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Aiel · Member Joined: 19 Dec 2006 Posts: 927 Location: Bangalore

I have uploaded a few pictures taken during the meet held on Sunday, 22 July.

Link to the pictures here

P.S: The pictures taken from the first location did not come out great, due to a lack of zoom on my camera.
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Birendra · Member Joined: 15 Feb 2007 Posts: 1411

HAWK21M · Posted: Mon Jul 23, 2007 8:21 am Post subject:

Nice Pics.
Any Member group photos & a report on what transpired.
regds
MEL
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Nimish · Posted: Mon Jul 23, 2007 12:17 pm Post subject:

Aiel · Member Joined: 19 Dec 2006 Posts: 927 Location: Bangalore

Nimish, am trying to make the pics from the first location fine, let me see if any more are salvageable. Quite happy with the pics from the second location.

The other location where the other cars were parked had a good view of aircraft lining up for departure.

Birendra, am still using the kit lens. Will wait for a few more months before buying a tele-zoom lens. (spotting is the only place I really really require it, so kinda hard to justify the expenditure on it at present.)
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Nimish · Posted: Mon Jul 23, 2007 1:15 pm Post subject:

One line summary: I had a lot of fun!

Details:

I arrived with my son at about 14:30, as we'd gone to drop my parents to the airport. Since we'd reached a bit early, we decided to stop at the bridge on Wind Tunnel Road, but when we reached there, we realized the runway was closed and there was no a/c activity. On looking closer (luckily I had my binoculars with me), we realized that they were painting or otherwise maintaining the 09 end of the runway. So we hung on there for about 20 minutes waiting for the maintenance to finish, and for the rest of the group to land up.

I'd started the trip by sending an SMS reminder to all 7 confirmed members. Unfortunately Haree and iFlytb20 could not eventually make it, but luckily they replied to my SMS, so we were not left waiting for them. Hope to see you guys the next time around!

Once the 6 of us were together, we decided to head down the KR Gardens road looking for a suitable spotting spot. But unfortunately, each of the buildings we checked with, refused to let use their terrace for spotting. One lady even told us "we can't let you use the terrace because you're going to shoot the planes", and I had to remind her that we had only cameras and not guns Smile

But it seems like the police does frequent this road and prevents any major photography from taking place Sad

As we were returning to our cars and planning to drive to the east end of the runway, one or two of the members suggested checking out an office building at the end of the Wind Tunnel road itself. Luckily the folks at that building were quite cool about us using the terrace for spotting, so that was our first halt.

This was right on the Wind Tunnel Road, and the building adjacent (before) to the Green Park Bar. It was reasonably high, and we had a great view of the 09 end of the runway and exits W1 and W2. But unfortunately as runway 27 was in use, most of the a/c taking off were already high by the time they got to where we were Sad

. We could not see the actual parking aprons either (except for the remote apron next to taxiway W2).

We spent about an hour and a half there, and spotted a whole bunch of landing and taking off a/c. One of the first to land was a falcon - OO-GML - can't yet figure out what this was doing in BLR Smile

. Probably a netjets type of charter?

Both me and my son had binoculars and were busy looking at the landing/departing a/c. The others had cameras and were busy shooting pics of the a/c. Since the distance was quite a bit, I guess only those with a huge zoom would have been able to get a decent close up. My equipment had awesome zoom, but was unfortunately only a binocular Smile

I also had my Maycom receiver with me, but since it's a tiny little thing, the volume/clarity on the built in speaker was pathetic. So I finally put it back in my pocket and used the ear bud instead of the speaker. With the receiver I was able to provide inputs on most ground movements and arriving a/c.

After a while, I went down to the bar to get myself a chilled beer Smile

That was a lifesaver, and the rest of the afternoon was even more blissful Wink

End of part1 - more to follow later in the day today. Others - feel free to complete this narration or to add your own!

iflytb20 · Posted: Mon Jul 23, 2007 2:07 pm Post subject:

looks like i missed a great time
sorry guys...had some urgent work and classes....and got stuck in them
next time i will report sick if required
Wink

Nimish · Posted: Mon Jul 23, 2007 4:37 pm Post subject:

Carrying on from my post above...

We saw a lot of take offs from this location - including one heavy - the Etihad Crystal Cargo A300. But the bulk of the take offs were either the 737/320 family or ATRs. It was enjoyable, though there were long periods without anything landing or taking off. So about 5 or 5:15 pm, we decided to head to the east end of the run - where we felt we'd be closer to the action.

So we all drove to the road on the east end of the runway and parked ourselves. Soon there was a huge bunch of landing a/c - and this time they were flying right above us. Unfortunately by this time the sky was totally overcast (leading to bad lighting), and it had started to rain in the city (which meant it would soon start raining here as well). The other thing that we missed at the new location was that we could not spot the departing a/c Sad

I think the next time around, we'll have to go to the construction zone - from where it might be easier to spot and photograph the departing line up.

