Aviation Portraits

Aviation Portraits on the move

2010-12-23T17:52:00.000+01:00

Aviation Portraits is moving! Visit our new home at
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Hannover (HAJ) December 04th 2010

2010-12-07T20:47:00.001+01:00

Finally some sunshine again! And with every mile I got closer to Hannover, the snow got more and more (: The view from P Nord is quite restricted since there's a new hangar in front of it, but photos of taxiing planes are still possible:

Moritz

Cologne-Bonn (CGN) October 24th 2010

2010-10-29T21:48:00.001+02:00

Bad weather all around, but with some sunny spells at CGN expected I decided to go there, hoping to get at least a UPS 747...but they all (three within 30 mins) came in during a heavy shower ):

But a Travel Service A320 is quite nice too...and UPS will still be around next summer!

Moritz

London Heathrow (LHR) October 20th/21st 2010

2010-10-22T21:11:00.003+02:00

Nothing seemed to be better than a great sunny day at Hatton Cross to get my head free of all the things that happened recently...so I just had to go there again! And it worked out just as planned (;

On the 20th there was a crystal blue sky most of the day, and after a great flight (my first flight directly to LHR) and a breathtaking view of downtown London I made my way to Hatton Cross, where I arrived just when the sun had moved around far enough. The first of many (for me) new planes was this Turkish A340:

The next ones are regulars at LHR, but I needed them all...

A nice surprise...Star Alliance colours on this Croatia A319:

I was chasing Etihad planes for so long now...and finally:

This one probably is the highlight of the whole trip, although it's just a BA 757 (;
I'm so happy to have it in my collection!

From Germany...but I never got one of these before:

Then the widebodies came in...

Great new colours:

Ethiopian normally comes early in the morning, but was heavily delayed:

LHR definitely is 777-300 heaven:

Another retrojet:

And a last one for this day...:

On the 21st there were more clouds around, but still some nice photos were possible to take. In the morning this AA 757 came in:

Then the weather got too bad for 'real' photos...until in the afternoon the sun came back with dramatic looking clouds in the background at times:

These two days were just great...!!

Moritz

Amsterdam (AMS) October 17th 2010

2010-10-18T20:20:00.001+02:00

A sunny day at Amsterdam was promised, so Michael (Thx a lot!!) and I went there. In the end there were more clouds than we had expected and runway usage wasn't on our side either, but at least this great Cargo 777 came in nicely:

Moritz

London Gatwick (LGW) & Heathrow (LHR) October 12th 2010

2010-10-15T21:41:00.000+02:00

Another visit to London. As we had a car this time, we could get each sunny moment on this day (:
At first we visited Gatwick, during a sunny spell this nice 757 passed by:

On our way home, we noticed the weather at LHR had improved, so we stayed there for an hour, this one came along just on time before the sun had wandered to far to the west:

Moritz

Paderborn (PAD) October 9th 2010

2010-10-15T21:37:00.000+02:00

Some ex Air Berlin Airbus A 320 have been prepared and painted for Azerbaijan Airlines. As they have not been delivered yet, they are parked at Paderborn airport now.

Moritz

Lisbon (LIS) October 4th 2010

2010-10-15T21:34:00.001+02:00

Another visit to Lisbon with my students, and a short visit to the airport. I never managed to get the TACV at AMS or during my earlier stays in Lisbon, this time I was lucky she was delayed for an hour:

Moritz

London Stansted (STN) September 12th 2010

2010-09-26T22:55:00.003+02:00

I was in London for the weekend...before I had to leave again I could get a photo of a First Choice A 320 at the gate:

Moritz

Hannover (HAJ) September 5th 2010

2010-09-26T22:47:00.002+02:00

There were two more Russian planes (besides the Yamal 737) I wanted to get at Hanover this summer, these were Yakutia and Kuban Airlines. On the first September weekend finally the weatherforecast looked promising, so I went to the airport o saturday in the morning, as Yakutia was scheduled to land at 11am. When I left Bielefeld, nothing remarkably was to be seen in the schedule...and even when I arrived at Hanover airport, she still seemed to be on time...but shortly after 11 o'clock a message appeared, stating the new ETA was 9am...that could only mean, the next day, so I drove home again.

