The Art of Planespotting
an aviation exercise for the mind.
There’s a stifling heatwave across Long Island this week, a classic Northeast signal that the summer months are upon us. The beaches are crowding (sometimes not in the best way), the golf courses are filled, and your favorite restaurants have the outdoor seating sections ready to go.
There’s the palpable excitement of graduation season and Summer Friday’s (we don’t get those in real estate), as well as the overall joy that the warmer months always provide.
(Quick note- it’s the first day of Cancer season, *shoutout my fellow Cancers*, for all of my astrology friends that are into that sort of thing- I can sense my guyElevator Charles rolling his eyes all the way from Connecticut. We’re going to get heavy into that topic one day, but not today.)
We’re also in the throes of the summer aviation schedule, a six-month swath of time in between the last Sunday of March and the last Saturday of October. This time period sees a serious uptick of both domestic and international routes. Much like “Red Car Theory”, now that I’ve mentioned this, you’ll notice more airplanes in the sky during your day-to-day travels, and now you’ll know why.
“Okay, but why should I care about that, I don’t wanna talk about airplanes bro”
Ah, do give me the chance to explain myself here. You think I’d have you staring up at the sky for no good reason? Obviously there’s a method to this madness, but first a brief background of how we even stumbled upon this in the first place.
See, this fascination with “Planespotting” all began on a fateful summer afternoon many years back, when I lived at home. My little sister and I were spending a Saturday afternoon in the backyard in the noble pursuit of a nice base tan so that we both looked our best for whatever absurdity our respective nights out had in store for us, when we started to play a game- “guess what plane is coming and where it’s coming from”.
I lost pretty frequently (I’m supposed to wear glasses and I don’t), but from that day forward, a fascination was born. Fast forward to the present day, and I’ve become a full-fledged Avgeek.
See, it isn’t so much the awe of the marvel of the modern airplane (more on that later) or the innate male fixation on any sort of vehicle that drives my love for planespotting. Rather, it’s the effect on my mentality that I find so enrapturing about the hobby, and that’s what we’ll focus on today.
Trapped in a Bubble
All too often we find ourselves caught up in the hustle and bustle of our day-to-day lives. How often have we remarked to one another something along the lines of “Wow, I can’t believe it’s already almost July” or even worse, “How did it get to be 2024?” It’s a byproduct of the human condition that days melt into weeks which then carry into years. I get it- responsibilities, work, family…all extremely important facets of what make life, well, life.
This being said, I’ve found myself in a similar spot quite often, trapped on the ever-increasing speeding conveyor belt of life. Planespotting has (silly as it may sound) provided a holistic antidote of sorts to the passing of time.
"I’ll bite..how?”
Glad you asked. Let’s break it down:
Feeling Small (for a Reason)
We’ve all looked out the window of a plane and been shocked at how little the buildings and people on the ground appear from the vantage point in the sky. While feeling little certainly is not the greatest of feelings (especially for those of us afflicted with bearing the tortuous weight of the male ego), it’s a stark and necessary reminder that we may not just be as big a deal as we think we are.
Every day, millions of people are ferried through the air, from London to LA, from New York to Dubai, from Dallas to Cincinnati, you name it. The act of just looking at how many flights depart to seemingly innocuous locations daily is enough to make you realize just how much is going on out there without you. It’s frightening and wholly liberating all at once, a necessary message from modern science and physics that whatever problems and “issues” that plague us on the ground might not just be as big as we make them seem.
Much as we like to think we all are, we’re not the epicenter of the universe, and that’s ok.
The Possibilities are Endless
"John, now I feel small and worthless, thanks a lot.”
Okay, let’s remedy that.
As I mentioned with the aforementioned routes, look at the sheer volume of air travel in our modern world. You want to fly to Dubai and see the Burj Khalifa, or chill on one of those OG Microsoft Windows default background type beaches in Hawaii? Well, if you’ve got the scratch and a passport, you’re free to do it. Maybe you want to go on that soul-searching trip to Asia, or hike in New Zealand, or go on an African safari, or go to London and get a suit made on Savile Row (can’t imagine who would want that)- you can.
Sure, this reads like obvious nonsense, but how often do we speak of our bucket list trips in the “coulda, shoulda, woulda, maybe one day” tone, tainted with an air of defeated longing? A quick glance up at the skies will show you that there’s literally millions of people everyday going about these same ventures, chasing what it is they want to see or do in this world, be it personally or professionally. It’s a reminder that even if the day isn’t today, or even next week or year, that what you want is eventually going to be at your fingertips.
For my business guys and girls, just take one quick glance up at the skies the next time a cargo plane goes overhead. Let’s take a look at the one of the most common we see here in New York, the China Airlines Boeing 777, an aircraft model known as The Queen of the Skies.
Isn’t she beautiful? That’s the old livery (essentially the plane’s paintjob), I picked it because it’s far cooler than the current one.
Want to know what else is cool? The 21.6 ton heavy pallet carrying capacity of one of the flights.
Let’s say you created a product of your own, and were able to sell enough to fill one entire China Airlines cargo flight. Even on the slimmest of margins (let’s say $5 or $6 profit per unit), you’d be making absurd money.
If you’re able to fill out a flight like this once per week? Hey, at least invite me onto your yacht when the time comes.
Planespotting is an IRL abundance exercise for the mind.
Still feeling small and insignificant? I didn’t think so.
“Alright, I’m kinda sold on this. How do I do it?”
