Charlotte Douglas International Airport has for years had an Airport Overlook, and like the aviation museum it was closed and then relocated to accommodate expansion of the airport. The old overlook was a gravel parking lot, with a few benches and a port-a-potty or two (sometimes). The view of the airport was good and it was located close to the center runway.
The newly opened Airport Overlook is a wonderful spot. The views aren’t quite so good currently, but a new runway (to be called 1/19C since you can’t have two 18/36Cs!) is being built that will be about as close to the new overlook as the old one was to the center runway.
Besides a large paved parking lot, there is a huge children’s playground, picnic tables and park benches, an F-4 Phantom on display and (not yet open) real restrooms!
Kathy & I visited this past Saturday with our son and grandson. It was a humid morning, with a bit of fog hanging around, and I had fun photographing the planes taking off and creating condensation clouds around their wings as they passed through the moist air.
Outstanding photos, Tom. Beautiful shots.
We have a lot of departures, and I had the distraction of an 8-year old grandson, otherwise I might have gotten a lot more shots! 😉
The first image is so strong! Very interesting about the condensation clouds. I thought this only happened when high and fast made contrails.
Interestingly, I took the first two photos with my phone!
It’s an interesting phenomena. The key is the high humidity, which we have had in abundance here, especially on that morning. Contrails are a different thing – high temperature jet exhaust in a cold atmosphere.
I’ve never seen photos of condensation clouds before. Very cool and interesting!
It takes very humid air (or very high speed) to make the clouds that dramatic. I’ve often seen smaller wisps on the wings from inside the plane. That is also cool!