Boeing 757-200 (N421UP)

After finishing up my morning of spotting, I went home and the next day I d-led the pics and looked them over. And it was only then that I noticed the copilot. In this pic, and in the three snaps previous to this one AND in the next five snaps taken after this one in the sequence, he is looking at me. I wasn't certain at first, but I noted that even as the B752 passed by my position his head continued to turn so he could see me. And then I began wondering ... when he first noticed me, did he perhaps think that I was holding a drone controller in my hands? Until I saw him definitely watching me in this series, I had never thought of it, but I suppose that pilots are especially alert nowadays to anything that looks like someone is flying a drone near an airport. And they certainly have every reason to be wary: twice in the past five days the air tankers being used to fight wildfires near here have been grounded because drones were sighted. And just over a week ago, a drone came within 150 feet of a Washoe County police helicopter making a water drop. In the future, I'll try to make it more evident that I'm holding a camera and not a drone controller.

It is possible. The best one I have was a C-130 and there were two crew members looking at the lower cheek windows at me when I was taking pictures.

Nice shot by the way.....

Another EXCELLENT shot Gary!

I wouldn't worry too much about him thinking you were a drone operator because I know you spot with a scanner and you would have definitely heard him tell the tower if he thought anything of the sort, my guess would be that he was just interested in the fact that you were taking pictures of the a/c. Don't get me wrong drones scare the H*** out of me as a pilot because they are so small and hard to see, not to mention that a lot of people operating them probably got them from Radio Shack and have no idea that they are interfering with a/c. I'm not sure if it is the same up by you or if this was just for a shot time, but down here we had a fairly serious problem with drones in the mountains just to the north of the approach path to LAX (and the LA Basin area is also the second busiest GA airspace behind NY), so the Air Force was authorized for a while to just go and shoot them down provided they were over non- populated areas and considered mostly safe to do so... not sure if they actually shot any down or if that authorization still exists, but it did for a time.

Very nice picture, Gary! And I'm guessing he could tell you were using a camera. You wouldn't be holding the drone controls up in front of your face. He might have even seen you out there before on a previous trip. But it probably is a valid concern.

Great picture Gary! 5*++

Maybe he was wishing he was in your shoes Gary, taking pics of that beautiful aircraft!

Hope the Co-Pilot wasn't PIC, great shot Gary!

Speaking of air tankers; has anyone seen the latest of the "Big Birds"? See the Video:
http://www.avweb.com/avwebflash/news/Converted-747-Now-Largest-Firefighter-226180-1.html