Now we’re talking.
The Art of Planespotting
You’re going to need three things:
A smartphone
Walking shoes of some sort
Planefinder app.
Planefinder is a free app that does exactly what it’s title says. There’s a full layout of all active departing and arriving aircraft, complete with real-time animation that you can click to see when planes will be flying overhead. You can see altitude, the departing and arriving airports, flight path, livery, speed, the whole nine. I recommend buying the premium for a whopping $1.00/mo (you’ll never see a cheaper premium app in your life), which allows notifications and filters and 3D imaging for all your planefinding needs.
$1 for a relaxing and mentally introspective activity/experiment is worth it, and if you’re reading my Substack I doubt you’re the type that’s blowing money every month on “other subscriptions” aka PrettyToes69 or you know, things of that nature.
Alright, we’ve got Planefinder locked and loaded. Now it’s time to go for a walk. You can stay stationary as well, but I’ve always found the mental clarity of moving the body and the thoughts that arise while walking coincide beautifully with planespotting.
A good way to go about this is to schedule your walk around times with heavy arrivals (arriving flights will always fly lower for longer than departing, making for better viewing). This is especially useful if you live near an international airport, as they house larger aircraft meant for long distance travel.
Take some time out, feel the anticipation of watching the flight you picked out draw closer, and let yourself go as it rips over your head and you hear the engine whine as it passes by.
Mentally, there’s many directions you can take this in, and who am I to tell you what that is and what you should draw from it?
Maybe the mere activity of tracking flights is enough to calm and soothe the overactive mind.
Maybe you want to track flights from a certain location, or wait to see the biggest plane you can.
Maybe you glean inspiration from seeing a flight full of people depart from your local international airport towards that destination you always wanted to travel to.
Maybe the cargo planes overhead inspire those latent creative business ideas that have been residing in the back of your brain, and you get to furiously typing up a full iPhone note of creative brainstorming that had just been dying to come out.
Maybe you sit there with your phone and go “This is the stupidest shit I’ve ever done”, but I hope not (and I doubt it).
The most likely outcome is lessened anxiety and an increased curiosity, no matter your age.
There could also be a much-needed assessment of one’s own life that comes with this exercise (if done intensely), and one of those sobering realizations of what really matters.
Hopefully the byproducts of inspiration and mental clarity are present as well.
I find that any sort of mental exercise that takes us “out of our bodies” tends to have a profound impact on both the conscious and subconscious.
Whatever the results may be, just don’t point the finger at me if you become the annoying plane person in your friend group that’s always all “Hey, do you wanna know where that plane is coming from?”
That being said, I have noticed that planespotting can be contagious.
An Anecdote About Time Travel (a Planespotter’s Nirvana)
One glance at Planfinder (especially on a weekend) will show you that there’s quite a lot of private air travel going on in this world, far more than most realize.
This past April, I was able to experience it for the first time, and I wanted to share that story here since I believe it ties into my beliefs in mindset and bending the world to your will to the extent that you can.
Let’s make a long story very short, in classic 4chan greentext pattern:
> be me
> get Islander tickets for the season
> make friends
> get invited onto private fligh to Raleigh for Game 3 of the quarterfinals.
Not tryna flex over here, just want to tell the story- but here’s the picture in case I’m challenged on it:
The reason I bring this up is two-fold; the first being the important point that ties into the planespotting exercise itself, and the second merely a comment from a human interest standpoint.
As was written above, The Possibilities are Endless. Look, I was the youngest guy on the flight, and comparatively a minnow in a pond with sharks. However, one thing that stuck out to me was, save for a couple of people with absurd familial backgrounds, there was no one else on the flight that seemed all too different from you or me. The sheer difference was in, well, the balls to go after what they wanted. Once the invisible barrier was broken and I got to experience private air travel, I realized that such luxe amenities were not separated from us so much by class and caste, but rather ability and courage. There is no reason that you the reader can’t reach heights (brutal unintended pun) that allow for these same opportunities. I don’t think I’ve been as inspired by an experience in my life as I was by this trip. The next time you Planefind (and I truly hope you do), click on that G-550 zipping overhead and ask yourself truly- “Is everyone onboard really so much different than I am?”
Private flying is truly time travel. The reason air travel takes “all day” is the trip to the airport, TSA, the 99% chance of delays or BS. When you have no security screening, a custom departure time (they literally walk around and just ask if you’re ready to leave) and a Sprinter waiting for you on the tarmac, you realize just how tiny the world can really be when you’ve got the means to shrink it. I was back in bed on Long Island at a reasonable hour, and that’s with an almost 8PM puck drop. It’s something you have to experience if you haven’t yet.
Wrapping Up
This was a pretty off-the-wall, sort of odd topic to delve into, but I felt as if the intersection of a personal interest with mindset and self-improvement was a rabbit hole worth going down.
If this was just totally bizarre and out of left field and not for you, I totally get it.
However, if you do give this a shot and have positive results, I’d love to know about it (and touch on it in the next post).
You just never know- you might leave here with a mental reset, or a new vacation planned, or professional inspiration.
Maybe you catch the bug all the way and end up talking everyone’s ear off about planes, watching planespotting YouTube (I recommend these guys) and find a “favorite plane” of your own.
Just don’t pick the Emirates A-380, that one’s mine.
Alright, we can share.
Until next time.
Written with love (and an eye to the skies),
John
23 June 2024