I really did not know what to expect honestly. I have never been to the Washington DC area in my life, so I was completely new to the area. I have heard some of my friends tell me about this particular location, so I had to check it out for myself! The spot if you read from the title is Airport Park just to the North of Reagan National Airport, in Arlington, VA, just outside of Washington DC.

It was a Thursday afternoon while I was waiting for the maintenance guy to come up and fix some things inside my apartment, I opened my patio door on that beautifully warm 75 degree blue skied day and I sat on the patio to take in the day. It was about 12:30pm, and I was immediately taken for surprise at how low the airplanes were to my apartment that were in their landing formation. I checked my favorite flight tracking app, Flightradar24, and have noticed that the airplanes are Landing from the North, over the Potomac River into the Airport, so I thought I would be in for a nice show with all of the planes getting into the same Landing pattern! Just then, the maintenance guy arrived and fixed all of my issues within 15 minutes. So I thought to myself, it is actually a perfect day to explore the area and see this airport park, so I said why not, because we are not going to have another 75 degree sunny day for a while.

Since I reside in the Tyson’s/Vienna area, normally I would take the i495 Beltway to the George Washington Parkway, but I decided to take the scenic route and drive through the town of McLean into the Parkway! As I was headed down the parkway, the Washington Monument was the first thing that came into picture about a mile away, and you could not miss it even if you tried! With me being new to the area, everything is exciting to me at first! This is a tip because it is a weird way to get to this park, but if you are headed from the north you would need to pass it out, as there is not an exit on the south side of the highway, and proceed to the Airport to make a U-turn to the North side! And right as I passed the airport, I saw my first low plane, and I was blown away at how low and how close this park actually is to the Runway!

As I entered the park, and parked my car, immediately set up my camera, as I never leave the house without it because I never want to miss a good shot! I have a Sony a6000 | 16-50 mm and 55-210 mm lenses. And almost immediately I saw a plane on the inbound, so I set up for a shot, and missed him… I was mere feet from him and missed the shot, so from then on, I knew I needed to be precise and fast with the camera, and also, I was entirely way to close for my camera to capture any bit of the plane in frame!

I started with the 16-50 lens and found a bench directly in line with the runway! Then it happened, one after another began to land, and I immediately thought to myself that I found my new spot to come, relax and watch airplanes! Since I love my camera, I began to take many many pictures of the landings and they will be posted below for all to see! I then switched over to the 55-210 mm and kept that lens on the rest of the day! I love this lens because of how close and in detail I can capture!

To describe the park in detail, first I had zero, well I guess I kind of had an idea, but until you are there to experience it in person, not even a video can compare! The loudness and closeness of these planes landing is insane and is something that everyone living in the area should experience at least once! After a while of plane spotting landing, I took a look towards the runway to see that planes we’re actually taking off the same direction going South, so being on the North end, I was able to capture some amazing pictures of the planes before they took off! And let me say, the roar of the planes when they took off is an exhilarating feeling! The rumble from when they hit the gas, racing down the runway for take off is really awesome!

Even the smells make this place even more special! You have the river on one side, highway on the next, and then the runway, so a wide variety! But even more so, is the brakes from the airplanes from going down the runway is insane that you can smell that from there! Also, another observation is when a plane lands over head, the air in the park makes a whistling and hissing sound that will drive you crazy at first, but is the late reaction of the air from the planes passing through at ridiculous speeds at a low altitude! Very cool to experience! I also got to witness Marine One, the helicopter that flies the President of the United States do some low passes near DC, in what looked to be some practice maneuvers! It was difficult to capture some good pictures with the speeds and turns, but I did capture a few nice ones!

Overall, I really did enjoy my first experience at this park! It was a great place to go to get phnomenal pictures of airplanes and the city skyline! Also a great place to go to clear you head and live a little! Next on my list is Dulles Airport for airports to see, but if anyone has a different recommendation for a new place to see, I am all ears! I am still brand new to the area, and have so much to see! Please let me know how you enjoyed or disliked or even how I can improve this blog! Every opinion is extremely helpful in order to improve my site!

Just as in Gary Allan’s song, Watching Airplanes, “I’m just sitting’ out here watching airplanes

Take off and fly”

Also here is a video I took to show just how close the plane to the runway really is:

All of these pictures have been taken by myself!

Thank you and Happy Travels!





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