plane — A Boeing 787 Dreamliner on approach to Newark Liberty International Airport. Note the four wheels on two landing gear trucks and the distinctive engine exhaust shaping—both helpful clues for identifying the aircraft.

I pulled up to the Canadian border station in northern New York back in June, fully expecting to be sent home.

The global pandemic was raging and nonessential traffic was prohibited. But my visit counted: I was on assignment from several publications, covering the use of the world’s largest cargo plane to deliver emergency medical supplies to frontline workers in the battle against COVID-19.

The An-225 heavy-lift cargo aircraft is a one-of-a-kind, six-engine beast with a fascinating history that dates back to the Soviet Union’s short-lived knockoff Space Shuttle program. Operated by the Ukrainian cargo shipper Antonov Airlines, the hulking freighter is deployed all over the world to haul massive shipments of industrial equipment or military supplies, and to carry out humanitarian missions during emergencies.

Because of its size and rarity and the general aura of mystery it carries, the An-225 is the Holy Grail for many planespotters around the world. Now, finally, my work also teed up a rare chance to score a significant notch on my telephoto lens. Before making my visit to the facility where the aircraft would be received after landing, I staked out a spot at the airport, along with several hundred other aviation enthusiasts, to marvel at its arrival.

We followed the plane’s progress via FlightRadar24 and watched it materialize on the horizon from 20 miles away. It came in above the treeline, whooshed over our heads with a thunderous displacement of air even as its engines were nearly at idle, and touched down right on the centerline.

It was exhilarating.

I fired off as many shots as I could while still enjoying the sensory spectacle of the world’s largest aircraft buzzing 100 feet over my head.

Planespotters are a quirky crowd. Some dig the details, tracking specific aircraft movements and going after complete “collections” of types or airlines. Others enjoy hunting down new models or uncommon variations of familiar Boeings and Airbuses. Still others groove on gathering up rare birds like the Antonov, or catching certain one-off liveries, such as All Nippon Airways’ R2-D2 paint scheme on one of its 787s. Or they may log military or civilian tail numbers that they share with the online community.

For Thomas Okaty, a 44-year-old aerospace engineer who lives in Hanover, Germany, the appeal is rooted in his lifelong fascination with aviation.

For me, it’s all about the sheer beauty of aviation—the dramatic approaches and departures, the light and the weather.

“I grew up not too far from Frankfurt Airport and frequently visited the airport to view not just the planes but also the general things happening on the ramp and around the planes,” Okaty told Popular Mechanics. “All the processes behind air traffic as a whole just fascinated me. Back then it wasn’t common for most people to travel far and even by air, so this was something special, and it led to pursuing a career in aviation.”

For me, it’s all about the sheer beauty of aviation—the dramatic approaches and departures, the light and the weather. I like a rare bird as much as the next person, but I also have a soft spot for the elegance of the 787 Dreamliner and the ridiculous length of the Airbus A340. I try to marry golden-hour lighting or dramatic weather with the sightings, and strive for surprising angles or compositions.

Whatever your motivation, sorting out how, when, and where planespotters can do their thing can be a challenge. Fortunately, plenty of resources are available, and many airports have embraced the pastime wholeheartedly.

Where to Go

Well, an airport is a good place to start. Some have gone as far as to build entire parks that provide runway visibility so families can come and hang out under the path of some really big iron.

German airports are especially noted for this, including Frankfurt, Munich, and Leipzig/Halle. Of course, until global travel resumes, aviation enthusiasts will need to keep to their home turf. That’s not a problem in the U.S., where many locations have sprung up organically. At Los Angeles International Airport, for example, the In-N-Out burger on Sepulveda Boulevard has become famous among spotters, enthusiasts, and families, who can enjoy spectacular views of incoming aircraft from directly under the flight path. There’s also a spot on the other side of the airport with a higher view—a tiny roadside location called Clutter’s Park, on East Imperial Avenue.

