Trip Reports Forum | 4 days - 5 countries – 7 airports – 5500 photos!!

A while a go, my mate, Aziz and I were discussing a road trip around Germany. We chose a route and time that allowed a Friday at DUS and the W/E at FRA. We also planned visits to Koln and Brussels. We met at Thurs 16.30 the first airport LHRW and to fit the criteria of the trip, bagged a couple of frames before we set off to Dover. We were planning a quick stop at OST but the ferry was late and it was getting dark as we drove past, we arrived in the ETAPS hotel at 01:00 Friday. Good clean room with double bed with a bunk over the top enough for a family of 3, and at 41 euros not too badly priced, so, we got our own rooms.

Once again, the weather god decided that we had not offered the right prayers and we awoke to the greyest day I have seen in July for a long time. Dusseldorf like all German airports I have visited, has a viewing terrace, DUS has 2, the Bahnhof and the terminal. We headed to the BH, as that gave us the closest view in poor light. We later went over to the Terminal for lunch and a warm up. Cost to use the terraces was 2.20e, covers both and it is an all day pass. We had chosen Friday to see the Mahon A310 and the Turkish IT flights. We weren’t disappointed and with Sky, BestAir, Izzurair, Sun Express amongst the European carriers. The aircraft, including Lufthansa and Air Berlin heavies, arrived at a constant and rewarding flow, especially for my number crunching friend. Photo ops were poor but I made the best of it. The weather got worse in the PM and by 16.00, I was ready to go home! Nevertheless, we decided to travel to Koln just 40 miles south. We decided to risk running the gauntlet of the rush-hour around Dusseldorf, Koln and the clutch of other major German cities around the area. Normally in the rush hours you will sit in slow traffic, fortunately we didn’t. After stopping to find a coffee shop and the lovely Germans buns, Aziz took a real shine to German buns, searching for them at every opportunity; we arrived at Koln to bright skies. More low cost and IT airlines, German Wings, Hamburg, HPEx and Sky to name a few. One the cargo ramp was a UPS MD11, although photos of the cargo traffic is difficult. There are certain angles and positions you can take some decent photos of moving traffic. The terrace didn’t close until dark and we saw a MD11 and 767 of UPS arrive, much to the delight of both Aziz and I, our first UPS MD11’s, unfortunately though glass and 22:00hrs made my camera nearly useless, I was shooting at 1600ASA, F5.6 at 400mm. The photos have more noise than a Metalica concert and as sharp as a brick.
After leaving Koln, a 2:30 hour drive to FRA airport and the ETAPS Hotel at Darmstadt about 15km from FRA airport but on the Autobahn to cargocity and the Zeppelinheim spot. The terrace in Terminal 2 is open until 17:00 so is into sun most of the day, so we ignored it. All the usual suspects, passenger wise, turned up including Aeroflot Dom, an nice one is theYak42 of Koran airlines from Russia. However, my highlight was the LAN Cargo B777 (x2). Unfortunately, Shanghai Cargo did not arrive, much to Azizs’ disappointment. Anyway, two good days spotting and some good photo ops. The only downside was the down turn in traffic being noticeable all weekend and Sunday Pm was really slow.

Sunday evening we headed North West up the 61 to Aachen and Maastricht to see the ex Gulf Air B767 stored there and the Oceanair F50, Plus a 5N- registered ATR and a ST- registered F50, unfortunately both all white. There are only 6 flights a day, incredibly we saw one land, a Turkish A310 cargo flight. Off again to Brussels and the hotel. Up early at 05.00 to capture the A330 of Brussels Airlines and anything else of note to arrive and in the end it was almost a waste of time as the sun was shining tail on to the 3rd a/c. The other two had arrived in the dark and nothing else arrived until 08:15 but departing at that time off 25R was a multitude of Freebird, Pegasus – inc the Beko logo ship plus other none Belgian aircraft, and much to my disgust a North American B767. seen 5 times, never photo’ed. Using my local knowledge to find a good spot, we decided to photograph them departing. We also go the Saudi MD11 and the Blue Air B737. Unfortunately, I had to sacrifice the Afriqiyah Airways, as that landed on 25L even though it was late at 12:30. We lunched at the Chinese restaurant in the village just north of the threshold of 25L with views over the approach to 25L, but in the 2 hours we were there the only thing that landed was an Ethiad A330. Departing at 14:00 with a drive through of the Airport for Aziz to take “reg shots” of the ramp, We set off to Calais via Oostende if we had time. We did and with 2 World MD11’s, 2 B747F’s, (one MK), and 2 DC-8’s (the WFU ones). We got back to England shattered, but it wasn’t quiet over as dropping Aziz off at terminal 5 LHRW, an ANA B777 departed 27L and I bagged a evening shot!

i'll post some shots on the site in the near future

Thanks very much for a wonderful trip and I really enjoyed it as well as making lots of photos and frames. Your knowledge of the airports are unbeatable. Cheers!!!

hey, no probs, after spotting for 39 years I should know a little about the airports, I lived abroad for 9 years, if anyone wants to know about an european or Florida airport, just ask and if i know, i'll tell you.