Tu-154 in IAD, June 22

I happened to be near DC and went to catch the LH 748 and hoping 1R was in used to catch the evening departure. But I was quite disappointed as 19s were in use, and the heat haze was terrible. Finally to add insult to injury, their sent the LH 748 and KL 744 both to 19C. The only saving grace was an unexpected catch of Tu-154 from the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center. It parked among the much smaller corp. jets after landing.

I didn't want to give up and I went again when the 748 departed and shot from the walk way between Daily Garage 2 and the Terminal. At the end, I got what I wanted.

Based on this one-off experience, I'd say spotting at IAD is harder than JFK. At JFK, no matter which runway is in use, no matter what time of the day, there is always a location one can go to. For IAD, there is no way to shoot 19C/1C in the afternoon, unless the locals know some secret location.

http://ic2.pbase.com/o9/20/440020/1/...HO.42Tu154.jpg

http://ic2.pbase.com/o9/20/440020/1/...9v.43Tu154.jpg

http://ic2.pbase.com/o9/20/440020/1/...nL.70LH748.jpg

http://ic2.pbase.com/o9/20/440020/1/...27.72lh748.jpg

That TU154 is a heck of a catch...first time ive ever seen it.

Yes consulting with the locals would have helped you a lot. When 19s are in use there is no way to predict who is going where so what I usually do is park in between 19L and 19C since there is no spotting location while monitoring final approach. Then when I hear something I want to contact tower and they do, I drive closer, shoot and come back. If you don't have a scanner what happened to you is what's going to happen. I've stopped relying on liveatc after I got screwed one time because liveatc is just only good as long as the person providing the feed PC is up and running.

MSN007: what you do is really impressive. As I was just there for a few hours, I just tried my luck.

Awesome catch!

I have to be honest, I wouldn't even care about not catching the LH 748 after seeing and/or getting a pic of the Tu-154. And a cosmonaut training (?) aircraft at that. I'm quite jealous.

Idlewild: you are right. The Tu-154 is a rare catch. My disappointment was partly due to not catching the 748 in flight, but more at the extensive heat haze and the frustration at not being able to get anything landing in 19C due to the light condition...