The 'hunters' of planes

When he heard that President Joe Biden was about to visit Vietnam, Quan immediately looked up information about US special flights to Noi Bai in the hope of capturing the most beautiful images of the aircraft possible.

Vu Hai Quan, from Hanoi, has long had a passion for taking photos of airplanes. People in the world of hunting for images and videos of airplanes call each other air spotters.

“Calling it an air spotter job is not correct, because almost all the air spotters I know have other jobs to make a living, but the passion for taking photos and filming airplanes can also bring in money,” Quan said.

Where there is an airport, there is an air spotter (Photo: Malay Mail)

Airplanes in Soviet pictorials

He said he has a chemical store in Thai Ha ( Hanoi ) and that is the main job and source of income for his family. "My wife and I work together, but my wife respects my passion for photography, so it's easier for me to travel here and there."

Quan said he has been fascinated by airplanes since he was a child. The images of TU-154, IL-76 or IL-86 in the Soviet Aeroflot magazine that his father brought home for him to see fascinated him since his school years. That passion grew until Quan learned that there was an activity in the world called air spotting or hunting for photos of airplanes.

Air spotting originated in the early 20th century, when airplanes began to be widely used. Initially, air spotting was done by soldiers, taking photos and filming to monitor the activities of enemy aircraft. After World War I, air spotting became a popular hobby, and many people began to track and record images of various types of aircraft.

“To be an air spotter, we need some basic tools, including binoculars, which help us see planes in flight more clearly,” Quan said.

An indispensable item for an air spotter is, of course, a camera. “Usually people will bring two cameras, one telephoto lens, one wide-angle lens,” said the 36-year-old air spotter.

In addition to binoculars and a camera, he always carries a notebook to record information about the aircraft, such as the type, registration number, and airline operating the aircraft.

To take photos and videos of airplanes, air spotters must study many concepts about airplanes and aviation.

“To become an air spotter, you must first understand how planes fly, the mechanisms of lift, gravity, drag, etc. Without understanding, you cannot know what is happening in front of you, what is worth recording, what is worth paying attention to,” said Tran Phi Long, an air spotter in Son Tra district, Da Nang.

According to Long, 28, air spotters need to acquire a lot of aviation knowledge in addition to passion. “They need to know the functions of flaps, rudders, tailfins, auxiliary power units (APUs), pitot tubes and many other things in an aircraft,” Long said.

Air spotters also need to understand English terms, the official language of the civil aviation industry, for example “ATC” is air traffic control, “touch down” is the moment the plane touches the runway, “go around” is to abort the landing and take off again, “touch and go” is the technique of military pilots, landing on the runway and then immediately accelerating to take off, “push back” is the practice of using a vehicle to push the plane back out of the parking space...

View of planes taking off and landing from a coffee shop in Da Nang (Photo: nguoidanang.vn)

With knowledge about aircraft and equipment, air spotters also need to know the "whereabouts" of the aircraft to "ambush". They need to know in advance the expected path of the aircraft, forecast the weather, and be present at observation points.

Plane hunters often use plane tracking sites such as spotterguide.net, flightaware.com or, popular among plane hunters in Vietnam, flightradar24.com. These sites often provide schedules, expected flight paths, and real-time plane locations.

“Every time there are visits from foreign heads of state or air shows, air spotters get very busy,” Long said. At that time, in addition to commercial aircraft, paparazzi have the opportunity to freely film and take pictures of private jets and giant military transport planes.

“What I enjoyed most was the opportunity to film the Boeing 747 Air Force One, the Marine One helicopter that served US President Donald Trump when he came to Hanoi to meet with North Korean President Kim Jong-un,” Long said.

With special flights carrying VIPs or chartered planes, private planes, there is no schedule information on regular plane tracking sites, so "hunters" have to use speculation based on information about events, weather, and sometimes even luck, to be able to "catch" images of special planes.

Image of a Vietnam Airlines Boeing 787 posted by Vietnamese air spotter on Jetphotos.net (Photo: Jetphotos.net)

"Intercepting" special flights

Tran Dang Khoa, an air spotter in Ha Dong, Hanoi, said that in early February, Hanoi experienced a dense fog that severely reduced visibility. Speculating that many planes would not be able to land at Noi Bai, Khoa went to Cat Bi airport, Hai Phong to “intercept” them.

He saw foreign planes landing here, which is quite rare. Although there was fog, the visibility at Cat Bi airport was better than Noi Bai and planes that could not land at Noi Bai would divert to Cat Bi.

Based on the plane tracking sites, Khoa knew that the destination of the Boeing 737s of Air Incheon, a Korean airline, was Noi Bai. Their presence at Cat Bi, according to Khoa, was a force majeure situation.

Anticipating that planes would have difficulty landing at Noi Bai, Khoa was present at the beginning of runway 07 of Cat Bi airport. That day, he filmed Air Incheon transport planes taking off from Cat Bi airport. “Seeing foreign planes at Cat Bi is like winning the lottery,” Khoa said.

Recently, two commercial aircraft from China arrived at Van Don International Airport to perform a demonstration flight. This event attracted the attention of aviation enthusiasts in general and air spotters in particular because these were the first two commercial aircraft manufactured by China, including an ARJ21 and a C919. Both aircraft were manufactured by COMAC (Civil Aircraft Corporation of China, headquartered in Shanghai).

Notably, this is the first time China has “introduced” the C919 to the international market. After performing at the Airshow 2024 event in Singapore, two Chinese aircraft arrived at Van Don International Airport, Quang Ninh Province for 4 days (from February 26 to February 29).

When the two planes arrived at Van Don, many Vietnamese air spotters were waiting to record them. The next journey of the two Chinese planes to Con Dao, Tan Son Nhat, and Da Nang was closely followed by paparazzi.

“Wherever there is an airport, there are air spotters,” Quan said. According to him, the aviation photography community in Vietnam is mainly concentrated in places with airports, especially the three major cities of Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City and Da Nang. “Perhaps, air spotters in Ho Chi Minh City are the most numerous,” Quan said.

According to him, the first reason is because this is a populous city, the economic locomotive of the country, with a large volume of air traffic. The second reason is because of the location of Tan Son Nhat airport. "The airport is located along the boundaries of Go Vap and Tan Binh districts, close to the center, so it is convenient for those who follow planes," Quan said.

Almost all aviation photographers know the addresses of cafes that specialize in serving airplane lovers, who like to watch planes take off and land on Nguyen Van Luong, Nguyen Van Cong, Nguyen Oanh streets in Go Vap district, Truong Son street, Tan Binh district, Ho Chi Minh City or cafes that watch planes on Truong Thi, Le Dai Hanh, Thi Sach, Dien Bien Phu streets in Da Nang, restaurants with views of planes at Noi Bai airport...

According to Quan, some air spotters pursue this activity just for passion, but there are also people who make money from filming and taking photos of aircraft. “Some people sell photos to photo or video trading websites, others post them on YouTube to ‘get’ views,” Quan said.

According to him, there are many websites that buy and sell photos/videos of aircraft in the world such as Jetphotos.com, Alamy, Shutterstock, iStockphoto... " I don't sell videos so I don't know, but photos usually range from 0.2 to 50 USD per download, depending on the popularity of the airline, the uniqueness of the aircraft, the quality of the photo or video", Quan said. He did not reveal how much money he earned from selling photos.

Truc Mai

Source: https://vtcnews.vn/nhung-nguoi-san-may-bay-ar873106.html