You are at netAirspace : Forum : Spotting and Photography Forums : Spotting Guides

Indianapolis - KIND

Information on world-wide spotting locations, links and contacts.
 

vikkyvik 20 Mar 18, 02:00Post
I'm in Indy for the next couple days, staying right near the airport, and should have some time tomorrow evening.

Anyone spotted here before? Any good locations? Anything interesting come in here?

Thanks much.
Allstarflyer (Database Editor & Founding Member) 20 Mar 18, 02:32Post
On the east side of the airport, around Sam Jones Rd, where the old terminal is, there's some areas around there that would be excellent, IMO. Arrivals galore right over that area. Not sure where exactly one could go, though - the old Crowne Plaza off High School Rd and Sam Jones Rd, those hotels right there. There's gotta be something available, I just never took much opportunity to find a good place for such.

Not sure how the airport would feel about such, but on top of the parking garage across from the new/main terminal, the runways are parallel to it and the airport entrance/exit (which I'm sure you saw on your way out of the airport), plenty of opportunities to watch takeoffs. But, like said, not sure how the airport people are about spotting. I'm usually more or less the type that would ask until I made sure it's ok wherever it is, so I dunno.

There's the rare bird that interests me every so often - don't remember seeing Virgin fly in there prior to about a week ago.

The place I'd want to go is Eagle Creek airport going north on 465 about 7-8 miles away. That's where some private aircraft assemble - especially before race day in a couple of months. I think I went in there several years ago asking and got shrugged off, can't remember too well. I think I figured they thought it odd for asking to take pics of aircraft.

Might as well get yourself some St. Elmo's if you get downtown, I hear the shrimp cocktail is world famous if that interests you. It's Indiana's crown jewel for a steakhouse. The sauce is sold locally, as is the rub (pretty good).

Frankly, the best spot in the city to go spotting, period, if it could be done, would be on the south end of downtown facing north, just off I-70 looking towards Lucas Oil Stadium. Aircraft on approach are visible enough coming in close enough to downtown.

Kinda boring perhaps, but the stuff that interests me around here are the life flight choppers - I think I've caught 2 or 3 on my phone camera, but not really the best shots. Good luck if you can snap some pics.
vikkyvik 20 Mar 18, 23:04Post
Thanks for the info.

It's cold, windy, and lightly snowing, so I ended up just shooting a few aircraft from out the car window from the Crown Plaza. Unfortunately I missed the apparent FedEx evening rush - saw 3 or 4 of them taking off from my hotel before I got out there.

Overall, I only saw about 10 aircraft over an hour or so. I left after nothing departed for 15 minutes.

And now, back in my hotel room, I can hear them taking off again. {grumpy}

Thanks for the restaurant recommendations - probably won't get downtown, unfortunately.
Lucas (netAirspace ATC & Founding Member) 21 Mar 18, 06:35Post
It's a nice airport, especially if you are connecting thru IAD. :D

Good luck on spotting!
vikkyvik 22 Mar 18, 00:31Post
Met up with my uncle, who is also an airplane geek. We went and parked in the cellphone lot for a few minutes. There's a halfway decent view of airplanes approaching 5R from there. 6-foot chainlink fence though, so not good for photography.

Would also help if there were more than a couple airplanes moving. Ahhh, LAX, you spoil me.
ShanwickOceanic (netAirspace FAA) 22 Mar 18, 06:39Post
vikkyvik wrote:Would also help if there were more than a couple airplanes moving. Ahhh, LAX, you spoil me.

Come up to OUL some time... {mischief}
My friend and I applied for airline jobs in Australia, but they didn't Qantas.
Allstarflyer (Database Editor & Founding Member) 22 Mar 18, 15:20Post
That stinks, I didn't think of mentioning the airport website - I'm thinking that occasionally there can be a nice little cluster of arrivals - I'm guessing more towards night perhaps, though, when FedEx might be coming more through during the evening.
vikkyvik 23 Mar 18, 01:46Post
Allstarflyer wrote:That stinks, I didn't think of mentioning the airport website


Oh, don't worry about it. I looked up departures when I was spotting at the Crown Plaza. There were more listed than I saw, so not really sure - maybe delays due to the weather.

Got my first ever shots of airplanes while snowing, though, so that's cool. I'll link to some when I get them uploaded.
 

Who is online
Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 4 guests

LEFT

RIGHT
CONTENT