2026 Trips

  4th January 2026

Heathrow & Luton Day Trip

With a forecast of full sun and a couple of subjects on the photo hit-list we decided on a quick run down to Heathrow arriving just after sun up at 8am. First main target was the departure of the Riyadh Air Dreamliner which was sadly delayed an hour meaning we missed out on a couple of arrivals. A few pics of 27 Left departures were taken in the meantime.

Riyadh Air B787-9 HZ-RXX eventually departed shortly before 11am, a very pleasing catch in this great winter light.

We then made our way around to the 27 Right approach to await the arrival of our next target, 

At 11.40 the main reason for the visit arrived, American Airlines' superb looking "Retro" B777-300 N735AT

Happy with that catch we returned to the southside to catch LOT's newly painted "Star Alliance" B737-MAX8 SP-LVF departing.

With nothing much of interest due at Heathrow after this we had noticed that there was a very nice movement due in to Luton so decided to route home that way. 

After a quick run around LTN's perimeter to log the Exec Jets we headed to the multi-storey car park where the following were taken.

The one that tempted us this way ..... Wizz Air's new "250th" special A321 Neo 9H-WMR arriving just after 2pm from Warsaw. So nice to catch this so quickly considering that the airline now have such a large fleet!

We departed for home just after that, a very early finish for us but very happy with what we'd caught.

A very good day out in the end with a few decent subjects caught by the camera and a total of 35 new numbers in the log book between the two places.

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  1st March 2026

Madrid Day Trip

A long day trip over to Madrid saw us depart Manchester onboard Ryanair B737-MAX8200 EI-IJK just after 6am arriving in the Spanish capital just after 9am, over thirty minutes early which was a great start.

Due to the changeable wind forecast on the day we decided to stay airside and view from the departure lounge windows with the following seen throughout our time there.

The highlight of our day, Azul's A330-900N PR-ANV which wears the "Pink Ribbon" special, raising awareness of Breast Cancer 

Lufthansa A320N D-AIND wears their 100 Years anniversary scheme.

Very nice to catch Aeromexico B787-9 N815AM wearing their new scheme.

Democratic Republic of the Congo Gulfstream G4 9S-CGC was a nice surprise.

A very successful day with some great subjects caught by the camera and ninety new numbers added to the log book. 

We departed back at Manchester just after 10pm local on Easyjet A320 G-EZTX arriving Manchester at 23.20. Thanks to Ashley, Gary and Fraser for another excellent and laugh filled day!

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