Barcelona BCN Spotting Saturday-July 27

[Iberia A340-600]

Gordon Father and I spent the day out at BCN for some exciting plane spotting. Contrary to past experiences at the airport, runway 07 was in use, which meant that the very convenient spotters terrace/park could not be used. Luckily there is a decent spot at the end of the departures deck of Terminal 1 with an overview of runway 07L arrivals and the active taxiway to runway 07R departures for aircraft using Terminal 2 - aka all of the charter airlines. We also had to contend with some rather hazy and cloudy weather throughout the day but the array of rare catches made up for it. Unfortunately there is a lack of Russian aircraft as most carriers have started using secondhand western models.

We move back to NY from Madrid this coming Friday so I will certainly be catching up on some long needed JFK spotting. :)

Enjoy! (full set here - left out some common NYC visitors: http://www.flickr.com/photos/79883547@N04/sets/72157634830887640/)

http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3741/9382479357_6f7784fcff_c.jpg

http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5505/9382481135_d437dc12a7_c.jpg

http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3747/9385264542_9d7dcb4daf_c.jpg

The aircraft that brought me to BCN:
http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2822/9385266250_ed447b9419_c.jpg

http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5444/9385266846_587c187e2a_c.jpg

http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2832/9382489241_f32cb20322_c.jpg

http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5529/9382490545_e4aba782b1_c.jpg

http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2832/9385273982_b8d705a538_c.jpg

http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5508/9382493445_a23ceaf8ac_c.jpg

http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3688/9382495163_4915aa8fe2_c.jpg

http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3703/9385278018_c2e986d581_c.jpg

My favorite livery of the day:
http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3760/9382498545_9ddf628e7b_c.jpg

http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2858/9385281886_cc7de90b56_c.jpg

They bring in the 787 on Fridays:
http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3771/9385283848_a318291420_c.jpg

http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5463/9385285328_611275ed90_c.jpg

http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3774/9385288268_f01120c0c8_c.jpg

http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5346/9385290550_599ce68b48_c.jpg
http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3688/9385291936_69cfa3804e_c.jpg

http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3769/9382511455_ae1794c069_c.jpg

Describes the day perfectly - one in, one out:
http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2826/9385294904_a993ac4a19_c.jpg

http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2844/9385295842_8c4f0c502c_c.jpg\

http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3679/9385297210_69a78d6947_c.jpg

http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5448/9382516613_f2603d35be_c.jpg

http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2822/9382517229_705b5c7af5_c.jpg

[Delta777LR]

That Windrose shot is nice!!

[JZ]

Great variety of catches. Is there some special occasion for all the Russian flights?

[Iberia A340-600]

Wind Rose is taking delivery of an A330-200 shortly, maybe we'll see it at JFK one day!

JZ - Saturday's during the summer are notorious for a copious amount of Russian tourists. Not entirely sure why but I imagine it has to do with week long tour packages, etc.

[Zee71]

Wow....what a fantastic variety! Thanks for sharing

[Smoketrails]

Some nice shots. Shame the weather wasn't great, but BCN does tend to have this nasty habit of being very hazy with a white glow kind of thing... I'm off to Antalya in Turkey in a couple of weeks, the true Russian 'heaven'.

And is that a UAE Air Force C17 I can see in one the shots?

[Iberia A340-600]

It's actually an Indian Air Force C-17, pretty rare visitor. There were people in and out of the a/c all day so I was really hoping it was going to depart but sadly it never did.

I spotted at AYT a few years back, absolute Russian heaven. Shame there aren't any IL-86's around anymore - there were about 4 or 5 that came in when I was there.

[Smoketrails]

Wow, Indian C-17! That would have driven me nuts...just seeing it sit there with activity round it and not moving.

Yeah, the IL-86 era is one of the past. AFL still operate the IL96 and Tatarstan still use a couple of T154's, so they will be good to get. AYT is always good for some nice surprises though.