Back East, there’s Gravelly Point, a popular recreational area within the National Park Service’s George Washington Memorial Parkway in Arlington County, Virginia. It affords amazing views of D.C. monuments as well as the planes coming and going from Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport.

A great source for finding the best locations is SpotterGuide.net, which maintains a regularly updated database of airports across the globe. The site has incredibly detailed breakdowns of the types of aircraft seen at an airport, which runways are used for which purposes, and a complete list of recommended viewing spots, whether “official” or just routinely frequented by active spotters. These might include roadside cutouts, parking garages, or even nearby gas stations and office parks. It also lets you know which lens sizes are best and provides samples of images collected at each location.

In general, spotters become accustomed to learning the approach and departure patterns of different airports, which can change based on the size of the aircraft, the weather, and even its final destination at the airport. Commercial aircraft might use one runway while cargo haulers use another, in both cases to limit taxi time before takeoff and after landing. Wind direction can impact runway uses and sometimes change on a dime—you’ll think you’re teed up for a great view of an Air France A350 only to find out too late that it’s landing at another runway, a 20-minute drive away.

That’s why preparation is key.

Get the Apps

In addition to learning the lay of the land through SpotterGuide, you’ll need to call in reinforcements. The FlightRadar24 website and app provide up-to-the-second info on flights in public airspace around the world. This helps you gauge arrival times, and it will also keep you current on departures as those aircraft typically pop up on the service soon after leaving the gate. You can apply filters for specific airports, aircraft, or airlines, see which runways are being used, and take in tons of additional data about the flights and air traffic in general.

The service tracks private aircraft, helicopters, and occasionally military airplanes (though most of those aren’t tracked for obvious reasons). I use this even while I’m in the air myself, flying on commercial airliners. I once photographed the Qatari royal family’s private 747 in flight above the Italian Alps when it popped up on FlightRadar24.

The app is candy to the planespotting crow—and that popularity hasn’t gone unnoticed by its developers. “They’re certainly our most enthusiastic crowd of users,” says Ian Petchenik, FlightRadar’s community relations lead. “They’re very vocal about what they want to see out of the service—what they like, what they don’t like—and that’s extremely helpful for determining what features we should focus on.”

Petchenik says planespotters helped create one of the app’s most popular features, called Featured Flight, which the company uses to highlight flights that are somehow interesting or novel or worth a spotter’s attention, like the An-225.

Okaty, who’s also an editor and contributor for SpotterGuide, also uses the app FlightAware for more granular tracking data, Windfinder for weather information, and SunCalc to understand when and where the light is best for a good photo.

“Ultimately, a lot of information regarding a plane showing up at a specific destination at a certain time comes through the spotting community,” he adds. “Facebook, Instagram, any kind of social media and web forum is essential to get the latest and greatest information.”

Web sources could include SpotterGuide’s social media account, or pages and groups dedicated to specific aircraft or airline operations. For my visit to Canada to see the Antonov, I got most of my information from the Instagram account of Nolinor Aviation, the company on the ground that was hosting and unloading it. You have to be creative in hunting down sources by pursuing channels, sites, and accounts that may not be consumer-facing or even geared toward enthusiasts.

What You’ll Need

If you’re committed to either spending time observing airport ops or waiting out specific arrivals or departures, you’ll likely be away from your vehicle for a while, especially because planes can be delayed on both departure and arrival. Bring snacks and beverages, a tripod, extra batteries for your camera, and a fully charged smartphone.

💡 Sunscreen is essential and bring extra layers. Airports tend to be situated in open spaces that allow winds to build up, and it might be cooler there than other places.

Hard-core spotters may keep stepladders in their vehicles so they can shoot above the airport perimeter fences. I often bring a smartphone tripod adapter so I can make videos of the aircraft passing overhead or capture slow motion or time lapses while shooting with a still camera.

