PHL?

[nikon50bigma]

Hey Guys,
Well my friend and I were thinking about taking a college road trip to Philly. We were planning on seeing USP - University of the Sciences. We were going to take off this Friday and spend the whole day down there. So I was thinking in between visiting the college and getting a Philly Cheesesteak maybe there will be some time for spotting.
I was looking at the weather channel and they predict "mostly cloudly".

Any tips on locations and where to spot?
What is it like down there-do you guys get bothered a lot?
How do you think the weather will play out for Friday; total washout w/ overcast?

[moose135]

Although I haven't had a chance to spot at PHL yet, I researched it here:
http://phlairline.com/

Excellent information, and Paul is a member here...

Use the "Spotter-Photo Map" link (on the left side menu bar) for a Google Map of the airport with all the best spotting locations highlighted and explained.

[flyboy 28]

I've never been hassled the dozen or so times I've spotted there, but I've heard a few more reports of Tinicum cops stopping spotters.

[nikon50bigma]

Thanks guys for the info.
Btw what is a "Tinicum Cop" - is that one of the counties around there?

[nikon50bigma]

I drove down there on Friday. I saw alot of US Airways and SWA planes coming and going. The lighting was realy dramatic in the late afternoon, night dark clouds in the background. I forgot to print out the google map from phlairline.com so I didn't do any spotting but just drove around a bit. I was by the US airways hangers on international highway but didn't stick around since I didn't know if that was an ok area.
Later on I went to check out USP. One of these days I'll go back down there, it seems like a great airport for spotting.

[Willit Run]

PHL is a great place to spot. The Police are pretty good about us being there as long as you stick to the map that Paul came up with on his site http://phlairline.com/. If you go down you don't want to park on the fence side of Hog Island Road. They will ask you to move. You said you were near the U S Airways maintenance center. You can stop and take some shots but, you don't want to be there long. They usually use the 27's so when you go down to the departing end you can park in the stone lot right after the UPS facility and what I usually do is walk down towards the radar tower to get some nice shots of the departures. I can't think of anything else but,if you have any questions just contact me and I try to answer them.

Cory

[runway27r]

Thanks guys for the info.
Btw what is a "Tinicum Cop" - is that one of the counties around there?

Looks I've been neglecting the NYC group, sorry guys & gals.
Tinicum is the township that most of PHL lies on. A couple weeks ago a couple of us were told to leave by a Tinicum cop, but we believe that they were having some kind of joint drill going on. As I was also approached by the Coast Guard and Highway Patrol, but not chased.

Things are pretty much back to normal it seems now.


Paul