Following on from my recent posts from Madrid, the cheapest flight I could find home was via Lisbon, which got me a day's spotting at a rarely featured airport.
After being treated to a fantastic view of the city on approach, I walked to the runway threshold, where one of the first aircraft to arrive was TAP A340 CS-TOB:-
CS-TOB by IndiaEcho Photography, on Flickr
My plan was to walk all the way round to the other side of the airport from where I understood good views across the runway could be obtained so, after a quarter of an hour's rest, I was on my way again. However, I soon found that it was impossible to get up close to the perimeter fence as a new road was being built - it was only after I arrived home I discovered that Portugal's financial problems had put the project on hold and so the locals merely climbed through the to get up to the perimeter. Not knowing this, I returned to my earlier spot, and the aircraft kept coming:-
CS-TPF by IndiaEcho Photography, on Flickr
TAP's long haul operation offers a large number of flights to a wide variety of destinations in Brazil. To maximise the 'hub' operation, most of these flights leave at around 1100 and the airline's wide bodied fleet made an impressive sight as it almost 'elephant walked' down to the active. Unfortunately, from where I was, although it was possible to see departures, they couldn't be photographed, meaning I had to make do with narrow bodied action:-
CS-TJF by IndiaEcho Photography, on Flickr
At about 1pm, a guy came walking by - he went over to some rubbish that had been dumped by the side of the motorway, helped himself to a bin liner that was full of something, and left behind a similar bin liner he had been carrying. It struck me that I hadn't seen anyone since I had been there. I was at an isolated spot in a pretty poor area, and so started to wonder if I should move somewehere else. After a few minutes, my mind was made up when the runway direction changed, effectively meaning I couldn't see anything, so I set off for an elevated spot that gave good views across the airfield.
This allowed me to log Lisbon's highlight - a TAAG Angola 777:-
D2-TEG by IndiaEcho Photography, on Flickr
SATA A310 CS-TGU was another welcome target for my camera:-
CS-TGU by IndiaEcho Photography, on Flickr
As the day wore on, though, the airport gradually became less and less busy, and with not all landing aircraft being visible from this point, and departures too far away for good photos, I decided to have a look round Lisbon. However, with them taking off over the city, a few photos could still be obtained:-
CS-TOD by IndiaEcho Photography, on Flickr
I hope the photos are of interest - more can be found at http://www.flickr.com/photos/indiaecho/
Regards,
Neil
