Airbus A380-800 (A6-EOE)

How are you managing to capture these shots? You can't exactly park yourself in the LAX Special Flight Rules Area.

Looking at the photo, the Airbus A380 is on final landing on RW 24R, just crossing over South Sepulveda Blvd. The "In-N-Out" burger place and a known airplane landing viewpoint are adjacent and across this boulevard from the "Just Tires" auto service center on West 92nd Street.

As to how the photo uploader, Mark Thomas, found the vertical height needed for this photo, perhaps he will chime in and tell us. I suspect this one involves a nearby tall building roof vantage point and a long telephoto lens.

5* picture again Mark!

Thanks guys for the comments!
Torsten, these airborne shots are taken from a Robinson R22 helicopter which I hired to fly me over LAX. The helicopter company was called Star Helicopters and they do aerial tours of the surrounding area including a 'plane spotters' package over LAX from the nearby Hawthorne Municipal Airport. They have three zones in which they hover the helicopter, one is at or near the east end of the 25 runways which includes the cargo ramp area, one is directly over the terminals in the centre of the airfield and the other is at the west end of the 24 runways. To transition to this spot we have to fly a hundred feet along the beach to avoid outbound aircraft, amazing! Star Helicopters requires 24 hour notice of these flights for permission and clearances from ATC but once we are in the air you can hear the conversations back and forth between all the flights in and out of LAX on your headset. It was quite an experience. I took this shot as we hovered over the east end of the airport. Unfortunately for me the clouds rolled in earlier in the morning and I missed the daily A380 parade which includes A380's from Lufthansa, Air France, British Airways and Korean to name a few. While I was airborne, the clouds became a fine mist which spoiled most of the 450 shots I took in the 45 minutes I was up there. I used a 100-400mm lens on a crop sensor body giving me an effective focal length of 640mm at the long end, which is what I used to snap the Emirates A380 as she was landing on the 24's. If you ever get the chance I highly recommend it, the pilots are highly enthusiastic and will do pretty much whatever you want in order to get your shots (within the rules of course). It cost me $300US for one hour. High shutter speed to overcome the vibration from the helicopter and the wind, (my door was off) and a single lens, it would be very difficult to change lenses I think. I took 450 shots from the helicopter and kept less than 40!

Wow, that is dedication, and the results are outstanding. Well done!

Great capture

Fantastic! Thanks for the details

Google earth :
33°57'12.89"N 118°23'44.51"O
distance :! 115m
Direction : 2.°
Inclinaison : 61°
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UNBELIEVABLE PICTURE.

Words fail me, what a great shot, fantastic shooting point.

Great shot and I have been wondering how these shots were taken. This is on my bucket list to capture the same shots. Mark since like the helicoptor shots try the same thing in England fly with a spitfire over the white cliffs of dover. Action stations is one of the companies. Very exspensive at around £350.00 to £900.00 pounds or even fly in the spitfire for a cool £2500.00 pounds.

Thanks for the comments guys! I would definitely recommend this to anybody!

Nice.

Very nice. Très bien

Merci Jean-Marie!

I would like to know if you have any problems with me, since I see that all the photos that I upload are stolen according to your comments. If you both bothered what I do please just do not enter my photos. I would thank you from the heart.

nice pic,still like the 747 much more

My first shot to reach 50,000 views! A huge thank you to everyone who's had a look at my shots, I love taking them!

Congrats Mark! You certainly have earned that distinction :)

Well Done!

Thanks Dave!!

I've seen this picture several times but I haven't commented yet... Great shot!!!

Thanks Tyler!

Amazing photo Mark.......

I've only captured aircraft out the window of my rented Cessna 172 !

Fantastic shot.

Thanks Ken!

Nice shot!! Star Helicopters?

Great shot! Your photos are amazing!

Thank you!

Beautiful capture

CAN'T MISTAKE FINAL TO LAX!!

To me, one of the craziest and most beautiful planes of all time. Also, thank you
Mark for taking this amazing picture for everyone on FlightAware to see

Absolutely amazing shot! Thanks for explaining how you did it.