On Sunday morning the next shock: bad weather, with clouds all around...improvement was only to be expected in the afternoon. But Yakutia was delayed again, new ETA was 1pm...and also Kuban had a little delay of about 2 hours and should also come around 1. That gave me hope...so I was on te motorway again...and this time everything was perfect (((:

So my three main goals (spottingwise) this summer have been achieved ((:

Milan Malpensa (MXP) & Lugano (LUG) August 2010

2010-08-15T00:59:00.004+02:00

This summer we had finally decided to visit Italy for a spotting trip for the very first time, the number one spotting airport in the country for sure is Milan Malpensa. There are quite some spotting positions there and traffic is an interesting mix, offering intercontinental flights from all over the world as well as lots of Italian charter and regional airlines.

The first evening was spent around RWY 35R (Pos.C):

As the pattern of runway usage changes every day, 35L was in use for approach the next evening. So we had to find a new spot, Pos. D on the map:

The next morning we got up very early to get some of the incoming flights from Asia on RWY 35R (Photos taken at Spot B):

And finally I got a pic of this airline...I had already given up hope to ever get a pic of it, after they stopped flying to AMS lately:

Another visit ro RWY 35L in the evening resulted in this nice Italian regional aircraft:

On our last day we decided to do a little tour to Switzerland and of course we also visited Lugano airport:

Moritz

Dusseldorf (DUS) July 18th 2010

2010-07-29T12:17:00.001+02:00

Only one photo from this day, but at least a quite rare plane:

Moritz

Hamburg (HAM) July 16th 2010

2010-07-29T12:00:00.002+02:00

I had planned to spend the day at the Airbus facility in Finkenwerder, but as there were only very few flights expected, I decided to visit Hamburg's real airport.
I had not been there for years and only knew the terminal area, so I had to look for a good place o take photos.

Runway 23 was used for take off while 15 was the main landing runway. I decided to take photos of departing aircraft first, as the sun was not yet in a god position for approach shots. Most planes were already too high, but this Avro passed by nicely:

In the afternoon I looked for god photopositions in the approach to RWY 15 and in the end I found a nice place in the middle of a nature reserve.

Moritz

Hannover (HAJ) June 26th 2010 & Amsterdam (AMS) July3rd 2010

2010-07-03T12:29:00.003+02:00

There are some nice new airlines from Russia operating to HAJ, the first one I got a photo of is Yamal, operating to Omsk on Saturday evenings:

A few days later I visited Amsterdam, two new planes (for me) on approach to RWY 18R:

Moritz

Amsterdam (AMS) June 4th 2010

2010-06-29T01:25:00.004+02:00

After a very short night we departed to AMS at about 4 o'clock and arrived at the airport shortly before 6. Landing runway was 36C so we looked for a good place to take photos. The first two highlights from Asia came in here:

Then the Aalsmeerbaan was opened and we changed position to get some European stuff and most important, the Garuda A330...

First came a Sun Express in new colours:

Then lots of traffic from (mainly Eastern) Europe...not really special but I did still miss some of them:

Then she finally came...I had waited for years for Garuda coming back to AMS:

These two completed a great day at Schiphol:

Moritz

Dusseldorf (DUS) June 3rd 2010

2010-06-17T21:26:00.004+02:00

Nice weather on a free afternoon and nothing else to do, so I looked through all the timetables and in the end decided to visit Dusseldorf airport once again.

The first plane I finally got a decent shot of was this Embraer Jet from Finland:

More and more photographers arrived and I started to wonder, what they were all coming for. So I asked and found out: The first Lufthansa A380 was supposed to visit DUS a 2nd time that day on its way back from Cologne. Now that was great news! The only problem was to predict the runway, the A380 would land on, as they constantly changed between 05R and 05L.

It was 05R and all made it to a good position...here's my result:

Then I went back to 05L to get some more regulars ans highlights:

First this regular visitor:

And then two more interesting planes:

Even without the A380 I would hv called this a successful evening, but LH's new flagship made it a perfect one!