At about 6:10 or 6:15, it started drizzling, so that's when we all said our good byes and went our ways. But it was great meeting the team there - Nitin, Nilanjon, Himmat, Louis and Sreenivasan.

I would certainly love to do this again, especially once the rains finish and they make the switch back to 09.

I took only one picture - which was of the team - and I'll post that tomorrow (left the camera at home). Hoping to see pictures from the others as well!

lambuhere1 · Posted: Mon Jul 23, 2007 4:42 pm Post subject:

That was a good report. Kudos Guys... You made my day eve though I missed it a lot

Ram P

HamiltonAir · Member Joined: 25 Dec 2006 Posts: 937 Location: Bangalore

Thanx for the detailed summary Nimish, you have clearly explained our spotting at wind tunnel road. I'll just give a brief explanation about our spotting at the east side of the runway. Once we took our group pic at the first location, we decided to head towards the other side of the runway. We missed an emirates A330 on approach by just 2 minutes, that was the only widebody after the etihad A300, but we were lucky to spot a Kingfisher Airlines A321 heading to Hyderabad, ofcourse there were many narrow bodies landing, to name some; Indian Airlines, Airdeccan, Kingfisher, Spice jet and GoAir.

I really liked the spice jet 738 with the winglets, looked awesome! The weather was nice but not great for photography. We were lucky that it didnt rain. Too bad I didnt have a camera, need to buy one soon.

It was a real pleasure to meet you guyz, thanx for making this meeting a success. Hope to see the group pics soon!

Regards,
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HamiltonAir

Nilanjon · Member Joined: 22 Dec 2006 Posts: 85 Location: Bangalore

Here I come...

I've finally uploaded photos from yesterday's spotting session at Bangalore.

It was my first experience of spotting, and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

It was great meeting some of the most active Bangalore AI-Netters and I look forward to more such get-togethers in the months to come.

Click here to see my photos. Hope you enjoy them !!!

himmat01 · Member Joined: 19 Dec 2006 Posts: 1392 Location: DEL

It was great to catch up with the BLR AI-netters. I had a great time and look forward to more spotting sessions and get togethers.
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Nimish · Posted: Mon Jul 23, 2007 6:20 pm Post subject:

Thanks Nilanjon!

I've taken the liberty to post the group shot directly on this thread:

haree · Posted: Mon Jul 23, 2007 6:32 pm Post subject:

Hi

Sorry couldnt catch up.. nice to know u guys had great fun. I tried my best but couldnt lift me head off the bed with an aching head and a fever.

HAWK21M · Posted: Mon Jul 23, 2007 7:43 pm Post subject:

Now whose who,apart from Nimish & Himmat whom I recognise.

Nice report on the meet.Good read & excellent pics.

regds
MEL
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Nilanjon · Member Joined: 22 Dec 2006 Posts: 85 Location: Bangalore

Birendra · Member Joined: 15 Feb 2007 Posts: 1411

Hmn Bahut majja kiya.....nice to hear u guys had a great time. Thanks for the pics Wink

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HAWK21M · Posted: Tue Jul 24, 2007 1:06 pm Post subject:

Thanks for the Ident.
regds
MEL
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Think of the Brighter side !!!

Nimish · Posted: Tue Jul 24, 2007 4:53 pm Post subject:

Another of the group pics:

Srini, Nilanjon, Louis, Himmat and Nitin

This was about the only pic on my camera.

HamiltonAir · Member Joined: 25 Dec 2006 Posts: 937 Location: Bangalore

Pics have come out well, thanx for the pics guyz! Looking forward for another meet Very Happy

Regards,
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HamiltonAir

G-BYGB · Posted: Tue Jul 24, 2007 8:04 pm Post subject:

I had a wonderful time meeting all the BLR AI-netters.We should do this again some other time.Hopefully next time around we can see other AI-netters from BLR and elsewhere attending the meet. Smile

Here's the link to the pics I've taken on that day.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/g-bygb/

Cheers,
G-BYGB
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HAWK21M · Posted: Wed Jul 25, 2007 1:37 pm Post subject:

Nice group pic.Any smiling pics. Wink

regds
MEL
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Think of the Brighter side !!!

shekar · Posted: Wed Jul 25, 2007 6:01 pm Post subject:

Great going.Thanks for thhe pics.
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stealthpilot · Member Joined: 19 Dec 2006 Posts: 2325 Location: BLR, DXB

Aiel, Nilanjon, Nimish, Himmat, HamiltonAir & G-GYGB- great to see those pictures and read about the first BLR meet. I hope this becomes a regular event and I hope to meet you all in person soon.
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