The day has finally arrived. It’s Dorkfest! Now get on over to LAX, stat.
As we do every September, we’ll gather at the park across the street from the In-N-Out just off the end of the north runways at LAX and watch airplanes land.
The weather looks great. By the time things get started at 11am, any marine layer
that may have rolled in overnight will be gone. Temps should be in the 70s and we’ll get to see airplanes landing in all their glory. I’ll be there until 1pm officially, but in reality I bet I’ll be there later than that.
For those who have done this before, I’m excited to see you all again. For those who haven’t, I tried to think of the best way to explain just how much fun it is to be so close to such heavy metal. I can’t. You’ll just have to come see it. But let me try to entice you with a list of flight schedules.
I haven’t checked flight status today, but these are the more interesting airplanes that are scheduled to come between 11am and 2pm. Keep in mind these are gate times, so in theory they should arrive a few minutes earlier. But don’t worry, we’ll all be monitoring FlightRadar24 I have no doubt. (I also put a few outliers on there as well since it might be worth coming a little early or staying a bit later to see them.)
Saudia 777 (from Jeddah) 10:45am
China Southern 777 (from Guangzhou) 11:00am
China Eastern A330 (from Nanjing) 11:00am
Cathay Pacific 777 (from Hong Kong) 11:10am
Air Tahiti Nui A340 (from Papeete) 11:10am
Japan Airlines 777 (from Tokyo) 11:40am
KLM 747 (from Amsterdam) 11:45am
Air China 777 (from Beijing) 12:00pm
Japan Airlines 787 (from Osaka) 12:15pm
SAS A330 (from Stockholm) 12:15pm
Air New Zealand 777 (from Auckland) 12:35pm
Lufthansa A380 (from Frankfurt) 12:55pm
British Airways A380 (from London) 12:55pm
Air France A380 (from Paris) 1:00pm
Virgin Atlantic 787 (from London) 1:15pm
Singapore A380 (from Tokyo) 1:25pm
Fiji A330 (from Nadi) 1:25pm
Emirates A380 (from Dubai) 1:55pm
Qatar 777 (from Doha) 2:05pm
China Airlines 777 (from Taipei) 2:10pm
Alitalia 777 (from Rome) 2:15pm
Thomas Cook A330 (from Manchester) 2:45pm
There aren’t a whole lot of airports in the world where you can see this diversity of airlines landing in a couple hour span. And there’s only one airport where you can sit right underneath these airplanes holding a Double Double in your hands.
I hope to see you there. If not, there’s always next year…
18 comments on “Dorkfest is Today”
Looking forward to getting out there one of these days. Make sure to get lots of good pics and video for the rest of us!
Whats the parking situation there?
Thanks, Chris
Chris – There’s plenty of 1 hour street parking around. I’ve never seen cops policing that and parked for 3+ hours yesterday without trouble.
… a live feed please, we need give watch the progress of that marine layer – it can make an image memorable if it doesn’t blot out the vista…
FYI, 24L is closed until Monday.
That’s a lot of A380s landing so close together. Didn’t know LAX had enough gates to service that many at the same time.
I would have loved to come and watch planes at LAX today, but I’m all the way in San Diego, and it would have been a very long drive there.
Only one 747 on the entire list? What is this world coming to?
My reaction too…
Quantas has ditched them all, but the world’s favourite airline keeps 38… and their food keeps getting better too at all levels…
And Big Blue’s 747 landed on the southern runway pair and not 24R so we never saw it. Curses!
Thanks again for a great day yesterday Brett. The reject bag made it home safe and sound :D
Glad to hear it Mal! Hopefully you get good use out of all that junk.
I went over to the *A lounge at LAX’s international terminal to check it out prior to my departure from T8 and for a while there I wasn’t sure I was going to make my flight. We were in the middle of getting through TSA at the International Terminal when all hell broke loose. They issued a “full stop” and security ran to block the passageways to the terminal from the TSA checkpoint. Everyone was told to stay where they were and not move. It got so quiet you could hear a pin drop and I started questioning the choice I made to go to the *A lounge as I know LAX gets hit with terminal clearing incidents at least twice a year and I could very well wind up getting stuck in lock down and miss my flight. Fortunately it was all over in a few minutes and the screenings resumed and we were allowed in. Might have just been an exercise but how could you tell.
Then after an all too abbreviated stay at the *A lounge…which sure as hell beat out whatever I would have found at United’s lounge…we had to do the Winchester Mystery House navigation from the International Terminal to T8. Brett will get the reference but nobody else probably will. Good grief…talk about cloak and dagger…could LAX have made using that route less obvious? After a half hour of rather hurried walking we made it to our gate and we were the one of the last ones to board. They said twenty minutes to do that route. It took half an hour. Next time I’ll plan that out better so we don’t rush to get back.
Simple colour coded lines on the ground are fail safe in getting disorientated hoards from one T to another…
if it wasn’t such long drive, i would love to visit it again
I live in the Bay Area and have a nice view of planes landing at SFO at work and watch them sometimes on my lunch hour. It’s funny to see how many flights are the same!
That’s an impressive selection of aircraft, wish I was there. Also sad to see just one 747, boo!
Burning Man and now In & Out : too much! I am at EINN for an hour – post images please…