Tampa (TPA) vewing area

[SengaB]

Greetings,
I will be pasing through the Tampa area tomorrow to visit a friend in Venice, FL. Does anyone know if TPA has viewing parks? Is there anything worth stopping by for that is stored there?

Thanks,
Senga

[hiss srq]

The econo lot and the parking garage. Givem e a buzz while you are in the Sarasota County area I will give you places to head to.

[LGA777]

Senga, couple of TPA notes. Nothing stored their, and the parking garage and seperate long term parking offer great spotting. The problem is the traffic, I can't think of anything at TPA that is not at MCO. Lots of WN, DL, US, NK, NW, FL, B6 etc. The only thing I can think of that serves TPA but not MCO is the BA 777 ( LGW Based) and I think it only runs 3/4 days a week The locals seem to have hardly any problems with local law enforcement, a big plus.

Cheers

LGA777

[SengaB]

Thanks for the info :)
Yea I will decide of I stop off at TPA when I am actually in Tampa. Ill see if I feel like it then. If I do stop it will be for less that 1 hour just to see if there is anything interesting on the GA ramps or transient parking.

Thanks fore the offer hiss, I will let you know if I stop by.

Senga

[NYARTCCFAN]

Senga let me know if you are definetely going to do some spotting here. Maybe we can meet up at the Garage. My backyard is a semi-ok place especially with the birds taking off to the North from THE 36'S(some good views with the sun in the afternoon to the west illuminating the flights).

[nikon50bigma]

When I was down there the econo parking garage was pretty good. But the viewing area was pretty bad, it was surrounded by tress and support columns. There were a lot of smokers out there...
But that was how it was when I was there last April for the MacDill airshow.

[LGA777]

When I was down there the econo parking garage was pretty good. But the viewing area was pretty bad, it was surrounded by tress and support columns. There were a lot of smokers out there...
But that was how it was when I was there last April for the MacDill airshow.

That was not the viewing area but the roof area for the smokers to smoke.

The pretty awesome viewing area is the 6 level parking garage, floors 4-9, with views in all 4 directions. 360 degrees, here are a few random views.


[airlinerstp://www.airliners.net/open.file/0790835/L/[/airliners[airlinerstp://www.airliners.net/open.file/0326235/L/[/airliners[airlinerstp://www.airliners.net/open.file/1061758/L/[/airliners[airlinerstp://www.airliners.net/open.file/1148939/L/[/airliners[airlinerstp://www.airliners.net/open.file/1032099/L/[/airliners[airlinerstp://www.airliners.net/open.file/1090173/L/[/airlinersYou need a good lense for the runway but the ramp is fairly close. Just not a lot of super interesting traffic, both MCO and FLL have much more interesting traffic.

Cheers

LGA777

[hiss srq]

Those pics make me want to go home.

[SengaB]

Since this wasn't a spotting trip I decide to go straight to Venice, FL as I decided to maximize the time to spend with my friend. However we did take a quick drive to VNC and then SRQ. VNC has a Casa 212 unfortunately it wasn't shootable. The only 3 airliners I saw move at SRQ was DAL MD-82, GWY A320 and TRS 717. I did shoot the GWY just for SRQ documentation purposes.
Nice viewing area at SRQ unfortunately its on the backlit side of the airport.

Thank you all for the for the information about TPA.

[hiss srq]

Post more! Post more! I miss home!

[SengaB]

LOL Ryan I only took one pik :)
It didn't turn out too badly for a backlit shot.
Senga

[hiss srq]

Senga, next time CALL ME! I have three places you could have shot from that would not have been backlit. I would have sent you around the other side of the field. Thanks for a shot from the home front though. I need to go hammer SRQ for the day soon!

[SengaB]

Hi Just got back from Nassau,
No problem hiss, I thought about checking out the other side but it was getting close to sunset :(
It was a nice little airport.

Senga