Mind you, they must have looked damn suspicious getting the airframe numbers of the planes, with looong binoculars, and writing them all down. Reading S/N plates of planes with binoculars is a part of the activity. You have to be slightly dim to be doing that in a country which really does (or did) expect an invasion from its neighbour which has proved it is quite happy to do it and get away with it.
I think plane (and trainspotting) is pretty much a UK only thing, and people in other countries can’t quite understand it. (Enough people in the UK don’t understand why someone would note down aircraft registrations for a hobby either).
However, I appreciate the plane spotters – I can find lots of really nice pictures of my aircraft online, taken with much better equipment than I would ever own and new ones keep showing up. But the only picture of the C140 that I had in the States that I can find online is one I took, because there just really aren’t plane spotters there to do the job.
alioth wrote:
I think plane (and trainspotting) is pretty much a UK only thing
A lot of airports in Germany have designated plane spotter places with signs etc. Our airport got a new plain spotter hill, especially constructed to address the needs of this group.
Almost as pointless as spending one’s time in aviation forums discussing Cirrus chutes and how many lives were saved … 
alioth wrote:
But the only picture of the C140 that I had in the States that I can find online is one I took, because there just really aren’t plane spotters there to do the job
I’ve noticed photos of my planes in the US… taken by UK based plane spotters!!
