page_title: Aircraft spotting
section_title: Techniques
hierarchical_section_title: Aircraft spotting / Techniques
caption_attribution_description: English: Sign warning users of Maho Beach near Princess Juliana International Airport of jet blast hazard from arriving and departing aircraft. Italiano: Cartello posizionato sulla spiaggia di Maho Beach, presso l'Aeroporto Principessa Giuliana di Sint Maarten, per avvisare del pericolo derivante dall'essere investiti dal getto dei motori degli aerei.
context_page_description: Aircraft spotting or plane spotting is a hobby of tracking the movement of aircraft, which is often accomplished by photography. Besides monitoring aircraft, aircraft spotting enthusiasts also record information regarding airports, air traffic control communications and airline routes.
context_section_description: When spotting aircraft, observers generally notice the key attributes of an aircraft, such as a distinctive noise from its engine or the number of vapour trails it is leaving. Observers assess the size of the aircraft and the number, type and position of its engines.  Another distinctive attribute is the position of wings relative to the fuselage and the degree to which they are swept rearwards. The wings may be above the fuselage, below it, or fixed at midpoint. The number of wings indicates whether it is a monoplane, biplane or triplane. The position of the tailplane relative to the fin(s) and the shape of the fin are other attributes. The configuration of the landing gear can be distinctive, as well.
  Other features include the speed, cockpit placement, colour scheme or special equipment that changes the silhouette of the aircraft.  Taken together these traits will enable the identification of an aircraft. If the observer is familiar with the airfield being used by the aircraft and its normal traffic patterns, he or she is more likely to leap quickly to a decision about the aircraft's identity – they may have seen the same type of aircraft from the same angle many times. This is particularly prevalent if the aircraft spotter is spotting commercial aircraft, operated by airlines that have a limited fleet.  }
  Spotters use equipment such as ADS-B decoders to track the movements of aircraft. The two most famous devices used are the AirNav Systems RadarBox and Kinetic Avionics SBS series. Both of them read and process the radar data and show the movements on a computer screen. Another tool that spotters can use are apps such as FlightRadar24 or Flightaware, where they can look at arrival and departure schedules and track the location of aircraft that have their transponder on. Most of the decoders also allow the exporting of logs from a certain route or airport.
caption: Warning sign at Maho Beach for runway 10 approach to Princess Juliana International Airport. Numerous observers have been injured or even killed after being blown into solid objects by jet blast following attempts at 'riding' the airport fence.
exif: {}