Back in 2018, when I was 8 years old, my mom and I used to go get lunch and drive to Albany Airport on the weekends. We’d park at the observation lot and watch planes take off and land. I really enjoyed it, especially seeing all the different types of planes—big ones, small ones, all kinds. If you look to the left you can see my first picture. We did this almost every weekend plane spotting after school, and I loved it.

In 2020, I slowly stopped going, but in 2021, I got back into it. I started watching planes from my house and realized I still loved aviation. That’s also when I found out about FlightRadar24, which is this awesome app that shows you where flights are coming from, going to, what kind of plane it is, and other cool info. I got kind of addicted to it and started tracking flights all the time. I could even tell when a plane was taking off and where it was headed just by checking the app.

From all of this, I also started learning about aircraft types. I taught myself the different models of Boeing and Airbus planes just by plane spotting and using FlightRadar24. I can now tell the difference between a 737, 747, A320, A350, and more just by looking at them. That made plane spotting even more fun for me.

Then I started learning about liveries—which are like the paint jobs or special designs on planes. At Albany Airport, I started going back to my favorite spotting spot whenever I knew a special livery was coming in. For Southwest, I’ve seen almost all of them: Freedom One, California One, Maryland One, Desert Gold, Tennessee One, Lone Star One, Florida One, New Mexico One, Arizona One, and more. For JetBlue, I’ve seen liveries like the FDNY, Boston Bruins, Boston Celtics, BlueRica, New York Jets, Vacations, and Mint. It was really cool getting to spot all of those and try to see everyone I could.

TikTok, I created my account on January 27, 2022, and I post all kinds of aviation videos and plane spotting clips there. With my content, I got followers and so far as May 1, 2025 I have 1512 followers, and people asked me how to get into aviation and how to start and I inspired them, and it became their passion. This is the first social media platinum form that all my content was aviation, and my TikTok account is @albanyplanespotter, 

YouTube On May 28, 2022, I started a YouTube channel called @albanyplanespotter. I post plane spotting videos of all of the livery’s I’ve seen. I started with zero subscribers and now have 640 as of May 1, 2025.

On May 31, 2022 I started an Instagram account called @albanyplanespotter, where I post my favorite plane photos. Albany Airport and Million Air Albany have both liked my photos, and one time JetBlue even reached out to ask if they could use a picture I took on their social media. That was a really cool moment for me. So far as of May 1, 2025 I have 259 followers.

Making these social media accounts has made me connect to people who have the same interest as me with aviation. This has expanded my knowledge learning more stuff about aviation.

One of the coolest things I ever saw while plane spotting was on August 24, 2024. My flight got delayed at Dulles Airport, so I went spotting and saw an Emirates A380 going to Dubai. That’s a plane I’ve always wanted to see because I have a model of it at home. The size and colors were amazing in real life. Then while we were taxiing, I even saw Trump Force One, which was super unexpected and awesome—I even got a great picture of it.

After that, I started gliding,and now I don’t have as much time to go plane spotting like I used to. But spotting planes is what got me into aviation in the first place and wanting to be a pilot. It’s what started all of this for me. Watching planes, learning about them, and sharing that online is how my whole aviation journey began—and it’s just the beginning.