As we promised, we bring you the second part of the report from our trip to Munich. In the first part, we introduced Qatar Airways Airbus A350-900, which was actually the initial impetus for our expedition. The invite was set for Saturday, October 29, 2016. However, we decided to spend the entire weekend at this airport on this occasion. Once we have been checking the way with three cars from Slovakia and one aircraft from Belgium here, so let us enjoy it. We were gathered in Munich 13 members.
Day 1 (Saturday)
It is 8:00 in the morning and we desperately step on the Spotter Hill at the southern runway. Fog and drizzle. Visibility is desperate. Milos set up folding chairs with a picnic. Martin vanished from a couple of pipes, and cast it in the middle of a table. We debuted as a movie crew there. Zuzana provided catering. The view of the airport is … gray. Large lenses are sadly wound on the chests. Nobody speaks aloud, but everyone thinks. We took it. Actually, one started to speak. Milos gave me a complete “roast”. Since I have assured myself of the good weather for all the two weeks before leaving, I deserved to be stoned. I dared to refer to the predictions of guessing ten different weather servers, it did not help me. I was angry myself. Initial disappointment has replaced resignation and first attempts to shoot something. I did not even get the list of arrivals on paper. B777 United, A330 Air Europa, B747 Thai Airways, all nice in front of us, sit on the southern runway as one plane after the other. The shutters click, I do not even look at the display. The ghastly atmosphere disturbed the ringing of my cellphone. Martina just got out of the plane and needs a pickup. So we chose to pick Miloš’s car to the terminal. By car, we can see the airport and the surrounding area, and it is now our impression that this air port is unique.
Airport has two parallel tracks 08L-26R and 08R-26L. The terminals are located between the runways and the airport can be crossed by car “over center”, ie along the runway. It’s amazing. You go to the terminal towards the terminal and on the right side of the parking plane just next to the road behind the fence, on the left side you are driving the raft with the flying plane to take off. And literally. We enjoyed going at about the same speed in parallel with the flying plane. We picked Martina and returned to the southern run on the hill. And it’s a great hill. You conveniently park the car straight next to it. At its peak, the metal stairs lead, although in the dry weather, quite slippery but solid and purposeful. There is also a trash bin. The hill is tall enough to provide a perfect view of the southern runway and the stands in front of the terminals. Excellent view of the tower and hangar of Lufthansa Technik.
Before the dinner, we decided to go to bed. The Holiday Inn Express, which has reserved rooms, is almost flat on the southern runway line on the east side of the airport and is just 2 km from the Spotter Hill. For the whole weekend, airplanes landed from the east and so on our hotel. The Threshold of the 26L was just a few hundred meters from the hotel’s parking lot, so we ran out every minute with the camera in hand. Martin and we had probably the best room in the hotel. It was on the first floor in the north wing of the building, and under the windows outside, a similar terraced building allowed to climb out the window and take the aircraft straight above the heads. The terrace was also a roof of the ground floor but the roof definitely did not look. And not even a terrace. It was full of high grass, lush flowers and even colonies of some mushrooms. The shapes and shapes reminded a little of those hallucinogenic types but we did not try anything. We took our trip really seriously.
From the first footage of this terrace, Martin’s words of enthusiasm and wonder were heard. There was a powerful lens on our camera that Canon lent us for a trip. Specifically, it was a Canon 100-400L f4.5-5.6 mk2 lens. Martin made really great shots with him during the weekend, and he had been bouncing around him all the time. Later, he began to talk about love, but we’d rather have a reserve. And that was not the only thing they made available to us. We paused for a while and photographed airplanes strolling through low clouds and rain, leaving behind the long ribbons of water and wild air.
After testing the lens, the time has come to move to the terminal. We went to see the Airbus A350 Qatar Aircraft, which we described in the first part of our story. This airplane we went through the inside first, then the bell, and we tried other components borrowed by Canon. Juro and Filip tested Canon 7D Mark II and another Canon EF24-70 4L lens. The results are really sensational. You see this in our photos. During the aircraft glance, a guy who we have only known virtually through the web and social networks has suddenly come to us. It was Radim. We finally met him alive. He lives in Munich and works at this airport. We agreed with him to stop at the hotel in the evening. He took a group shot before the plane and then disappeared in the airport’s bowels.
