How plane spotters' passion for aviation took off at Vancouver's airports - Action News
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How plane spotters' passion for aviation took off at Vancouver's airports

Plane spotters arehobbyists who enjoy watching and recording aircraft, with communities around the worldpostingphotos and videos online of planes and their unique features. Some have even turned their hobby into a career.

From war records to artistic photos and livestreams, plane spotting has grown into a thriving community

Tim Chang, 19, enjoys plane spotting at Vancouver International Airport. For him, photographing aircraft is an art form and a way to see details he wouldn't normally perceive. (Naoko Niimi)

Kenneth Swartz vividly remembers the first time a Boeing 747 plane landed at VancouverInternational Airport in 1971.

Thirteen years old and drenched from head to toe, Swartzhad trekked over five kilometres to watch the nearly 20 metre-tall jumbo jet rumble down the runway.

It was amoment he said forever marked him as a plane spotter.

"There are certain people who look up whenever they see or hear something in the sky," said Swartz, 64,who is now an aviation journalist.

"If you looked up when you were young, chances are you're still looking up when you're a senior. It's just the fascination of flight."

Plane spotters arehobbyists who enjoy watching and recording aircraft, with communities around the worldpostingphotos and videos online of planes and their unique features.

Some, like Swartz, have turned their hobby into a career.

Man stands in the center of a large grey archway, which is the Moffett Federal Airfield in California.
Kenneth Swartz is an aviation journalist with decades of experience. He credits his career in the aviation industry to the plane spotter hobby and community. (Mike Hirschberg)

Swartz saysB.C.'s Lower Mainlandhas a dedicated crowd who flock to YVR and the Harbour Flight Centre in Vancouver's Coal Harbour to see commercial jetliners, seaplanes, helicoptersand more.

The Facebook group "YVR Spotters" boasts over 5,000 members of all ages, whoshare vintage and recentphotos of aircraft and airports to marvel at details or discuss changes and hot topics.

Evolution of a hobby

Plane spotting in British Columbia started in the Second World War, whenthe military created the Aircraft Detection Corps to watch for enemy aircraft above Canadian shores.

Civilian volunteers along the West Coast were trained to be the first plane spotters,recording flight patterns and tail numbers for the military.

"There was big concern of a potential Japanese attack. So, some of the old timers I met were teenagers trained to identify different kinds of aircraft," said Swartz.

Plane spotting went from recording data to photography as aviation became commercialized in the decades after the war.

It's an evolution that Vancouver-born Henry Tenby, 58, has followed his whole life.

In 1999, he took the leap to make a career out of his hobby, startingan auctionsite for vintage photo slides. Hethen createdflight DVDsof planes landing and taking off, and now hosts a popular weeklylivestreamnear YVR'sSouth Terminal.

"My auction website and streaming services, they're the evolutions of my plane spotting hobby," he said.

Young man is standing on a barrel with a vintage camera at the Delta Airfield. There's a helicopter and air hangar in the background.
Kenneth Swartz has been plane spotting since the 1970s. He's pictured here at an airfield in Delta, B.C., in 1977. Decades later, Swartz still loves watching and photographing aircraft. (Brent Wallace)

Vancouver's appeal

Plane spotting has taken Tenby around the world, to places as inaccessibleas North Koreawhere he joined an aviation tour group forhis 50th birthday to see planes from the 1950s and 1960s that are still in use in the reclusive country.

But he thinks Vancouver's airports have their own special appeal.

"You get to see airplanes with beautiful mountains in the background, you get float planes[Vancouver has] a great mix," he said.

Two of his favourite spotting locations areat YVR:a viewing platform by the South Terminal opened in 2011, and the Larry Berg Flight Path Park near the end of the south runway, whichopened in 2013.

Christopher Richards, marketing manager with the Vancouver Airport Authority, says the areas were created for convenient, safe spotting.

"It's been a great success and sets us apart from other airports in North America, who maybe don't have dedicated plane spotting platforms," said Richards, who added the airport is eager to grow its relationship with the plane-spotting community.

"[Plane spotters]promote aviation in an organic and genuine way ... that's reflective of their energy and positivity around the industry," he said.

"It's just this really accessible, fun, wholesome, way to experience the magic of flight."

Yellow and white plane stands near an air hangar at YVR international airport. The plane was an agricultural plane mounted on floats for aerial firefighting.
In the early days of being a plane spotter, Kenneth Swartz was able to get access to hangars at Vancouver International Airport and see aircraft up close. In 1985, he took this picture of an Ayres S2R-600 Thrush, one of the first agricultural aircraft mounted on floats for aerial firefighting. (Kenneth Swartz/AirHistory.net)

New generation

For Tim Chang, 19, plane spotting is an art form that allows him to observe details he wouldn't normally see.

Visually impaired since birth, Chang can only perceive a blur of light withhis left eye.He sometimesrelies on other senses to spot incoming planes.

"I'll just pick up the colours, maybe just the white colour of the airplane, and I'll use my hearing and just get my ears to the direction where the airplane is," he said.

Chang discovered the hobby during the pandemic andit's inspired him to pursue a career in the aviation industry, despite the challenges of his visualimpairment.

He's set to start the aviation management and operationsprogram at the British Columbia Institute of Technology next fall.

Blue and white WestJet plane is mid-air taking off from YVR airport. In the background is the YVR Fairmont hotel and snowcapped mountains covered in clouds.
Tim Chang's photo of a 787-9 Dreamliner jet. Chang, like many other spotters, enjoys photographing at YVR to capture details of planes with the background of the area's dramatic natural surroundings. (Tim Chang)

Anyone interested in the hobby is recommendedto first check when flights are coming in through sites like Flightradar24.

Chang said to come prepared for the weather and to wait.

"If I'm with plane spotting friends, then [we'll stay for] five or six hours. If it's just on my own, then probably two to three hours."

Richards said the airport's website and social media provide additional resources, such as a list of the best plane spotting locations.