See here for more great aircraft images: It’s About Airplanes
Sometime around, oh, the latter half of 2001, it was decided that the authorities didn’t want people watching planes land and takeoff. There used to be several locations around Toronto Pearson International Airport where one could pull the car off to the side of the road and watch these jetlines go about their daily business. Now, you can still pull over to the side of the road but soon after, you will be ushered away by police or airport security.
So, how does a lover of airplanes go about his hobby at Canada’s largest commerical airport? Simple, get out of your car and walk. Off Airport Road, the Toronto International Centre is a massive convention hall with thousands of parking spaces. Parking is always free and there really is no way of knowing whether you’re at one of the many exhibition halls or down the street with camera in hand doing some Toronto Pearson plane spotting.
But, what if the wind is coming from the east but you still want to see landings? Because, face it, there’s so much more to see when they’re landing and they’re so much more photogenic. Well, at Toronto Pearson, that means Dixie Road.
The edge of runway 05/23 pretty much butts up against Dixie Road, near Derry Road. However, this is a six lane road with nowhere to pull over. So, what you need to do is park at the Wendy’s / Tim Horton’s at Dixie and Midway and walk back north the equivalent of around a city block. The sidewalk is narrow and is right against the road. However, there is a wide patch of grassed area between the sidewalk and the fences of the warehouses in behind. This allows plenty of space to set up for some plane watching.
The first image is of the nose and cockpit of an Air Canada Embraer ERJ190-100. C-FMZU is a relatively new jet that made her first flight in October, 2007. The second image is a Cessna 208B Grand Caravan operated by Morningstar Air Express, servicing Fedex.
The image directly above is another Embraer ERJ-900. This jet made her first flight in April, 2007. She was coming in from Winnipeg, Manitoba and would soon take off again for New York City’s Laguardia Airport. This image and the below side view of a Westjet Boeing 737 were taken from around the corner on Derry Road. We were parked at a soccer field that is located at the northeast corner of Dixie and Derry by this time.
I had the zoom lens on but certainly didn’t need it. On many images, including the one above, I had the lens as far away as possible. This is an Air Canada Airbus A321 that made her maiden flight in March, 2002.
A newcomer to the Westjet fleet, this Boeing 737-800 just made her maiden flight on September 26, 2013.
While I was standing at the end of the runway, minding my own business, a guy pulled up in a car, jumped the curb and parked on the grass. I casually watched with interest for how long it would take a Peel Regional cop to show up on the scene or at least honk a horn for this guy to move his car.
The guy was a bit anxious, checking his watch and taking pictures of each plane with his smart phone. After a few planes went by, he called over to me, “What kind of plane was that?”
“A 737. It was Westjet and that’s all they have in their fleet.”
“Oh. I’m waiting for a KLM. My son’s on coming in on one.”
“A KLM jet coming into Toronto will be much bigger than that.”
I was about to say that it would definitely be a 747 and that it would probably come in on the south runway. I based my assumption on the fact that I’d only ever seen a KLM 747 land in Toronto and that off in the distance, there seemed to be larger, international jets dropping in on the other runway.
After I started walking back to the car, I heard what had to be a little bit larger jet than the typical 737’s. Sure enough, it belonged to KLM. However, it was an Airbus A330, a new jet that just started flying in January, 2013. The plane was coming in from Amsterdam and would turn right around a go back home a short while later.