Speaking of cameras, you’ll want to optimize your setup as much as possible. You can use a smartphone if you’re very close to the runway or even directly beneath the approaches and departures. If it’s a multi-lens phone with a telephoto option, all the better. But in order to capture decent shots of the aircraft at most locations—where close proximity to the runway may not be possible—you’ll likely want a DSLR, mirrorless camera, or point-and-shoot with a zoom lens of up to 300mm.

Nikon’s entry-level D3500 DSLR, available with two zoom lenses, is a great option, while Canon’s full-frame DSLR option, the EOS 6D Mark II with a 24-105mm zoom, represents a solid upgrade to a full-frame sensor, which will capture color and detail much better. If you have the cash and want to go all in, a full-frame mirrorless camera, such as the Sony A7RIII, with a 70-200 f/2.8 zoom is the gold standard for multipurpose shooting, and it will produce stunning results at the airport.

Ultimately you’ll want a camera with a nice high frame rate. Frame rate is the number of images it can take per second with the shutter button held down, with six to 10 being respectable. You’ll also want the option of adjusting the settings manually, as I’ll explain.

Know Your Planes

Planes come in several general categories, and several subcategories are within each of those. Most general aviation airports service both commercial and general aviation aircraft, as well as occasionally military operations. Sometimes military bases share runways with commercial airports, such as Kirtland Air Force Base, which sits directly across from Albuquerque International Sunport in New Mexico, and the Vermont Air National Guard, which shares runways with Burlington International Airport.

Airplanes are mostly either turboprops and turbofans, with piston aircraft being much less common in commercial and military operations. Turboprops use turbine (jet) engines to turn propellers, while turbofans are the large-diameter engines slung under the wings of most commercial airliners. They’re bigger, faster, higher-flying, and longer-range than turboprops, which tend to be regional transports. You can learn more about each here.

Another spotter trick is learning how to identify Airbus from Boeing airliners. They both share similar configurations—long white tube, big engines—but they have distinctions that can help you tell them apart. One is the cockpit windscreen, which in a Boeing tends to have a downward-pointing “V” shape, whereas many Airbus aircraft have noticeable notches in the farthest-aft cockpit window.

Boeings also have pointier noses than Airbuses, and there are usually lots of model-specific differences in things like winglets, engine design (the new Boeing 787 has very prominent “teeth” in the engine housings near the exhaust) and landing gear configuration, particularly with larger wide-body aircraft.

The Boeing 777 and Airbus A350 both have two main landing gear “trucks” that each have six wheels (though some A350s have four on each truck) which helps set them apart from other planes in their own families. Pick up a few more tells here.

Name That Plane

All you need to watch these birds is an airport and a steady hand with binoculars. Here are some common planes (and a few rarer ones) to help get you started.

The two biggest commercial airliners are much easier to distinguish. The Boeing 747 has a very distinctive partial upper deck, while the Airbus A380 has a full-length upper deck and a more bulbous nose. (Both have four engines.) Because of age and fuel efficiency—and now the pandemic—both aircraft are being phased out.

In fact, almost all A380s are currently grounded, and most 747s still in service are cargo aircraft. The A380 may return to some routes as we emerge from the pandemic, but the 747 will continue to remain a fixture of cargo operations. Regardless, try to see them both while you still can.

💡 Some cool general aviation targets: the HondaJet and the Cirrus Vision Jet, two relatively affordable private jets that have arrived on the market in just the past few years. They’re highly distinctive—Cirrus has a single top-mounted engine inlet, while HondaJet has two engines mounted on vertical pylons on the wings. They’re also awesome to see in action.

Among private aircraft, or general aviation aircraft, the range is even wider. There could be small piston-engine, propeller-driven aircraft made by the likes of Cessna, Cirrus, Diamond, and others, or there could be turboprops and business jets, which are far pricier and tend to be flown by businesses, usually consisting of multimillion-dollar Gulfstreams, Bombardiers, Embraers, and others. The only thing they have in common is that any of them could be modern or decades old, and you might barely be able to tell the difference.

