Planning for an airport tour!

[bjornkeizers]

Hey gang,

September 15 I'm getting a great opportunity for a tour of our local airport. The 'Luchthaven Twente' located near my home town of Enschede, The Netherlands. The airport will be getting a redevelopment in the next few years, so the current owners are giving semi-public tours. I signed up for one immediately 😀

This particular airport is unique because it combined a military airfield with a commuter airport. Basically, you could see F16's lining up behind vacation charters. Most of their infrastructure like bunkers is still there.

Best thing yet: they even have a photo contest going to win a free flight. So photography is not only allowed, but encouraged. Which is great, considering the secrecy of the past. Heck, the field is still blurred out on Google Earth... So, I straight away ordered a 32 gigabyte SD card for my EOS 450D. I'll be taking at least a thousand pictures because of the unique opportunity. Will be packing the fisheye and the Nifty Fifty at a minimum. Probably the film EOS 5 as well, just to rattle off some great airplane slides.

So, here's hoping for a great trip. Anyone else did any airport tours that they might like to share?

 

[SausalitoDog]

wow... I sure wish all airports thought like that !!!

 

[Pablito]

I go out of my way to avoid airports. If only there were a way to avoid them entirely.

 

[bsdunek]

I like little airports. Don't know that you have any in your part of the world. Here we have little grass strips or small paved airports with no airline service. We just use our own airplanes to come and go. No 'control tower' or anything. Just like getting in your car and going. That's my kind of flying.

 

[bjornkeizers]

SausalitoDog: Agreed. IMO, most airports should have tours. I've been to a few, both small and large, but in a post 9/11 world getting good access is rare. Mind you, this is a commuter airport with small planes, no charters at the moment, so that's probably why they allow the tours now.

Pablito: Don't be silly. Pack a camera and some rolls and visit your local airport. I'm sure you'd have a blast doing people shots at the very least. 😀

bsdunek: We actually do have a few small airports with grass strips. Despite being a small country, there's plenty of space to put one's Cessna. This airport isn't a grass strip though. It has a giant 9.800 foot runway that was built to handle KC10 tanker aircraft of the Dutch Air Force. Pretty much everything can land there, and it's way more then what you need for small private aircraft. I last visited during an airshow, so this time I'll finally get the stand on the runway centerline. Looking forward to it.