Kok Chwee Sim

Identifying an airplane from a distance is a skill that comes with familiarity and the only way to gain that is to be around airports and ogling at airplanes as regularly as one could, there is of course the overall shape of the airplane to note but there comes a point where one plane looks like another. So there are other details that one could look to for clues.

More regularly, I am excited by a group of planes known to us as' trijets' as well as all versions of the Boeing 747, these are airplanes with three engines. I'm mostly excited by the wide-bodied ones such as Douglas DC-10, the Lockheed L-1011 TriStar and the Boeing MD-11.

One should also keep a lookout for news of visits by government leaders or music bands, such visits could mean seeing airplanes that normally are not seen at your airport.

Spotting in locations such as Singapore where the hobby is less understood, the biggest challenge is posed by the security, even as one is clearly and visibly harmless near an airport, security personnel tend to insist that one moves on and not spot or photograph airplanes.

These sadly again are decreasing in numbers, from this, it sounds like my hobby is in decline. Not at all. New types such as the B787 Dreamliner and the Airbus A350XWB are now flying.

At night and in darkness, one could even distinguish a Boeing aircraft from an Airbus aircraft by the way the strobe -- the white light at the tip of the wing -- blinks.