In this post, where I talk about a smartphone – you can substitue deviced like the iPhone, iPad or and Android tablet. Most people will have one of these devices that they can use, so lets get to what you can do with them in the spotting world.
The primary use for a smartphone is communication, but they are capable of so much more. Sit in a cafe or on public transport and you will see people using them to consume digital media in some format, or they will be creating content of some sort.
So how does this relate to plane spotting, well there are a number of ways of using such a device to assist if you have Mobile Data or WiFi access.. Using free App’s like flightradar24 gives access to aircraft ID’s on a continuos basis, an aircraft flying overhead can be in most cases positively identified and would allow you to capture quite a lot of information.
Typically this App will show things like the registration of the aircraft, owner or operator, flight origin and destination. There are a number of dynamic physical reports, altitude, course, speed along with elapsed time and remaining time for the flight. All available for free. There are a number of other Apps that do the same thing, the main difference between them all is the display – and again most of them can be downloaded free.
Recording Information.
As I’ve already said, a pencil and notebook is all that you need to get started. But with a smartphone there are many more options, simply download one of the free Apps, I use Google Keep this allows you to quickly add notes, voice memo’s, check lists and pictures – they are all kept in one App. This makes accessing the information very easy, but you should note that there are many Apps that have similar functionallity. As most of them are free to try I’d suggest that you try a few.
Using the Camera.
In general the cameras on these devices are good quality, I have used mine to take some very good shots over the years – but generally when I’m very close to the aircraft. The photograph above was taken on a smartphone camera, around six years ago. So if you can be within a few meters of an aircraft, the results will be more than adequate using your phone camera.
Some cameras come with multiple sensors and lens configuration, these provide optical zoom sometimes allowing you to zoom into your area of interest. I have found the digital zoom on a number of phone cameras to produce images that to me were not good enough, you may have more luck – experiment.
Addon Smartphone Lenses.
I have not experimented with the addon lenses for phone cameras , I actually still use a dedicated camera for my photography most of the time. But I have seen some excellent results, although in most cases a tripod was used – don’t let this deter you if you feel that that is the way to go.
Online Logs.
It is possible to log directly into some of the online logging apps, however a word of caution here – even the paid for sites tend to severely restrict what you can download from the site once you get home. But effectively you can use your smartphone to log directly into one of these, which does mean that you have your personal log available wherever you have mobile data or WiFi.
Anyway, Happy Spotting!