Moritz

London Heathrow (LHR) April 04th 2010 & Amsterdam (AMS) May 09th 2010

2010-05-02T14:12:00.003+02:00

Tried a new position today and my reward was this great plane:

Later on approach to RWY 27R:

A few weeks later I got this Cargo 777 at AMS:

Moritz

Münster - Osnabrück (FMO) March 6th & 9th 2010

2010-03-08T22:29:00.003+01:00

Two regular visitors at FMO...not really colourful, but finally I got good photos of them:

A few days later I also got the small Cirrus Airlines:

Moritz

Hanover (HAJ) March 4th 2010

2010-03-05T19:12:00.004+01:00

The sun was there again...!!! So I drove directly to Hanover Airport after I had finished work.

At first I wanted to get a photo of a Fly BE DHC8 in standard colours, as I only had the Eco-plane until now...not that I would complain about that (;
I was lucky enough to choose the right runway:

The next plane expected was a TUIfly, with all those special colours around chances are not so bad at all to get one, and again I was lucky...it was the latest one:

Quite a good reward for two hours at the airport (:

Moritz

London Heathrow (LHR) January 03rd 2010

2010-02-19T20:24:00.005+01:00

A photo from a a short visit at London Heathrow airport:

Moritz

Münster - Osnabrück (FMO) December 26th 2009

2009-12-29T14:25:00.004+01:00

After long months without real sun (or sun at the wrong times n places) the weather finally was nice once again on 2nd Christmas Day so I took al little trip to FMO inbetween the Christmas celebrations.

Nothing really special was announced, but as I am still missing some of the regular visitors, that didnt't bother me...

Moritz

Lisbon (LIS) July/August 2009

2009-08-08T12:17:00.010+02:00

During a week in Lisbon (some photos showing this great city can be seen here) I also spent some time at the airport. As the winds came from northerly directions the whole week, Runway 03 was in use all the time, so all photos show planes on final approach to this runway.

Especially in the afternoon and evening it is possible to take nice photos from a road near a new cargo building, these were taken on July 30th:

In the morning we went to a place near 2a Circular, photos can be made, but the places are not really nice to stay. Anyway some nice planes passed:

And finally two A330s coming back home:

The next day we tried a slightly different position onthe other side of 2a circular and were rewarded with two visitors from North America:

All remaining photos are again taken at the evening position, between July 31st and August 4th:

Moritz

Münster Osnabrück (FMO) July 27th 2009

2009-07-28T21:37:00.003+02:00

After waking up I found out, that the weather was surprisingly good this morning, and as it was too late to go to an airport further away, I visitied nearby FMO and took a photo of the still rather new Niki Embraer approaching Runway 25:

Moritz

Stockholm (ARN) July 17th 2009

2009-07-18T23:00:00.013+02:00

Right after arriving we walked to RWY 24 to take some approach shots, but there were quite some clouds around and in the end only this one was really good:

After having explored the city of Stockholm (some photos can be seen here), I spent the last morning before leaving on a small hill next to taxiway W to take photos of planes taxiing to runway 19L for departure. Untill 6:30 nearly all clouds had disappeared, so getting up early was a good idea...I guess, I have never before taken a photo of an airplane at 6:50, but here it is:

It was not particularly busy, but in the next two and a half hours some nice planes passed by. I had not dared to hope to get a My Tavel A330, as they are due to get repainted in Thomas Cook colours, so I was really happy, when this beauty turned onto the taxiway:

A Lauda Air 737 operated an Austrian flight:

And finally two planes from the northeastern corner of Europe:

Moritz

Amsterdam (AMS) June 21st 2009

2009-06-23T20:36:00.005+02:00

The longest day of the year! The weather was bad all weekend, but a lot of sun was expected at Amsterdam on Sunday afternoon. So we went there...

In the end there was not as much sun as was hoped for, but at least there was some at all - sometimes with dramatic dark clouds in the background.

