Appears that while all official spots are closed, anywhere you go to attempt to watch them now, controllers in the TWR callup the airport police and report spotters (they find them thru the binoculars looking over the field) to have them kicked off airport property. What amazes me is it's the controllers who are reporting the spotters. Has anyone heard of anywhere else that does this? It's made me furious....
Well, I suppose that technically if a spotter is on airport property, officials do have the authority to remove them from the property.
However, many airports also have optimal spotting areas from just outside their property and there is no law in the US that prevents someone from watching aircraft from public land. Is this not the case at your airport?
There was an interesting thread in the rec.aviation.piloting newsgroup last year posted by someone who was harassed by a "rent-a-cop" for parking on public property outside an airport fence to watch aircraft. This thread was a reminder that power, in any size or form, can corrupt the individual granted the responsibility to exercise it.
