Well, hello there - some of the older users here might still remember me, the guy flooding the forum with spotting topic on a weekly basis to eventually be beaten in the regular spotting competitions hosted by @AndrewWu. I’ve been “a bit” quiet in the last few months and even years but I thought it might be worth sharing a few pics of this year. While it wasn’t a year with exceptional highlights and exciting spotting trips, I think a few pics are still worth being shared.
One thing that can’t be left out in a 2024 spotting topic from Munich is the best bird we used to have here for ages, the A340-600. After being the backbone of Lufthansa’s long haul fleet in Munich, the remaining fleet has now been moved to Frankfurt and might be phased out next year, at least if Boeing manages to deliver some new planes (so most likely, LH might keep them even longer, just not in Munich). While they were still there, I tried to get some last shots of these great planes, just like this one from February, when D-AIHI was fighting some crosswinds right on takeoff.
Just a few weeks later, it was time for the Munich Security Conference, meaning quite a few special movements for an entire weekend, with one of the biggest highlights being the Azerbaijan 777 arriving from Baku.
As usual, the dark winter months often require some night shot action for special planes, like the Qatar Cargo 777 wearing the People Livery on the evening flight to Doha.
Not only are the winter months dark, they also often come with some adverse weather conditions, usually pairing perfectly with the biggest highlights of the year. Honeywell sent us their 757 testbed twice this year, but both days were just a lovely mix of greys weather-wise - maybe a visit at night would have been nicer, considering night shots do not really care about weather.
When Munich doesn’t offer nice weather, it’s sometimes nice to check out other locations. And what comes to your mind when you want some sunny spotting conditions in March? Well, honestly it usually won’t be London, but in my case it worked out nicely on my first trip of the year, when I encountered this Saudia 787 in their new color scheme after it diverted to Athens earlier that day.
On the way back from London, I managed to tick off one more thing of my spotter bucket list - another quad jet. During an 8 hour stop in Zurich, this Edelweiss A340-300 was one of many heavies I caught on a day with weather as perfect as it can get on a trip booked weeks in advance.
Even less planned was this encounter with the Queen of the Skies while working my early shift - along with at least 8 other heavies, it had to divert to Munich on a summer morning due to climate activists blocking Frankfurt Airport.
While 2024 was not really a year of big highlights, this royal visitor kind of stood out from the rest of movements during summer. For a few days, this Royal Brunei 767 visited us as a government flight.
In contrast to my first London trip, the following pic shows something more familiar for London, dark clouds around Heathrow during the Infinite Flight Community Meetup. Speaking of contrast - the white of Air Canada’s Star Alliance livery really stood out against that dark backdrop.
While all of you probably know Munich airport by now, the following pic is from the other airport Munich has - Oberpfaffenhofen Airport. Since that place is home to the German Space Agency, it makes sense that this old bird from NASA visited the airport for some research flights this summer.
But back to Munich…some of you might know the Belgian Icons of Brussels Airlines, and you might also know they recently had some updates and changes to that part of the fleet. After renewing their Tomorrowland livery and putting it on a new A320neo, I finally managed to catch that Belgian icon, after never being successful with its predecessor.
Leaving Munich again though, September was the time for another spotting trip, this time to Austria to attend AirPower, the airshow hosted by the Austrian military and RedBull. While the weather was mixed during that day, the early morning fog around the mountains created some really nice scenery for demos like this SAR demonstration done by the Czech Air Force.
Staying in the military sector but back to Munich and into a very special setting for my very last but most special highlight of the year. While being on a check flight, this German A400M stopped by in Munich and offered an opportunity for the Airport Fire Brigade and quite a few interested employees to explore the aircraft. And what would you do with a turntable ladder on an apron when you have one? Take pictures of course!
So, thanks for making it all the way down here - hope you liked my 2024 selection! See you again soon in a spotting competition near you, can’t wait for the mandatory yearly defeat!
If you are less interested in competition, you might also like to just visit my Instagram for some occasional shots from Munich or wherever I end up with my camera.