Traffic was mostly KLM, but two nice Avro RJ left via RWY 36L:

Moritz

Amsterdam (AMS) May 30th 2009

2009-06-02T18:39:00.008+02:00

Time for some pictures from Amsterdam again. I used the first day of the long Pentecost weekend for a trip to AMS. The weather was perfect with only very few clouds around noon. I arrived at the Aalsmeerbaan (36R) araound 7:45am. The Airzena had unfortunately already arrived around 7, but there were still some nice planes coming in:

As usual at this runway, lots of European traffic:

Also two visitors from Turkey:

I was especially happy about the Sun Expreess and the Alitalia, as both airlines plan to phase out these planes in the near future.

At 09:15 the landing peak ended and Runway 36R was not used any more, so I left and went to the Kaagbaan (RWY 06). Delta/NWA brought in these two among many others:

The first Dutch Retrojet:

Some traffic from around (and - in case of Air Malta - the middle of) the Mediterranean Sea:

A half French half Irish ARJ:

And to finish the trip...the other Dutch Retrojet:

Moritz

Düsseldorf (DUS) May 23rd 2009

2009-05-26T19:40:00.004+02:00

I have spent a half day at Dusseldorf once again. At first I went to the deck on the terminal roof to take a photo of Koral Blue, a new regular visitor at DUS:

Later I changed position to the railway station, hoping to get her on departure, but they changed to RWY 05 just when I arrived, so no pictures were possible. In the end the change was not bad at all, as it allowed to take photos of planes approaching RWY 05R. Although nothing really special arrived until I left around noon, the Air France Embraer Jet was a nice highlight.

Moritz

London Heathrow (LHR) April 08th 2009

2009-04-11T15:46:00.004+02:00

On April 07th it was time to go to London once again, this time with a Air Belin Dash 8 (D-ABQB).

As the weather was not really great on Tuesday, we visited the city at first and took the Underground to LHR in the afternoon. There we saw some really interstung planes (Jet Airways, Kingfisher, Arik Air), but the light conditions were not good anymore.
Somewhen we had seen enough and it became cold, so we started to look for a hotel, which is not that difficult in Bath road ;-).
We decided to stay at the Ibis hotel again, and it was a good choice.

It was too early to sleep but too late to go dontown once again, so we visited the new Terminal 5. It's quite impressive, but there are only very few shops or restaurants for non flying visitors.

In the meantime the weather forecast for the next day had impreoved a lot, so we could hope for some sunshine the next day. And really...when we looked out of the window, there was much blue and only some small white clouds :-)

As the position of the sun is not useful before 10am we had enough time to enjoy a British breakfast at the hotel and then we walked to Hatton Cross. We made a short intermdeiate stop at RWY 27R, but the distance of the planes lining up for departure was too long, resulting in quite noticeable heathaze.

So we went on to RWY 27L...and it was perfect. Of course there were some clouds and not all planes had nice light, but we are happy with the result.

There were some 767s from the US:

and one of the homecarrier:

Two quite new 777s arrived:

This 747 must have had the longest flight:

At noon smaller planes from Europe and the Middle East came in:

And finally three more widebodies:

At 3pm it was done at 27L and we happily left for STN, with (nearly) empty batteries and full memorycards...

Moritz

Amsterdam (AMS) March 08th 2009

2009-03-11T17:34:00.002+01:00

AMS again, finally!

I arrived shortly after noon, at 12:15am the last high clouds disappeared...good timing!
As it was a strong southwesterly wind, The Kaagbaan was used fpr takeoff, the Buitenveldertbaan for arrivals.

I went to RWY 24 in the beginning. Due to the strong wind, many planes were too high to take good photos, but this one came nicely:

And a little later the definite highlight of the day:

In the afternoon I also went to RWY 27:

After some hours the nice weather was gone again, just before sunset the first clouds of the next bad weather period appeared at the horizon.

Moritz

Düsseldorf (DUS) January 10th 2009

2009-01-12T19:36:00.002+01:00

Tody I went to DUS again, as a L'Avion 757 was expected there. As both observation decks are close due to the weather, I went into the Approach to RWY 05...the only question was, which one was the right one. At first, everything landed on 05L, so all photographers (It must have been around 35) gathered at the Ikarusstraße. Every minute new information on ETA came in, shortly before 11am, then shortly after 11. This made the whole thing very exciting, as 11am was the time, when the runways were said to be changed with everything landing on 05R after 11.

