Where to shoot RWY 35/36 Departures

[NickPeterman]

Hello All,

This is my first post, although I've lurked around the site for a bit. I have a quick question, where is the best spot if one wants to catch departures during north flow operations. I've noticed more traffic seems to leave on the 35s, but Say a lot of 36 departures today as well. I was shooting 36L arrivals, but tomorrow may think about giving departures a shot. Any last minute advice would be great!

Nick

[Greg]

Nick -

Glad that you finally joined the site, welcome! Zulu Lima is a member who put together a pretty good map a while back of spotting locations around DFW, it is linked in this thread:

viewtopic.php?f=9&t=336

36 departures can be had just like 18 arrivals at Founders Plaza, however, most planes are usually far too high for anything but belly shots by the time they sail past Founders, even the heavies. Your best bet is to stake out a spot in the parking lot near Lufthansa Cargo on the west side, and get on the hood of your car for the departures. Hopefully some of the spots near the fence are open, for a while they had armored cars parked there to prevent spotters from parking. I haven't been there in a while so I'm not sure how DFW DPS responds now, usually they would either say hello and let you stay, or politely tell you to move along, depending on the officer.

The west side is prime in the afternoon for departing photos though, with great light at your back. Hope this helps!

[Speedbump Joey]

Nick, if you are looking for morning/midday shots off of 36L/R I suggest the parking lot near the hold apron of 36R. It is off of SW Construction road. There are a bunch of double-wides behind the Airport Development Engineering (ADE - the blue roofed building). You can usually park in a spot or semi-on the grass and not look too out of place there. I usually sit and have lunch there when I get done delivering plans to all of the trailers and is a great spot, just no camera though.