Seattle area: where to go?

[phkza]

Hi guys,

In April I'll have a couple of days to spend in/around Seattle. Now there's a lot of choice in airfields, spotting-wise.

There's a lot of places I could visit to take pictures:

Lake Union (floatplanes)
SeaTac
Boeing King County
Renton
Paine Field

What do you guys think, should I try to combine all these fields in one trip, or is it better to stick to fewer airports? Off course I'm planning to rent a car to get everywhere. As mentioned, I'm interested in pics.

[EHAM]

Went to both Paine Field and Boeing Field 2,5 years ago. Depending on the runway in use, both are great for photography in the afternoon.
Boeing Field: see http://www.plane-spotter.com/Airports/U ... de_BFI.pdf. Spot B is great when runway 31 is in use (northern/western winds). Spending a few hours here may result in a couple of dozen planes (a lot of bizzers).
Paine Field: great with southern winds. However, traffic is very slow (when I was there, on a Friday afternoon). A few hours will probably result in a handful of planes.
Hope this helps.

[KoenHartkamp]

hi

especially SeaTac, King Country and Renton are very easy to combine on a day.
We spend several days in Seattle and did several hit/run visits at Renton and King Country. All 3 airports are less than 30 minutes apart from each other. You have to be lucky to see anything fly at the Boeing fields, but a lot can be seen/photographed from the outside.
(we were lucky though with a 787, 747-8F, and Wedgetail doing testflights )

Paine Field is a bit further away, but definately worth a visit also for the factory tour. Paine Field was packed with 747-8's and 787's, and lots of decent photo opportunities on those as they are all over the place on taxiways and new build hardstands.


rgds,Koen

[phkza]

Okay, let's say you have one day to spend in Seattle and a rental car at hand. What field would you pick for planespotting and why? Note: taking pictures is the objective and the Museum of Flight is already covered...

Boeing King County? (BFI)
Renton
Snohomish Paine Field (PAE)

[Melchior Timmers]

If you want see much flying, you should go to Seatac.
Renton is very slow, King County and Paine field have a bit more flying and certainly more to see, but Seattle Intl is the bussiest....

Because it is all not too far away from eachother I would do all of them.

Regards,

[AirAsia]

All three can be visited on one day using a car. The best is to start with Everett, Kenmore Air Harbour, Boeing Field, Renton and finish at SeaTac.
Don't forget Kenmore Air Harbour it has quite a lot of Beavers and Otters on floats and taking pictures is always possible when you ask first in the office.

[Ripsbrit]

It should also be noted with landings going the normal way and a decent scope you can read off most of the Seatac traffic while at Boeing Field. It is hard to see at Seatac too. If you need any more help I'm an ex-Brit now WA based.

[Ripsbrit]

Not sure if I'm a bit late to this thread but I've just been around these fields as I'm based in WA. There are always Boeings flying at BFI and Paine and the 737s are popping out pretty fast. 787s are also starting to move around the field & lot & testing is going on too. Let me know if you want to see anything in particular & I'll be happy to help. There are also some LF F16s at PDX.