When someone shouted 'She's coming on 05R', everybody hurried to the other runway, by car or by foot. The people in Lohausen must have wondered, what was going on in their streets, with 30 or more photographers running to the other runway. A truckdriver looked quite puzzled, but I unfortunately did not have the time either, to explain to him, what he saw ;-).

In the end, nearly everybody had found a nice position to take photos. As therefore lots of pictures of the arrival are to be found elsewhere, I show one of the departure. In the meantime RWY 23L was used...L'Avion was the first plane to take off to the west today:

Moritz

Paderborn-Lippstadt (PAD) January 06th 2009

2009-01-06T19:17:00.001+01:00

Flyglobespan shuttles between Al Udeid (Qatar) and Brize Norton these days, with intermdeiate stops at Paderborn. They use Boeing 767 aircraft on this route.

In perfekt winterweather (It was -23°C at nearby Lippstadt during the night) I went into the approach to RWY 06, where the 767 arrived around 1pm coming from Al Udeid:

Moritz

Paderborn-Lippstadt (PAD) December 31st 2008

2009-01-01T17:17:00.002+01:00

The last spottingtip of the year brought me to PAD once again. It was not much traffic at the airport, but the weather was nice. PAD once again proved to be a good choice to avoid fog and haze.

As said above, not much was going on, but Lufthansa Regional came with a DHC 8-400. After the departure from RWY 24 the plane banked nicely to the left, wich gave me the possibility to take the following photo:

Moritz

Amsterdam (AMS) December 7th 2008

2008-12-09T17:24:00.001+01:00

After exactly 8 (!) weeks I have seen planes in sunny weather again:

The real highlights all came in to early, but at noon some nice planes took off from the Kaagbaan in nice light conditions. So I had the opportunity to test my new camera and take photos of the following planes:

I hope its not 2 months again until I can take the next photos...

Moritz

Paderborn-Lippstadt (PAD) Oktober 11th 2008

2008-10-13T22:23:00.001+02:00

It was hazy all around, but Paderborn was said to be one of the few really sunny points in northwestern Germany. It did not look to good on the way, but 10 km off the airport the sky started to get clear and at PAD the sun shone from a nice blue sky.

The main reason for the trip was the Air Europa Boeing 737, as I had not managed to get a nice photo of her at FMO during the summer. Today I finally was lucky:

Moritz

Düsseldorf (DUS) October 2nd 2008

2008-10-03T12:15:00.002+02:00

As every ray of sunlight hast to be used these days, I went to DUS for some hours. Nothing really special was scheduled, but I could at least take a photo of a LTU A330 in old colours:

Moritz

Düsseldorf (DUS) September 14th 2008

2008-09-17T21:49:00.001+02:00

The weather finally was nice again, so it was not easy to decide, where to go. As the Finnair Retrojet was scheduled to come to DUS, I also went there.

It was cold in the morning, but in the end it became a nice day, warm, but windy. Shortly past 11 the expected plane arrived:

Moritz

Hanover (HAJ) August 30th 2008

2008-08-31T12:17:00.002+02:00

Today only one photo taken at Hanover Airport:

I had hoped to get nice pictures of Air Union, Saravia and Windrose, as they all were supposed to leave during the afternoon because of delays, bot unfortunately they either came much to late in the end or even not at all.
But a Germania - I had never taken a nice photo during their 'first life' - is not bad either, especially as the Fokker 100 is brandnew in these colours.

Moritz

Hannover (HAJ) August 16th 2008

2008-08-17T17:18:00.003+02:00

Yesterday the weather promised to be quite nice once again, so I went to Hanover. At first I stood at the 27R-approach, bot for some time not much interesting happened. This changed around noon, when a Boeing 747-200 of Northwest Airlines arrived:

Then came Sibir. At first RA-85725, a green one, and of course without sun. Five minutes later came the second, this time the sun was there, but it was a white one.

The only chance to get the green Sibir was now, to drive to the western end of the airport and take a photo during departure. This time all went right, finally:

This must be one of my highlights of 2008!

Moritz