megatop412
2014-02-16, 07:56 PM
Many of you know of my previous spotting fails. What kind of person would I be if I let this long cold winter pass without recounting my latest episode.
Last Sunday I noticed the United Retrojet was going through LGA and would be departing about 1pm. Conveniently, I would be leaving back to Philly around that time. A short hop up the Grand Central and I parked next to Planeview Park, getting there early for once. The light was nice, the sun gently diffused by a thin altocumulus. I sat there and watched them line up to depart off Runway 4 for about an hour. I took some test shots and decided I would get a fine shot of it on the ground as it rolled by the fence to line up. Suddenly, way off in the distance, a plane crossed from right to left. Then another. When a third jet crossed over Runway 4, I called ATIS, and sure enough they were switching to 13 takeoffs. The time was about 10 minutes till departure. Not to worry, I had handled this sort of thing @JFK and apparently they must have told the folks at LaGuardia who I was. I hurried myself over to the Marina, plowing through a slush and ice-covered entrance and parking lot. Within two minutes, United appeared just as his mains broke contact with the pavement.
The limo drivers hanging out in the lot must have thought I was a crazy person, first shouting "Yes! Yes! Yes!" then suddenly "No...Nooo...Nooooooo!" as the wild card factor, the dang pilot, came into play. In a move I have only occasionally seen at that location, he began his right turn right after passing over the breakwater at the end of 13. What would have been a perfect shot became the insult to all aviation shooters, the unflattering belly shot.
And of course, by this time, the light had now turned to utter crap. This was the best of the bunch.
http://media502.dropshots.com/photos/476411/20140216/b_172304.jpg
We have an awful lot in common with fishermen, don't we. I had done everything right, and yet the one variable at the end, the fish, had its way with me.
Until we meet again, N475UA...
Last Sunday I noticed the United Retrojet was going through LGA and would be departing about 1pm. Conveniently, I would be leaving back to Philly around that time. A short hop up the Grand Central and I parked next to Planeview Park, getting there early for once. The light was nice, the sun gently diffused by a thin altocumulus. I sat there and watched them line up to depart off Runway 4 for about an hour. I took some test shots and decided I would get a fine shot of it on the ground as it rolled by the fence to line up. Suddenly, way off in the distance, a plane crossed from right to left. Then another. When a third jet crossed over Runway 4, I called ATIS, and sure enough they were switching to 13 takeoffs. The time was about 10 minutes till departure. Not to worry, I had handled this sort of thing @JFK and apparently they must have told the folks at LaGuardia who I was. I hurried myself over to the Marina, plowing through a slush and ice-covered entrance and parking lot. Within two minutes, United appeared just as his mains broke contact with the pavement.
The limo drivers hanging out in the lot must have thought I was a crazy person, first shouting "Yes! Yes! Yes!" then suddenly "No...Nooo...Nooooooo!" as the wild card factor, the dang pilot, came into play. In a move I have only occasionally seen at that location, he began his right turn right after passing over the breakwater at the end of 13. What would have been a perfect shot became the insult to all aviation shooters, the unflattering belly shot.
And of course, by this time, the light had now turned to utter crap. This was the best of the bunch.
http://media502.dropshots.com/photos/476411/20140216/b_172304.jpg
We have an awful lot in common with fishermen, don't we. I had done everything right, and yet the one variable at the end, the fish, had its way with me.
Until we meet again, N475UA...