AvGeeks on top of the Theme Building at LAX taking photos of a Singapore Airlines Airbus A380.
When Singapore Airlines came to me and pitched doing something with a small group of AvGeeks at LAX to watch their Airbus A380 land and depart, I was instantly interested and with almost no details said, “yes please.”
Almost five years ago, when I started AirlineReporter.com, I had a hard time defining this passion that I had for airlines and aviation. Once I gained some readers and was able to start defining who we all are (we are AvGeeks), very few airlines got it.
I don’t blame them. It is hard to get how to interact with this group of people that dedicate a large portion of their lives with airliners. Either researching, looking at photos, taking their own photos, flying on them or in my case blogging on them. But we are a force and some airlines, like Singapore, are starting to get who we are — and they like us.
Singapore’s Airbus A380 sets up for take off.
As the details of this special AvGeek event (which we started calling #SQLAX) evolved, I realized that our group of AvGeeks were probably going to enjoy themselves.
Singapore Airlines is known around the world as one of the leaders of providing a high-level product and service. This event was to be no different. They reserved the entire observation deck of the Theme building and catered it with Dom Prignon and Krug champagne, not to mention high-end hor d’oeuvres. A truly first class AvGeek affair.
AvGeek Dan Webb takes a photo of me with my Top Hat and Dom Perignon. Photo by Drew.
As we got set up, there was a group of four gentlemen (not on the invite list) who came over and asked nicely if they could stay. They are from the UK and just wanted to spend the day spotting airplanes and would be no bother.
They had no idea the party they were crashing and were more than welcome to stick around and spot away. Turned out that one of them even worked for Singapore Airlines at Heathrow. They were among great company.
High end treats on the Theme building.
The heat haze was pretty bad, and honestly, the observation deck on top of the Theme building (which is free and open to the public normally) isn’t the best spotting place at the airport, but it did not matter. We all stood around talking more about airlines and aviation, being surrounded by the airlines more than actually taking photos. We all did stop to watch and photograph certain flights, like SQ11/SQ12, Singapore Airlines Airbus A380 that flies from LAX to Singapore via Tokyo.
As I do more of these AvGeek events (DorkFest and Aviation Geek Fest), I realize the people truly are the best part of the event.
Stay tuned. We already have Aviation Geek Fest 2014 in the works (sign up for the AGF14 email list) and there might be other opportunities to connect before then. Until then — keep on spotting and loving airlines.
MORE GOOD STUFF ON SQLAX:
- Story on the event on APEX Magazine
- Photos and stories via Twitter
- A few more photos of the event on Flickr
- Our review flying in Business Class on Singapore Airlines A380
- Story by Brian Sumers (#AvGeek in attendance) on Spotters at LAX
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This story written by… David Parker Brown, Editor & Founder. David started AirlineReporter.com in the summer of 2008, but has had a passion for aviation since he was a kid. Born and raised in the Seattle area (where he is currently based) has surely had an influence and he couldn’t imagine living anywhere else in the world. |
Great shot of the Airbus 380…wished US Airways and American thought of buying those!!!!
Great pic! Power to the AvGeeks!!! I love this site and all reporters.
Airbus makes the FUGLIEST airplanes!
Great post, David. I love it. Hope to be able to make AGF14.
Cheers,
Trev
Awesome pictures and must have been an AMAZING time! What was in the gift bags? Why did SIA put this event on?
There was an A380 model and SQ amenity kit. They put it on because they wanted to connect with AvGeeks, which is pretty darn cool!
David