The plane spotter is someone who has a more than average interest in aircraft, airlines, airports, and aviation in general. They love to hang around airport fences of airports or on observation decks and the upper level of airport car parks or around aircraft factories hoping to get a glimpse of aircraft landing, taxiing to gate, being towed, rolled out of the hangar, taking off, or they just want to catch the smell of jet fuel in the morning (or afternoon, or evening for that matter).

Some of them keep records of registration numbers, aircraft types, airline name, arrival times and departure times. A small notebook, a pen and a set of binoculars are standard spotter issue. When they get home, they often enter the day’s catch into a ‘ledger’ or a database, or they simply keep the notes for future reference.

Some plane spotters are more interested in getting the photo of that particular aircraft. Of these photographers, there are two types:

• The old foggy kind that still uses good ole chemical based film and cameras with huge lenses.
   
• The new millennium types who crave immediate satisfaction by checking the image quality using their handy digital cameras.

Other plane spotters love to listen in to the radio traffic between air traffic controllers (ATC) and pilots. The standard equipment used is a small, hand-held scanner. As with aircraft and airlines, spotters have their favorite air traffic controllers.

To top it off, you have the “yes, please, I’ll have it all”-types who indulge in all of the above. They love listening in to ATC to get heads up information on arriving aircraft, getting the first glimpse of the same aircraft through the lenses of their strong binoculars, adjust the digital or analog camera to get that perfect shot of a burning rubber land. Then they mosey on home and add the information to their database.

There are plane spotters who have a weird, but understandable preference to military aircraft, or even private planes. You can even find them at aircraft museums.

There are countries that for some obscure reasons regard plane spotters as a threat to national security. Countries such as Greece and Korea regard them as spies. Recent events in the US, has added ‘terrorist’ to the bill. This could not be further from the truth. Plane spotters are driven by their passion for the aviation industry, and without this industry there will be no plane spotters.

Who will destroy their own best hobby? Well, I can think of the odd mad men and politician, but no true enthusiast :-)