We left the area and chose the Besucherpark. It is a small airport complex, located between the T1 terminal and the northern runway. There is a model shop and air souvenir shop. Behind it the turf and three historic aircrafts: L-1049G Super Constellation, Douglas C-47 Skytrain and Junkers Ju-52. There are also children’s toys and a miniature tower in Munich. The dominant feature of the park is the high grassy pyramid, which serves as a sightseeing tower or hill for photographers. The view from it is on the northern runway, the slopes and the area in front of the T1 terminal. There is also a southern runway, which is not enough for any lens. But for our borrowed telephoto lens it was totally cool. From this place, we tested another Canon toy. Small handy 12×36 IS telescope. Great thing. The weather has waxed during the Airbus Qatar Tour and the low early evening sun has been lit. We looked around, we rode and with the sunset we went to the hotel. After dinner, we had a member meeting. We were already complete because Ada came too. Radim also joined us, whom we agreed to be visit by the best photo spots of the airport on Sunday.
In the background, the Spotter Pyramid, which is part of the Besucherpark
Day 2 (Sunday)
I woke up in the morning by huge noise. I fired from the bed to the window. Airplanes flown again from the east and vibrated throughout the hotel. The sky was obscured but the visibility did not seem to be as bad as on Saturday morning. Martin got up too, so we climbed through the window out and photographed airplanes drawing long lines behind. Then we got together with the other mines at breakfast. While we were eating, many more went out when the flightradar reported a widebodies and we made tons of photos. Ivan filmed. I do not know whether we looked like fools, but it is quite possible that hotel staff are used to similar habits.
After breakfast we went to our famous southern hill. The sun broke and he glimpsed a beautiful day. Part of our trip has decided to visit the city of Munich, and we, photographers, have stayed around the airport. Our fellow Davids from Tatras were separated and moved separately, which was fine. That way, we were splitting multiple places at the same time, and so we probably did not miss anything at all.
We remained with Martin and Milos as three musketeers, only a fourth was missing. He came after us on the hill. It was Radim. As it turned out, his presence was more than welcome to us. He had an overview of what, when, and where to land and how to get to the most interesting spots. We took off our exhausted Airbus A340-600 Mahan Air, and on Radim’s instructions we moved to one of the parking camps, where two ex-boeing 737 Thai kingdoms were photographed. They were not in the ideal light, but it was really the only way to get them. Then we moved to the northern runway 26R. There is a large water tank here, but it was free of water during our presence. It is separated from the airport by a high dam, which serves a great to photographers. There were about 20 local plane spotters. We made nice shots – we shot A320neo, B767 Delta, B777 United, B777 Air Canada, Icelandic B757 or A380 Emirates and many more. After a while we moved to Radim’s recommendation again on the southern hill. The light was amazing. It was probably a karmic reward for the weather of a sad Saturday. We shot nice shots of A350-900 Qatar – the same we spent Saturday afternoon. The A7-ALC registration can not be remembered after an amazing event. We have taken many pictures of everything possible. Martin constantly mounted Canon’s lens. I slowly felt like she was going to let go of the tear when he had to return it. Radim led us to a fine spot at the southern runway fence where we picked the ladders for the first time. The mood was great and we were amused and smirking. Milos and Martin have shown creativity in composing moments and have not given up talent for making funny spots. Finally, we returned to the southern hill and waited for the return of the other members of the expedition. Timing was exemplary. We wanted to take the departure of B747 Thai Airways before we left the Munich airport, which we managed about 3 minutes before the arrival of the others. It was the perfect spot for a great weekend.
We are pleased to go home. Airplane enthusiasts, however, are not even at the gas station behind the airport where we stopped buying a drinking regime. While Milos and Ivan were buying with their half, I was still flying from the parking lot of the aircraft on the northern runway. This OMV pump is located a short distance from the dyke. On the way to the home in the car I turn on the camera, I want to go through the embedded material on the display. The last photo shows 1000/1000. Can this happen? Exactly one thousand drops in my camera. I do not even want to know how many photos we all have together. I guess the number will be closer to 10,000.
Text: Niki Kapsamunov
The results of our photographers
Enough readings. Now there is a lot of pictures of our members who speak for themselves. Whatever you like, here are the results:
Synthetic Saturday morning on the southern hill. Airliners.sk, o.z. in action. (Photo by Martin Susi and David Dolinay)
Shooting in the rain and fog, but for documentation important shots (Photo Martin Susi)
Early shots from the photo hill in Besucherpark (Photo by Martin Susi and Niki Kapsamunov)
Historical airplanes exhibited at Besucherpark (Photo by Niki Kapsamunov)
Attractive Besucherpark (Photo by Niki Kapsamunov)
Sunday attracted us with beautiful autumn weather (Photo Niki Kapsamunov)
Images taken with an amazing Canon lens 100-400L f4.5-5.6 mk2 (Photo by Martin Susi)
“Spotterfriendly airport” (Foto David Dolinay)
Finally, we’d like to thank Canon for renting great equipment. We tested all components in Spotter Reality and all worked like charm. Special thanks to Radim for a great escort during transfers around the airport. Without him, we would lose a few great pieces. Soon we will bring you further reports from the European airports that we plan to visit.
