Redeye171
Active member
LOL --- I forgot about the thumbs up grip! Thanks for the link!
Cheers............Red
-
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Spotting Jets with Binos or Scope (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter HoosierGuy
- Start date
LOL --- I forgot about the thumbs up grip! Thanks for the link!
Cheers............Red
Hi there Hoosier and other plane spotters. What got me hooked on good binoculars was this very thing......50 years ago, when the airline jet age was just getting started. I'd see contrails and would run in and get my dad's Airguide 4x40 field glass (my mom got it with Green Stamps) and dash back out for a look. I'd been an airplane nut since about 5th grade and knew pretty much what was what, and could tell a 707 from a DC8 by the wing planform. But 4x doesn't show much so I started buggin' the folks for a good bino (especially after looking thru a huge B&L 7x50 IF my friend across the street had that his dad brought home from WW2).
Well, for my 13th birthday, I got a Sans & Strieffe 8x30 (one of the many Zeiss Jena clones turned out by several Nipponese outfits under dozens of different labels). I'd asked for the same brand 8x40 (all seen in the Minnesota Wholesaler's catalog), which was a B-body, but was just tickled with what I got. And I used that little glass until it literally wore out (took it to Vietnam with me and sold it to an old boy from NJ for $10, who thought it was the best thing since night baseball...) and ordered a Belmont 8x50 from the PX for $20, and that was an amazingly good bino I kept for almost 20 yrs and used heavily, mostly for airplane spotting. It has a 7* fov and was quite bright, so was easy to find & track hi fliers. I got to where I could tell the type of virtually any plane flying over at almost any altitude, military, airline or civilian.
The key is in knowing your planes....their silouettes, wing planforms and approximate size. If you go to a Barnes & Noble, there are all kindsa good books you can pick up at good prices that will really familiarize you with what's overhead....or go to Airliners.net and click on the aircraft data tab on the far lower right of the homepage...most every civil plane, US and foreign, is listed, along with history, specs, 3 view silouettes....from the DC3 to the A380.
Don't know what part of Indiana you're from, but you should see a plethora of different types from all domestic carriers and even a few int'l heading for ORD, DTW, IAD, etc. Also several FedEx and UPS, as well as a good # of military types out of Wright-Pat at Dayton and as you mentioned a B-2 (which I also see frequently....they fly training missions out of Whiteman AFB, about 50 mi SE of Kansas City, all over the US. Funny thing is, for a supposed stealth plane, they consistently leave some of the heaviest contrails of any large aircraft....strange).
But I digress....if yr really interested in IDing hi flyers, the key is knowing your planes and their markings, which takes a little study. All the calculations above are theoretically fine, but not necessarily so....I can ID virtually any plane that I can see with the naked eye (sometimes just a speck leaving no contrails, depends on humidity aloft) with a good 7x or 8x glass, as long as the air quality is good....no haze or thermals....and I have at least a 15* angle to view. I will say, the best glass I have for this is a Canon 15x50 IS, due to it's wide field and amazing resolution (and I rarely if ever use the IS....the optical complement is so good and it's design so easy to hold steady I find it unnecessary).
I could write chapters on this, but if ya have any ?'s, feel free.
Well, for my 13th birthday, I got a Sans & Strieffe 8x30 (one of the many Zeiss Jena clones turned out by several Nipponese outfits under dozens of different labels). I'd asked for the same brand 8x40 (all seen in the Minnesota Wholesaler's catalog), which was a B-body, but was just tickled with what I got. And I used that little glass until it literally wore out (took it to Vietnam with me and sold it to an old boy from NJ for $10, who thought it was the best thing since night baseball...) and ordered a Belmont 8x50 from the PX for $20, and that was an amazingly good bino I kept for almost 20 yrs and used heavily, mostly for airplane spotting. It has a 7* fov and was quite bright, so was easy to find & track hi fliers. I got to where I could tell the type of virtually any plane flying over at almost any altitude, military, airline or civilian.
The key is in knowing your planes....their silouettes, wing planforms and approximate size. If you go to a Barnes & Noble, there are all kindsa good books you can pick up at good prices that will really familiarize you with what's overhead....or go to Airliners.net and click on the aircraft data tab on the far lower right of the homepage...most every civil plane, US and foreign, is listed, along with history, specs, 3 view silouettes....from the DC3 to the A380.
Don't know what part of Indiana you're from, but you should see a plethora of different types from all domestic carriers and even a few int'l heading for ORD, DTW, IAD, etc. Also several FedEx and UPS, as well as a good # of military types out of Wright-Pat at Dayton and as you mentioned a B-2 (which I also see frequently....they fly training missions out of Whiteman AFB, about 50 mi SE of Kansas City, all over the US. Funny thing is, for a supposed stealth plane, they consistently leave some of the heaviest contrails of any large aircraft....strange).
But I digress....if yr really interested in IDing hi flyers, the key is knowing your planes and their markings, which takes a little study. All the calculations above are theoretically fine, but not necessarily so....I can ID virtually any plane that I can see with the naked eye (sometimes just a speck leaving no contrails, depends on humidity aloft) with a good 7x or 8x glass, as long as the air quality is good....no haze or thermals....and I have at least a 15* angle to view. I will say, the best glass I have for this is a Canon 15x50 IS, due to it's wide field and amazing resolution (and I rarely if ever use the IS....the optical complement is so good and it's design so easy to hold steady I find it unnecessary).
I could write chapters on this, but if ya have any ?'s, feel free.
HoosierGuy
Well-known member
Any recommendations on a good jet Id'ing book? Something that can help me learn the shapes when they are 35,000 feet up in the air and looking at them with binos?
Kevin Purcell
Well-known member
The Google Earth nuts are into this sort of thing (though they tend to ID the bird from the top side unless it's in really deep doo doo)
http://bbs.keyhole.com/ubb/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=203413&site_id=1#import
Scroll down ... they even have indicators on how to separate close species (i mean aircraft). And use the Peterson ID system pointing out differences in the remiges (err, tail) between a Boeing and an Airbus. Note they even have subspecies (err, subtypes) listed.
It's either that or Peterson's Aircraft of Western North America.
Maybe Sibley will work on it after he gets his Trees book out later this year.
But I fear we have drifted from the remit of birdforum.net and it's preference for non-aluminum (non-aluminium) bird ID.
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HoosierGuy
Well-known member
Then I should ask for book recommendations for those big shinny birds that fly 35,000 feet in the sky!
Seriously, if this is off topic please PM me any recommendations.
Thanks!
HoosierGuy
Well-known member
Well, I haven't bought any for some time, so not sure what's currently available. If you're close to a B&N, go to the periodical racks, there are 2 monthly mags, one called AIRWAYS, the other AIRLINERS, that have lots of current photos of airliners with the latest paint schemes, which are prone to change (Delta, e.g., has had 4 in the last 11 yrs). Another good mag is a British journal called AIR INT'L, which covers both civil and Military.
But the best source is Airliners.Net. That is the world's largest (by far) aircraft photo database. It's mostly civil aircraft, but there is a large selection of military planes of all nations, current and past.....you can spend hours perusing it.
Hope that's helpful.
But the best source is Airliners.Net. That is the world's largest (by far) aircraft photo database. It's mostly civil aircraft, but there is a large selection of military planes of all nations, current and past.....you can spend hours perusing it.
Hope that's helpful.
This setup might be useful.
http://blog.modernmechanix.com/mags/qf/c/PopularScience/6-1942/med_sound_detectors.jpg
http://blog.modernmechanix.com/mags/qf/c/PopularScience/6-1942/med_sound_detectors.jpg
