AIBU?
Going to the airport and not getting a flight is strange
ExtraPineappleExtraHam · 08/07/2017 10:14
My in laws and bro in laws regularly go to the airport to watch planes take off and land. I rang them this morning to see if they had any plans that we could tag along with and this was the plan.
I have a friend who does the same but she has two 3 year olds who are obsessed with planes. I get that. I don't get two people in their fifties and two men in their twenties doing it on a sunny Saturday when the airport is 45 mins drive away. Last time they asked me I said 'I think I'd feel sad going there and not actually going on holiday.' This takes me to the strangest part, none of them have ever flown or would ever consider flying, or so they say.
Each to their own I guess.
NicolasFlamel · 08/07/2017 10:18
I thought it was a pretty common thing. We live about 30 minutes from Luton Airport and people park up along the fence to watch the landing and take off. It's always busy there. Some of the blokes have radios and stuff and seem quite serious about it. I used to go with my mum a lot, it's quite relaxing 
Decaffstilltastesweird · 08/07/2017 10:27
I don't think it's strange. Well, no stranger than any other hobby I'm not particularly interested in. Stamp collecting, knitting, birdwatching, genealogy. Meh. I don't do any of those things, but I don't think anyone else is strange for doing them.
.Evangelinda · 08/07/2017 10:36
40 years ago at Manchester you could watch the planes from the roof of one of the wings that has all the departure gates on it so you could see all the people getting on the plane and watch it fly off - it was so glamorous and exciting that people were jetting to exotic places. That was a standard holiday day out for us as kids, with a picnic, baking in the sun on the concrete roof.
Ee, them were't days....
illegitimateMortificadospawn · 08/07/2017 10:37
I have a good friend in Germany and her teenage nephew and his best friend got a domestic flight from her home town to Frankfurt so they could visit the viewing gallery at Frankfurt airport - apparently it was far superior to their home airport's gallery. Different strokes for different folks, I guess.
OvariesBeforeBrovaries · 08/07/2017 10:41
I thought I was the only one who did this 
we made a detour on our way back from Cardiff last year to sit outside the perimeter fence at Cardiff airport and watch planes landing and taking off. I'm a bit of a geek for commercial planes plus I love to imagine where the people on board might be going, what they might be doing etc
BlackbirdSingsInTheDeadOfNight · 08/07/2017 10:44
This is a very reassuring thread. We used to go on family holidays to Jersey every year and my dad would insist on spending half the holiday parked outside the airport fence, watching the planes. The rest of us thought this was a distinctly odd thing to do. Finally I see that apparently it's actually normal!
AspieZilla · 08/07/2017 10:45
Manchester has a place for it. It's all fenced off near the runways and has a kids play area, cafe, shop and tour.
book.manchesterairport.co.uk/manweb.nsf/Content/ConcordeViewingPark
To comment on this thread you need to create a Mumsnet account.