Barajas Photography

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20 years 8 months

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Hi all, just wondered if anyone here has done much spotting/photography at Madrd Barajas, and in particular did anyone fly in there to do so? STN-MAD day return in March on Ryanair is £10 inc taxes etc, pretty damn good for a flight to a major airport! I'm definitely thinking of going down there but not sure if anywhere is easily accessible for photos, or if you need locals knowledge/access to a car to get anywhere for photos.

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Member for

24 years 2 months

Posts: 4,887

Hi all, just wondered if anyone here has done much spotting/photography at Madrd Barajas, and in particular did anyone fly in there to do so? STN-MAD day return in March on Ryanair is £10 inc taxes etc, pretty damn good for a flight to a major airport! I'm definitely thinking of going down there but not sure if anywhere is easily accessible for photos, or if you need locals knowledge/access to a car to get anywhere for photos.
MAD is one of my favourite airports to go spotting! It's a very good place.

You can spot planes from one of the snackbars in one of the terminals, but I must admit I forgot which terminal, definately one of the older ones. Views here are poor as your are facing through dirty glass.

Much better is a spot on the perimeter. It takes a while to walk there, but it is quite worth the effort. There is a small sand-path leading up an embankment near the intersection marked M110 on below map. If you follow that path you will end up at the spotters area. Here planes taxi past closely.With my 70-200MM I could easily handle all the movements, though everything roughly sized B772 and larger would not fit side-on. Movements at T4' sattelite terminal can be seen, and the A340-600s can even be photographed due to their large size, but expect heathaze to be a killer. This spot will be best between 12:00 and sundawn, earlier and the sun will be facing you.

You are in the middle of nowhere, so prepare yourself by bringing something to drink/eat.

http://www.schipholspotter.com/600400/20071006/madmap.JPG

Member for

20 years 11 months

Posts: 12,842

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You are in the middle of nowhere, so prepare yourself by bringing something to drink/eat.
http://www.schipholspotter.com/600400/20071006/madmap.JPG

I nice pitcher of Sangria and a plate of Tapas maybe!!!

Member for

15 years 2 months

Posts: 69

I nice pitcher of Sangria and a plate of Tapas maybe!!!

What, no Paella ????

Member for

20 years 11 months

Posts: 12,842

What, no Paella ????

Plane spotting in the baking afternoon sun...I'd prefer something cold

Member for

20 years 8 months

Posts: 3,539

Cheers for that Peter and Sam. I did see that spottign guide on plane-mad.com, but all the locations looked too far to walk. Peter, you say that walk is quite long, but do you know approx how long it took? I've booked the flight for the end of March, only 5 hours on the ground so I'm hoping to atleast get 2 hours taking photos.

Member for

24 years 2 months

Posts: 4,887

Cheers for that Peter and Sam. I did see that spottign guide on plane-mad.com, but all the locations looked too far to walk. Peter, you say that walk is quite long, but do you know approx how long it took? I've booked the flight for the end of March, only 5 hours on the ground so I'm hoping to atleast get 2 hours taking photos.
About 40 or 45 minutes. Don't know the time it takes from T4 though.

Member for

19 years 8 months

Posts: 1,953

You need to take the subway from the airport to Barajas (one stop IIRC) - that reduces the walk substantially and the fare is very cheap.

Andy

Member for

24 years 2 months

Posts: 4,887

You need to take the subway from the airport to Barajas (one stop IIRC) - that reduces the walk substantially and the fare is very cheap.

Andy

Now you tell me. :D