Rarotonga Planepsotting

[ardypilot]

I'm going to Raro in the holidays, flying on the 777 of all aircraft, and was wondering about doing some planespotting there, as the title of this thread suggests. I googled the idea and found this:

For a bit of a thrill if you are waiting for a plane, a popular activity is to walk out of the airport (after checking in) and continue along the road, until you reach the part of the road that is perpendicular to the end of the runway. Stand here on the road and wait for your plane (or another jumbo jet) to come in. The huge plane comes in so low, it literally almost clips the fence you are standing right next to. Anyone who manages to withstand the urge to duck gets a prize (or their head chopped off!).

Sounds like St Maarten! Has anyone else been and done the same? Got any tips on where to stand, and what time the heavies arrive/depart?

[victor_alpha_charlie]

QUOTE (Trolly @ Apr 17 2008, 06:24 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I'm going to Raro in the holidays, flying on the 777 of all aircraft, and was wondering about doing some planespotting there, as the title of this thread suggests. I googled the idea and found this:

For a bit of a thrill if you are waiting for a plane, a popular activity is to walk out of the airport (after checking in) and continue along the road, until you reach the part of the road that is perpendicular to the end of the runway. Stand here on the road and wait for your plane (or another jumbo jet) to come in. The huge plane comes in so low, it literally almost clips the fence you are standing right next to. Anyone who manages to withstand the urge to duck gets a prize (or their head chopped off!).

Sounds like St Maarten! Has anyone else been and done the same? Got any tips on where to stand, and what time the heavies arrive/depart?

Love doing that at Malololailai in Fiji! A few differences though:
1) It's a (very) short dirt/gravle strip with beach immediately at each end
2) Only Twin Otters/Islanders regularly go there (about 10 flights a day, 10 mins from Nadi)
3) If you don't duck, you will get your head chopped off!

Enjoy your trip! Lots of pics please

[ardypilot]

QUOTE

Love doing that at Malololailai in Fiji![/quote]
Yeah I remember Keagan did that and posted pics somewhere on the forums here. Will post as many pics as my camera batteries allow

[Njbb1995]

QUOTE (victor_alpha_charlie @ Apr 17 2008, 06:28 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Love doing that at Malololailai in Fiji! A few differences though:
1) It's a (very) short dirt/gravle strip with beach immediately at each end
2) Only Twin Otters/Islanders regularly go there (about 10 flights a day, 10 mins from Nadi)
3) If you don't duck, you will get your head chopped off!

Enjoy your trip! Lots of pics please

Same here went for a family holiday there last year absolutly loved it

[chopper_nut]

Hey Andrew, please dont use the phrase "plane spotting" It brings up nasty images of old men in anoraks, wearing deer stalkers with a notebook collecting numbers and talking about how the 7:15 from 'wherever' is 5mins and 30sec late! The correct term is aviation photography.

[travnz]

LOL
Andrew basically it is like what is at the end of runway 34 at WN Picture HERE
But unlike WN, the road at the end isnt in a tunnel. You can just then walk around the fenceline.

[SA227]

Use to do it in Raro when I lived there but back it those days 99% of the flights arrived and left in the middle of the night.
I do have photo's of the one and only time Air NZ had 2 DC10's on the ground at the same time and also photo's of the very first 747-200 to fly through in daylight. I think every resident of Rarotonga came to the airport to watch it.
The seawall is about 40ft below the 08 threshold or the other option is to take the back road which runs parallel to the airfield and only 150m from the runway edge.

[ardypilot]

Sweet. Found this on youtube, looks like its going to be a good holiday:

QUOTE

please dont use the phrase "plane spotting" It brings up nasty images of old men in anoraks, wearing deer stalkers with a notebook collecting numbers and talking about how the 7:15 from 'wherever' is 5mins and 30sec late![/quote]
Haha, excuse my terminology. I know what you mean though- I've seen some people at NZAA that quite frankly scared me Without sounding too geeky then, can anyone tell me where I can find arrival times for NCRG? According to wiki, Air New Zealand, Air Rarotonga, Air Tahiti and Pacific Blue all serve the airport, and I'd like to know when’s the best time/day to go down there and snap some pics...

Last edited by ardypilot on Sun Apr 20, 2008 9:32 pm, edited 1 time in total.

[travnz]

Andrew
All Movements for the day are found in the Cook Island News, the daily newspaper. You will be hard pressed to get any PacBlue, they only go there in the wee small hours.

[ardypilot]

Cheers for that man

[Alex]

Another option for finding when aircraft are scheduled to arrive would be OAG. For Rarotonga, go to this page. Comes up with useful info. Only drawback is you need to enter in an airport/city code. You'll see how it works if you go there.

Alex