“SPOTTING” IN GERMANY

Earlier this month I took a week long trip to Germany. Among the other trip related activities I had been doing, I figured out it was a rear chance to spot some aviation activity in this very airplane-busy country.
To make things clear: I am not a professional spotter, not even an amateur one. More than that, I am not a photographer or a videographer, and I didn’t even take a camera to my trip. But I did take a binoculars, with which I hoped to be able to watch some planes.

I spent two days at Frankfurt (Main). This city has one of the greatest and busiest airports in the world, let alone in Europe, and it must be a heaven for spotters. I started driving in the direction of the airport, trying to find a place where I can park and watch the activity. Not surprisingly, there was no such place, at least not for a new comer like myself. Finally, I found a highway parking located exactly in the path of the landing airplanes. Standing there I could watch a steady stream of afternoon flights descending to the runways in two parallel paths. The planes were so close I didn’t need the binoculars.

I quickly noted an important fact: more than 90% of the traffic were Lufthansa aircraft. One A320 after another; one B737 after another; etc., etc. All LH’s. I guess that even in a place like FRA you need to spend a lot of time in order to watch interesting planes, unless you know a certain hour when those planes tend to concentrate.

My second try was near Munich, when I actually flew to and from. Again, I found a highway parking under the landing approaches. And again, the traffic was mainly LH and mainly A320\B737. The same was later that evening when I watch the planes from my hotel room in Fahrenzhausen, outside Munich.

LH is considered one of the world’s best airlines, and rightly so. But it should be said that its livery is one of the most boring existing today, which make a 90% LH spotting experience quite dull. Nevertheless, I hope to learn the right lessons before the next time.