Memphis spotting??

[steve1840]

Not sure if anyone on here has experienced spotting in Memphis or not. I will be heading to Memphis in September and plan on squeezing in a little bit of spotting prior to going to the airport to come back home.

I guess my question to anyone who has spotting there before is, first of all, is it spotter friendly? Also, does FedEx primarily use the east-west runway directly in front of their facility or mix in with the rest of the traffic on whatever runways are active?

If anyone has been there before and could answer these questions I would really appreciate it. Also, feel free to share any good spotting locations for KMEM.

Thanks,

[user47]

Hi Steve: Memphis I'm told does have an official spotting area but I've never been to it. Instead I try to spot out of the back parking lot of the regency hotel. If you visit the parking lot on any late afternoon but Sunday you will see over half of the FedEx fleet of heavies taxi no more than 100 feet from you. Sometimes you're able to spot uninterrupted other times not so much. I was there just last month and was run off by airport police. He said I was on airport property but when I (politely) challenged him he called his commanding officer who confirmed that if I had permission from the hotel I and had pre-informed the airport police it would not have been a problem. They call planespotters "wing-watchers". Anyway, it's one of THE BEST spotting spots in north america if you ask me. The hotel is pretty bad, but a night of roughing it is certainly worth it.