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Thursday, July 28, 2005
Yes, but does the movie version involve anyone crawling down into a toilet?
OK this is a new one to me.
LONDON -- It's a drizzly Saturday afternoon, the kind of weather the BBC forecasters call "quite dull." But it hasn't deterred about 50 people gathered in a parking lot outside the fence of Heathrow Airport.It seems like a bit of a strange hobby but I have spent quite a few drizzly hours looking thru binoculars to identify various species of birds which I guess isn't all that different. And if 3WN didn't bring you stuff like this we couldn't claim to be your source for everything now, could we? We are, you know. Really.They peer at planes through binoculars and use radios to eavesdrop on pilots and air traffic controllers. "Speedbird 817, left Alpha Uniform, hold at November 2-Whiskey, short of 9-Right," the radios crackle.
It's been a good day for plane spotter Denis Cruse, who has just "completed a set."
"You just got your last ... Turkish, was it?" asks his friend Barry Kebbell.
"Cypriot," Cruse replies with pride. He has now laid eyes on all 14 planes in the Cyprus Airways fleet.
They're loitering in a damp parking lot, watching planes through a chain-link fence for the simple pleasure of writing down registration numbers. They know people think they're daft.
...
In Britain, a nation that embraces eccentricity, hundreds of people share their passion. They keep detailed logs of every plane they see. They spend entire vacations at airports, watching planes taxi to and from the runway. They await the day when they'll finally spot that elusive British Midland A319.
...
Like its earthbound cousin, train spotting, it has blossomed into a global hobby with books, websites and a unique culture.
