This last week has very much been about planes, trains and automobiles. Today’s post covers the former of that triumvirate.
There is something fascinating (to me) about transport and as far as I am concerned, the bigger the better. So an opportunity to see some of the largest planes up close and in action was not one to miss.
Runway 27L
Living close to Heathrow, we see plenty of planes passing overhead, and, occasionally, they are sent out here in a holding pattern before being allowed to land. However, they are high up and not really a nuisance. You cannot say the same for the planes above Myrtle Avenue in Hounslow which is right at the end of runway 27L and the planes come in close and often.
Myrtle Close’s position does make a great place to see planes coming in to land but living under the Heathrow flight path can’t be much fun as they are coming in to land every 2-3 minutes during the day. To make life a little more bearable for residents Heathrow have what is called the Runway Alternation Schedule which pretty much does what it says on the tin. The runway in-use is rotated on a regular basis and you can check in advance on the Heathrow Runways Twitter.
If you are thinking of visiting Myrtle Avenue make sure you check the runway schedule because if the planes aren’t landing on 27L you won’t see anything.
What you will see
It’s pretty straight forward to get to Hounslow but there’s not a great deal of parking in the area. You might get lucky and find a space or you might not. To ensure that I didn’t make the trip and then find I couldn’t park I booked a space on someone’s drive via JustPark. This was just a five minute walk away and a good sized space too.
In terms of what you will see there will be people, landing planes and Concorde. There were about 20 people on the day I visited mostly set-up for taking pictures and not moving from their spots. I walked around the small green and then along the road that separates the green and the airport itself. If you walk along the road you can stand directly underneath the flights and get a great view of the planes coming in. There is also a BP garage just a short distance up the road which has toilets and snacks.
If you want a good idea of what planes you are going to see then I recommend FlightRadar24 which shows all the planes coming in and if you click on one it will give you details of what type of plane it is, the carrier and where it has come from. The size of the plane icon also reflects the size of the incoming plane. Look out for something like an Airbus A380. FlightRadar24 has both a website and apps.
If you look across the road to the airport you can also see Concorde G-BOAB, which has been preserved at the airport since its last flight to Heathrow in 2000.
It was a fun trip out but, not being a plane spotter that needs to record identifiers, not something that I can imagine doing again and I really wouldn’t like to be a living in one of the houses below the flight path.
