A Korean Air Airbus A380 visits me at home
For nearly my entire life, I have lived in the shadow of one of the busiest airports in the country. Draw a straight line from my house and you end up on JFKs runway 22L in almost 2 miles. Arrivals glide across the sky mere seconds from landing, while departures roar directly overhead. When people ask me “why are you so into aviation?” my answer should be “the real question is what took me so long?”
JFK and airplanes are a daily fact of life in this area. Most people are so used to A380s at 500 feet over their backyard, they don’t even look up. For many years of my life, I was one of these people. DC8s, 727s, 707s, Concorde, all the classics you might now find in a museum were all right over my head, but I just never looked up.
Since I returned home, I have become a total #AvGeek. I live and breath the aviation industry every day. Plane spotting is a mere 5 minute drive, and I take full advantage. That high pitched whining I hear when I open the window? That’s not just background noise anymore. That is the GE90 engines on a Cathay Pacific 777-300ER lining up on runway 22L. The plane overhead? That’s not just something shaking the entire house. That is Delta 747 taking off runway 4R.
Although recently I have become a bit lazy recently (runway change? I’m going home!) I wouldn’t trade my view for anything. Sure, my town once put up a very vocal fight against the Concorde back in the day, but now our local Trader Joe’s has murals of 747s on the wall. The next time someone asks me why I’m so into aviation, I might just point up at the nearest airplane. It probably isn’t very far away.
Check out my full album of “Home Spotting” on Facebook.
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This story written by Jason Rabinowitz, Senior Correspondent.
Jason is a New York City native who has grown up in the shadow of JFK International Airport. A true “avgeek”, he enjoys plane spotting and photography, as well taking any opportunity he can get to fly on an aircraft. |
Perfect, Jason!
Couldn’t have said it better myself!