It’s not uncommon for 70- or 80-year-old private planes to be sitting at airports in perfectly usable condition. Planes aren’t like cars; they’ll fly forever if you maintain them well enough.

A Pro-Level Challenge: Military Aircraft

Many spotters love tracking, watching, and photographing military operations. Those are trickier because most branches don’t advertise their whereabouts online (for obvious reasons), so it’s harder to gauge what’s flying and where they’re going.

But if there’s an Air Force, Army, Marine Corps, or Navy air base in your area, you can pretty easily see aircraft coming and going all day long. It’s perfectly legal to observe and photograph them in the U.S., as long as you’re on public property and don’t get too close to fences and gates. They can make for stunning targets.

At military bases, you’ll likely see lots of helicopters, cargo aircraft, fueling tankers, and bombers, but if the base has any fighter wings, you’ll see cool stuff like the F-15, F-16, F/A-18, or the newer F-35 Joint Strike Fighter or the F/A-22 Raptor. The latter is a very rare bird, with only 185 in service at five bases.

Here are a few simple tricks to tell them apart: F-16s are single-engine fighters with single vertical stabilizers (rudders) flown around Air Force bases, while the F-15, which is also an Air Force craft, has two engines and two vertical stabilizers. F-18s are twin-engine fighters with two vertical stabilizers that are angled more than the F-15. They’re Navy aircraft and thus typically operate in and out of Navy airfields or, of course, aircraft carriers. (If you see an F-14 Tomcat, with its dramatic swept wings, you’re either visiting Iran, standing in front of a static display at an air base, or watching Top Gun. The Tomcat was retired from U.S. service years ago.)

The two newest aircraft are the F-35 and F-22. Again, the distinction is simple: The F-35 is a single-engine craft, while the F-22 has twin engines, though both have dual vertical stabilizers.

You’ll also see a lot of cargo aircraft at military bases, such as the huge C-5 Galaxy, with its four turbofan jet engines, or the slightly smaller C-130 turboprop. Refueling tankers are common as well. The KC-46 is the newest of those, and it’s a derivative of the Boeing 767.

A Great Way to Practice

Remember that you can also catch plenty of military aircraft—and lots of cool and rare sport, aerobatic, and other general-use airplanes—at air shows, such as the monumental Oshkosh AirVenture in Wisconsin, the Reno National Championship Air Races, or the Sun ’n Fun International Fly-In & Expo in Lakeland, Florida. Of course, 2020 wasn’t a great year for that, as most air shows were canceled. But as the world returns to normal, air shows will likely return as well.

You’ll want to start honing your technique so you don’t miss the best moments. Always have multiple memory cards and batteries on hand, and learn how to use shutter-priority mode on your camera. In this mode, you program the shutter speed—usually something fast, like 1/400th to 1/1000th of a second—and the camera sorts out the rest of the settings. (If you shoot in fully automatic mode, you risk blurry images if the camera sets the shutter speed too low.)

You’ll then want to practice panning with the aircraft as it moves. Planes captured in flight look their most dynamic when the background and foreground are blurred. You can do this by slowing your shutter speed to 1/100th of a second or so, and then simply following the aircraft as it buzzes by, shooting constantly. When you scroll through the images later, don’t worry if most of them look horrible—you only need one or two good ones per aircraft, and five or 10 per show to consider your effort successful.

Most importantly, keep trying. Don’t give up learning how to capture the aircraft, and also how to find the ones most worth seeing. Look for big names like the Thunderbirds and the Blue Angels demonstration teams, and rare aircraft like the B-2 stealth bomber, F-22, and F-35. In the civilian world, seek out whatever you enjoy most, from small civilian planes and helicopters up through the sadly fading Boeing 747 and Airbus A380.

Or maybe chase your own white whale, like my Antonov An-225.

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How to Get Started In Planespotting