Lincoln Municipal Airport: Difference between revisions

Lincoln Municipal is one of two major airports in Nebraska (Eppley Airfield in Omaha being the other).  United Express, and Northwest Airlink are the only two commercial carriers, after American Eagle pulled service (the route previously served by TWA mainline).  UAX serves ORD and DEN, and NWA serves MSP, DTW, and MEM.  Since the pullout of American, traffic has been almost exclusively CRJ-200's, with Mesaba very very occasionally flying in a Mesaba Saab 340B or Avro RJ-85.  United also occasionally flies in an Air Wisconsin BAE-146, and somewhat less frequently, a SkyWest CRJ-700.

Also, during college football season, we'll occasionally get mainline aircraft in here for team charters.  If its for the Huskers, it'll be United or Northwest (usually a B752 for the team, I think), and if its an away team coming into town, it could really be anything.  We've seem everything from a Sun Country DC-10, to a Pan Am (Boston-Maine Airways) 727.  Also, depending on the bowl game the Huskers are in, we'll also get charter operations for the fans going on, as well.  It'll depend on the game, but when the team went to the Rose Bowl in January 2001, we had 2 United B744's here, which was definitely a sight to see.

LNK also gets a fair bit of Biz-jet activity, as Duncan Aviation is based here.  Typical fare comprises mainly of Dassault Falcons (usually the various three-holers), but occasionally, we'll get an oddity in here, like a Fokker F-28, and I once saw a Lauda Air 737 here, but with a U.S. registration, and missing its titles.  There are also still a number of people who house their GA aircraft here, but with the shutdown of the airport's only flight school, Silverhawk Aviation, piston traffic has been slow.

This road connects the FBOs on the east side of the airport to the light industrial complex on the west side of the airport, running along the north perimeter fence in the process.  Good shots can be had of pretty much all arrivals from the north (runways 14, 17, and 18), and, in most situations, departures to the north (off of runways 32, 35, and 36).  Occasionally, departures off of 36 can be difficult to shoot from the access road without a long telephoto (200+ mm), as, depending on where the aircraft starts its takeoff roll, it can be at quite a significant altitude by the time it crosses over the access road.  The road runs perpendicular to all three runways (it turns to pass the approach to Rwy 14 at a right angle), so time of day is less of a concern than at some locations, as it is easy to reposition yourself depending on the sun (one side of the runway vs. the other).

Admittedly, I've never been in the terminal at a time of day which would allow decent shots, but I've sat at the cafe there, and I'd imaginge that, especially during the hour before sunset, that it would be a pretty decent place to get shots of activity on the commercial ramp.  Given its proximity to the ramp, I wouldn't imagine that anything longer than a standard zoom would be necessary for full-frame shots of CRJ's.

This location is pretty decent for shooting RJ's moving on the main ramp, but you'll have to get in your shots between the light poles.  It also has good views of the southern portion of the middle of 18/36, and decent views of the approach end of 32.  CRJ's in all of these locations can pretty much be covered with a long telephoto zoom (something going out to 300mm or so) on a 1.6x DSLR.

Not as much areas to avoid as they are generally poor spotting areas, shots from the gate areas are mostly obstructed by the jetway layout at LNK.  I think the only shots you can reasonably get are those when the aircraft are either taxiing past the terminal (which would be mainly United Express traffic, given the terminal and runway layout), or shots during the time when the aircraft are pulling into or out of the gate.  I'd wager a guess that you'd probably only have 15 to 30 second (or less) window to get a shot during one of these activities, and given that the traffic at LNK is quite light, you'll be standing around waiting for a <i>long</i> time for a shot opportunity.  This, combined with the fact that you'll have to have passed security, means you'd probably be better off trying to get stuff from the parking garage, which is very easy to get to from the terminal (they're connected by a bridge).