I am a recent addition to the Plane Spotting Team, Bangalore. I joined them on the Republic Day, 2010. I had taken my eight year old daughter Harini along to the airport. We were there by 6.30 am in the morning. We enjoyed the ride to the airport, when there was completely no traffic (which is highly uncommon sight in Bangalore). In the airport, we have a special platform and few view points, from where we can spot the plane in detail and get good view of it. I was the only one with a Samsung camera while all others had hi-fi cameras. I have also decided to upgrade my camera. The team comprised of lot of professional spotters – Praveen, Devesh, Stephen who had all been spotting for decades. Personally I am a techie, working as a quality manager with Nokia Siemens Networks. This hobby makes me forget all my other worries and takes me a long way.

In Bangalore, spotters led by aviation enthusiast Devesh Agarwal have managed to gain some sort of official approval for their hobby. The Aviation Photographers of India (API) has 35 members who are allowed access to a spotting area within the airport premises

TV 9 video shoot of our team: http://www.bangaloreaviation.com/2010/02/video-news-9-showcases-airplane.html

Registration numbers, collectibles, binoculars and full-fleet goals keep the Spotters motivated and going.

• Registration Number: Indian registrations begin with VT—Viceroy Territory. Located at the rear of the aircraft, next to the fuselage, the registration number is a source to access the history sheet of the plane. By plugging the registration number into a database, a plane-spotter can match it to the serial, which is then indexed by airline, aircraft and dates of service and manufacture. You can get all the information—where the plane has been, who its previous owners were, among others—based on this.

• Livery: It is the paint and design on the aircraft. Spotters watch out for new colours and designs. Some airlines sport a different livery for a short term—as a promotion. Shooting these is high priority for the spotter.

• Airline shots: Spotter websites have strict rules for photographs that can be uploaded. Reasons for rejection include bad angles, window reflections, photos showing an aircraft far in the distance or just a part of an aircraft. The real thrill is when pilots who were guiding the aircraft get in touch with the spotter to ask for a copy. This happens often enough.

• Collectibles: Spotters collect most things plane-related—baggage tags, boarding passes, cutlery, crockery, napkins and miniatures.

• Goals: Full-fleet goals are most common internationally. Spotters travel the world so they can spot all the planes of a particular airline. The first flight of a new plane is a major event. As are last flights of planes that have been sold or are going out of commission.

• Equipment: Notebook, binoculars—the more powerful the better—and cameras with telephoto lens.

Aviation photographers and spotters bring together a diverse set of skills -- databases of aircraft, the history of aviation, knowledge of airports and operations, beauty and art of photography, and above all, a passion for all those magnificent flying machines and the skies and airports they fly in. And I have lots to learn and a long way to go.

(Reference : livemint.com – Apr 9th edition . article Eye in the sky by Veena Venugopal)

Cheers,