dcaviation From United States of America, joined Aug 2011, 5 posts, RR: 0 Posted (4 months 3 weeks 2 days 2 hours ago) and read 1492 times:
Hi All,
In February I'll be transferring via IST. I will have 5 hours between my flights. Are there any spots outside the terminal or inside good for pictures?
On the way back I will stay in IST for 1 full day (2 nights in IST hotel). I would appreciate any tips on where to go to get most out of IST airport. I will rent a car, so moving from one location to another is not a problem.
How is the security around the airport? Are they anal about aviation photography? Last report is from 2009 and I'm wondering if anything has changed since then.
LLA001 From Turkey, joined May 2005, 4 posts, RR: 0 Reply 1, posted (4 months 2 weeks 4 days 20 hours ago) and read 1397 times:
Good Morning,
Well to be honest with you I have never taken photographs inside or near the airport due to my fears of security. I hope some other plane spotters can give some advice on spotting places so I can use it as well
In the international terminal, at the check-in lobby ( not after passing passport) there is an access to the food court ( at a mezanine level) which has a smokers terrace, although it has some fences you have some portion of the airport in the view.
Also if you are going to rent a car, there is Florya park near the airport, it is at the south side of the airport, between the airport and the sea, depending on the wind you can catch airplanes either landing or taking off. Landing airplanes are ok for 200 mm but for taking off aircraft you need at least a 400 mm lens.
If you are interested in old aircaft, there is an Air Force museum at the other side of the airport, you have to take either a cab or go with a car, it has a collection of all old aircraft. It has a turkish website so I am not sending the link. Some examples, Do-28, Dc-3, P-47, S-2E, F-100, F-102, F-104, F-4, F-84, F-86, T-33, DH-89
There is a shopping mall called Fly-Inn near the airport, it has a fantastic view of the airport and the main runway, you can eat nice Fast Food while watching the aircraft come and go but unfortunately security does not allow you to take photos. ( What you can do is get some food, sit by the window ( which are not clean sometimes) and take photographs when no one is looking at you.
If the weather is not good for airplane spotting, I suggest you to go downtown, and visit Hagia Sophia and Basilica Cistern and walk around a bit which you can do in a few hours. ( There is a tram from airport which will take you there in an hour with two connections)
LLA001 From Turkey, joined May 2005, 4 posts, RR: 0 Reply 4, posted (4 months 2 weeks 4 days 11 hours ago) and read 1325 times:
Last time I was in Flyinn Mall was spring 2010, after reading the link above, I checked some Turkish forums and they have conflicting reports for the past one year,
some say once you go through the check point at the entrance of the mall ( All of the malls in Turkey have x-rays and metal detectors at the entrance) and security sees your SLR they announce a guest is coming to food court with an SLR and all of the security's eye is on you.
on the other hand there are posts who say they had no problem at all using the smoking balcony to take photographs with no security bothering at all ( except the curious general public)
so honestly I don't know about but you can always try and being a tourist really helps,
But there is one warning about Flyinn that is absolutely true is that you should be there in the afternoon not in the morning for good lighting and you can't really get good landing photos.
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