World's largest airliners over Poland

Though not an aircraft that is likely to be setting down at any Polish airport anytime soon, the Airbus A380 is a regular visitor to Polish skies. All three airlines that fly this type - Singapore, Emirates and Qantas, all overfly Poland. To catch them, all you need is a long, long, lens, a cloudless day - and to be at the right place at the right time.

Below: Emirates Airbus A380 at 38,000ft over Mazowsze, photographed from Jeziorki on 11 January, headed for Dubai from New York (click to enlarge).

Below: A Qantas A380 over Małopolska (pic taken in Dobra on 18 January 2008, the second day of scheduled flights from London to Sydney). In both cases, I could see with the naked eye that the four-engined airliner was an A380 (fatter fuselage than either the Boeing 747 or Airbus A340), and had enough time to change lens and use the Nikkor 80-400mm zoom. Next purchase - a two-times extender. [I learn that teleconverters don't work with this particular lens]

If these pics appeal, there's an excellent Polish website, http://extremespotting.com, run by some guys down in Jasło and Bochnia, in south-eastern Poland. Using high-powered optics, they take photos of planes at great altitudes - even satellites in orbit!

This pic - taken from Bochnia a day earlier, of the same plane making the inaugural flight to Sydney - show what these guys are capable of. Bochnia is some 30km north of Dobra, plus the lens used was three times longer than this one.

This time last year:
Getting ready for Lent