Airplane Watching and Recognition

- A few tips -

First take a pair of binoculars with you.  You will be able to see the planes coming for farther away and it will give you more time to note typical features. 

Buy yourself an aircraft recognition handbook.  They usually contain pictures and silhouettes from front, side and under to aid shape recognition. 

At first, try to identify a few characteristics:

propeller or jet engine

how many engines (1,2,3,4...)

engine position

nose

wing

in

on

under

tail

on the side or tail fuselage

in tail assembly

fuselage

...

shape et dimension

etc. 

wings (front wings)

shape of the wings

swept-back (ex.  B-747)

straight (ex.  CL-215)

tapered (ex.  Dash-8)

variable geometry (rare)

delta (rare)

with (ex.  Airbus A-320) or without winglet (ex.  Boeing 757)

avec (ex.  Airbus A-320) ou sans ailette (ex.  Boeing 757)

flaps and ailerons

position of ailerons and trailing edge flaps

tail assembly (fin and tail wings)

fuselage mounted tail unit

fin-mounted tail unit

T-tail unit

multiple (fins) tail unit

landing gear

number of wheels

shape

position of main landing gear

in fuselage

in a nacelle against fuselage

with the engines

general silhouette

bulky (ex.  BAe 146 100 serie)

short, medium, long fuselage

with (ex.  B-747) or without an upper deck

special features

nose or tail extensions

radomes

...

(Lockheed CP-140 Aurora)

(SAAB 340)

Montreal International Airport, located in Dorval, is a good place to see many Dash-8 and an occasionnal ATR-42.  For a beginner, they seem to look alike.  It's easy to distinguish one from the other if you use the tips mentionned above. 

Both planes have two propellers engines and are used for regional transport of passenger. 

The ATR-42 has a fin-mounted tail unit (horizontal stabilizer not quite at the top of the fin). 

The Dash-8 has a T-tail unit. 

The ATR-42 has two landing pods protruding on each low side of the fuselage containing the main landing gear. 

The Dash-8's main landing gear is distinctive with its long leg between the motor housing. 

The ATR-42 has a relatively remarquable tail cone that is distinctive when seen in profile. 

In this exemple, we can see that all the aircraft caracteristics aren't needed for a basic recognition.  Be aware that you will rarely have enough time to note every detail.  Recognition of an airplane type commes with practice.  Remember your first encounter with some individuals.  First you remember the color of their hair but not the shape of the nose for instance.  Then, as you see that person on a regular basis, you can tell it's him just by the way he walks. 

The example above with the Dash-8 and the ATR-42 commes from a very short stay (little more than an hour) at the end of the runway of Montreal International Airport in Dorval.  At this site, at least a dozen of these planes land within that period of time.  It vecomes easy to roughly identify at first and then refining the observations, formely identify these planes. 

(Since the last revision of this text in 2000, the ATR-42 has becomed a rare sight in Montréal skies.  But a look-alike could be observed in summer of 2001, the Dornier 328) [no longer at YUL in 2004]

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