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Update: I have
lowered my score of this airport because of recent hassles that
photographers have had with airport authorities. The best place to watch
planes was the old residential area near Airways Blvd. and Shelby Dr. Several
years ago the City purchased all of the homes on the streets in the shaded
box on the map because of noise complaints about FedEx's heavy jets
operating at night. The homes were removed and the vacant land was a great
place to watch planes takeoff and land. The airport installed "no
parking" signs everywhere now, along with aggressive enforcement, because
someone in the airport management does not like airplane enthusiasts.
Another area which gives a very
close view of the aircraft is along Louis Caruthers Dr. (see map).
This road leads from Shelby Dr. to the Airport Postal Facility and some
warehouses. If aircraft are taxiing to runway 36L they will pass very
close to this road. I was able to shoot some great pictures from here
and a representative from the Airport says photos are allowed from public
access roads, and this appears to be a public access road.
Another area that photographers have had success with recently is the
parking garage (see map). There is a limited view of the center runway and the airport
authority seems to be ok with it.
There is a wide variety of traffic here from
Northwest Airlink's regional jets and turboprops to FedEx's DC10 and MD11
jets. However, since this is a hub airport most of
the operations occur within short time periods except on weekends.
Most FedEx departures are at night but many arrivals are in the late
afternoon. Most Northwest arrivals occur between 7-9am, noon to 2pm,
and 5-7pm. Only one regularly scheduled European flight operates at
MEM: a Northwest A330 (flight 57 from AMS) arrives in the late afternoon.
The Memphis airport is now not
very spotter friendly.
Click here to see photos from
Airways Blvd. before it was off limits
Click here to see photos from
Louis Caruthers Dr.
Back to the Airport ratings
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