Just a Gwai Lo fun within prescribed limits [?]

Earlier this year, in a cynical (and successful) attempt to increase my traffic, I linked to a bunch of photos of the Airbus A380 superjumbo jet landing at Vancouver International Airport, and even had the keywords in my tagline, just in case. After getting back from Toronto last week, I read that the airplane made another visit to YVR (in fact, it was the increased search activity to my site which tipped me off), which Vancouver-area planespotters documented on Flickr. Below are the Creative Commons licensed photos that I found so far:

A380 at first light. by John M (2007)

A380 Gear Up by John M (2007)

A380 Ready for sunrise by John M (2007)

A380 Taking Off by John M (2007)

The following images are full copyright, so therefore don't appear in this blog post, but they're worth checking out:

• A380 departing YVR and Airbus A380 Superjumbo at YVR by Dan Barns of Hardwired Industries
• jspitfire's photos
• A380 in Vancouver Again by glenn.

I did a simple search for 'yvr' and a380' in Flickr tags, so if there are more I've missed, I'll add them here.

A non-childhood dream of mine is to learn how to fly an airplane, but the money and time and effort involved are scaring me off. In the meantime I've been following Jon Patch's blog about Vancouver+, the better-than-the-default scenery for the Lower Mainland for Flight Simulator X. I have the the trial version on the Windows side of my MacBook, which limits me to 2 options: a free flight and an landing activity at Princess Juliana Airport (so far after about 5 hours of trying I've never been able to successfully complete it). Today Jon links to more detail about how he created the Vancouver+ scenery with more screenshots and information about how they came about technical details for airports, buildings and bridges. Also discussed: Pitt Meadows Airport, Langley Regional Airport, Hope, Lytton, Pemberton, and Whistler.