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As most airports, Frankfurt is in the middle of a gigantic motorway crossing. I already mentioned my “close encounter” with an Airbus on final approach which was perfectly lined-up with the A3 motorway. I got used to that now, but could still not make the perfect picture of it, mostly because I don’t like to drive 160 kilometers per hour and take photographs at the same time.

The A5 motorway, which has a North / South orientation also offers some possibilities, particularly on the short segment where it crosses the extended centerlines of runways 25 L/R at one kilometer of the thresholds only.

There is also a small road, the “Airport ring” that goes all around the airport, including a tunnel which goes below runway 18. I did not explored it… yet. I’m not turning into a spotter, but when there is a good opportunity, why not bring a good photo back ? This is exactly what happened last week-end. As the whole family was on the road to continue explore the region, Mrs. PlasticPilot took some good pictures of aircraft on short final.

Professional spotters would probably not found them of “top quality”, but remember that they’ve been taken from a moving car. It was not possible to stop and wait, so they’re pure opportunity photos. Given the particular perspectives they depict, I’m quite sure you’ll like them. Click on them to see the full-size version. Any comment is welcome.

Lufthansa on the bridge

Frankfurt Airport - 1000 m

An interesting perspective

In our troubled era, and even more since September 11th events, aviation is frequently linked to terrorism. Together with nuclear terror, light aviation has the potential to become a super Hollywood scenario.

I can imagine the scene from here… a long pan stopping on a nuclear power-plant, then a strong zoom, with a “Psycho”-like music, to make a tight frame on a plane rushing towards the reactor building ! Then a view from the plane, diving on the power-plant, while music get faster and louder… the suspense grows as far as the plane get closer.

Will a super-hero save the world ? Will an Air-Force ace shoot the small plane down ? Will a sniper seated one mile away kill the pilot ? As the plane get very close, the camera shows the how the kamikaze pilot smile as his plan gets closer to success.

At the very moment where the plane hits the reactor building… nothing happens. The light aircraft simply collapses against the super resistant reactor building. Pilot killed, power-plant undamaged, end of the story.

Not exactly the kind of super Hollywood ending… welcome to real life. Who could think that a light aircraft would damage buildings designed to resist earthquakes, tornadoes, and other large energy phenomenas ? Don’t you remember the Cessna 172 that crashed in a skyscraper in Tampa, in 2002 ?

The fuselage did not even actually entered the building, the wings fell to the ground, and there was not fire.

So imagine the same thing against an earthquake-resistant building. I won’t bet on the plane.

If that had to happen “for true”, the chances that the plane reaches the nuclear site are anyway rather low. The airspace surrounding sensitive stes is closely monitored, and interception aircraft (or helicopters if the target is so slow…) will be sent. Give how stressed military people are these days, any intruder would probably be shot down…

So please, dear Hollywood scenarists, find something else. Aviation don’t need such advertisements. Thank you.

Love and money don’t go together. This is particularly true for persons which are in the middle range of the money scale. This became obvious to me when I heard that a generous owner would have his personal high performance signle engine aircraft operated by a local aero-club. The man in question is in love with his plane - which I must admit is a very nice one.

Pilots have strong relations with the planes they fly, but for owners this is even stronger. I’m not criticizing that. However the idea of this plane’s owner was to lower the cost of ownership. He was not flying enough to get an interesting cost per hour for himself, so his goal was to leave club members fly with his plane… simply because he did not had a lot of money.

Things got complex because he had lot of love. To “protect” his beloved airplane, he started to define rules… many rules.

• Only pilots with more than 300 hours total time (ok, makes sense with a high performance complex plane)
• Pilots had to be “blessed” by one specific instructor - the owner did not trust all of them (well… this is not exactly the club spirit…)
• No training should take place in this aircraft except for familiarization (mmm, good way to reduce the average fuel flow, but is not a club also supposed to train its members ?)
• No legs of less than 40 minutes (here again, good way to reduce average fuel flow, but strong pressure on the pilots in case of unexpected problematic situation)

These rules certainly make sense from and owner point of view. It’s also true that some renter pilots don’t always care about plane as much as owners do. On the other hand, you can’t expect to use a club as a way to reduce cost without accepting club rules, and all the variety of pilots flying there.

My instructor once told me that the best way to make a small fortune in aviation is a large one… Don’t own a plane if you can’t afford it, or be ready to truely share it. The result of this particular story ? The deal has never been made.