids I was an hour ahead of my original itinerary, I considered staying but I was knackered by this point. The only slight regret is not calling in at Denham for some GA which was in the original plan, but with Travelodge prices under £30, I will be making this trip on a very regular basis and with so many airports / aerodromes / airfields to choose from, "Part II" of this report will no doubt follow at some point in the not too distant future.

Thanks for reading if you got this far, a big thanks to Matt Falcus who helped me plan the trip. Photos can be found here (non of my Heathrow or Luton shots were useable unfortunately).

Retford Gamston Airport - EGNE
06/03/2012 1037 - 1110

I missed the Lightning at Balderton (since learned it's been scrapped) but not long after the below Gate Guard at RAF Wittering is visible (on previous trips I've looked on the left hand side for this, couldn't believe how obvious it is on the right hand side!!).

London Stansted Airport - STN / EGSS
06/03/2012 1345 - 1445

Stored Ryanairs

There were at least a further twelve stored Ryanair Boeing 737-800s that I could see, but the Police moved me on before I could get the registrations - there was probably even more on top of that! I was very surprised to see any stored at all let alone that many, especially when their business model - a business model they more or less created themselves too - requires maximum aircraft utilisation!

London Heathrow Airport - LHR / EGLL
06/03/2012 1612 - 2300

London Heathrow Airport - LHR / EGLL
07/03/2012 0500 - 0908

I haven't included below aircraft that were logged on day one.

London Luton Airport - LTN / EGGW
07/03/2012 1008 - 1120

East Midlands Airport - EMA / EGNX
07/03/2012 1332 - 1425

AAC Dishforth - EGXD
07/03/2012 1630

I noticed a full ramp at Dishforth both on the way and on the way back (plus a lot more visible than usual - must have trimmed the hedge?). I wasn't even going to attempt to trace these airframes but a log was posted to Leeming's Yahoo Group from the time I was passing - thanks to Graham Ford! That's when your luck is in!

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