Aviation has fascinated me since I was a boy. For over 50 years I’ve been keeping notes, and for the past 25 years I’ve shared them on this website. So the mission of this site is simple:

to share my logs and my lifelong passion for aviation and plane spotting

These logs give a picture of the technical and economic developments in flying — from small light aircraft to the largest giants, and from modest airfields to major airports. [1] At the same time, security and privacy rules have made plane spotting a more difficult, sometimes even risky hobby.

Drones are rapidly becoming real alternatives to traditional aircraft. And I’m still figuring out my criteria for logging them. For now, I’ll include them based on size, whether they can carry people, or if they are versions of existing aircraft, like the Pipistrel.

My logs try to capture the aircraft movements I see during visits to airfields and airports. In the early years that often meant long waits for something interesting to happen, with no prior information available.

These days, since taking photos has become so cheap, nearly all my logs are based on my own pictures. So all images on this website are mine, mainly for identification. So the quality is sometimes poor — because of weather, fences, windows, or that one time my film roll got stuck just as a Constellation was landing. [2]

Growing into a Hobby

As a boy living near Zestienhoven (EHRD), now Rotterdam The Hague Airport, cycling there was one of my favourite pastimes in the 1960s and early 1970s. I still vividly remember the BAF Carvairs [3] — converted DC-4s with their striking swept-back nose — and the so-called “bollenvluchten”, spring charters from the UK full of people coming to see the Dutch flower fields.

A special memory is my little brother’s excited shouts when we first spotted a Pan Am Jumbo Jet on a bus trip to Schiphol. The aircrew at the back of the bus couldn’t stop laughing at us. Nowadays Jumbos no longer carry passengers, only freight.

During school holidays I often went to Zestienhoven with my friends Luuc and Harry. Luuc’s logs from 1973 [4] mark the real start of my spotting days, and by the end of that summer I started noting aircraft myself. From school and the swimming pool I could often see low-flying inbound aircraft for Zestienhoven, like the Carvairs. Many times I stared out the classroom window, wishing I could grab my bike and chase them. Which sometimes succeeded... [5]

Pictures

In May 1974 I took my first pictures with my grandmother’s pocket camera. Despite the modest quality, I still cherish those early shots of a DC-4 and a Caravelle. [6]

That same summer, with money from my first holiday job, I bought a Ricoh reflex camera. From autumn 1975 [7] I switched to slide film and bought a telephoto lens, though it was too expensive to photograph everything.

Since then — apart from a few "spot-less" periods — I’ve never stopped spotting. And since 2001 I’ve been publishing everything on this ever-growing website. Though technical problems with PHP, and later bots overloading the database, have sometimes made much of the site temporarily unavailable. At one point the database was even blocked by the web host.

I also try to trace the history and fate of the aircraft I log, as well as flight details like destination and origin. Which has become much easier thanks to internet resources.

Final note

Please note that publishing these listings does not mean access to airfields is always allowed, nor that photography is permitted. Always check the local rules beforehand. Many countries heavily restrict plane spotting, especially for security reasons.

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