(real planes) Some single engine aicraft photos I took.

Try this.  Go into the airport to one of the fixed base operators, and enquire about taking lessons.  Just get rates and stuff.  Say you need to take some time and see if you can budget for the lessons.  While there, mention your model-building hobby, and ask if it is okay to take some pictures of his planes.

Well the smaller one by me is setup so if they put stuff in the chain link, they'd have an aweful time.  It's still tough to see through the fence but there is a nice large berm right there, which links to a field that is an off leash dog park, tecfhnically the berm has a no tresspassing sign on it, but you can walk right up to it and as long as you don't pass it they leave you alone.  They leave all the joggers alone who ignore it completely though.

On a high note however, a friend of my mothers is a pilot out there, he said come right on in, but Idon't know the ropes so to speak so I'm gonna get in contact with him about introducing me to some people and to see where it'd be good to park and where to go not to go.  

On a higher note, I was able to get approved for a small credit card and picked up a telephoto lens with it and got a great deal in the process.  I'll have the lens paid off long before the interest pops in so I'm happy about it.  I went out the next day where they were having an open event, volunteer pilots were taking people up on free flights to get them interested in aviation.  So there was alot of traffic and I got several hundred photo's and some nicely painted aircraft.  I will post some of them and a link to the gallery when Ihave the time to upload them.

Yep.  Before 9-11, people used to pull in the side roads, park and get out and watch the aircraft landing and taking off with their families.  They'd make it a regular outing.  Afterward, they covered the fencing, so you only get a decent view when driving by in a truck.  Sad.

OTOH, the local general use airport near the house, I remember my Dad and I driving right down the ramp to go look at aircraft parked there.  Never a bother.  I wasn't worried, though, as my Dad was a retired AF pilot (always carrying his military ID), and retired corporate pilot, so we weren't worried about the questions, although never got stopped.

Gene Beaird,

Pearland, Texas

nice pictures 

sad about your use of the observation area.

my local GA airport put  slats in the perimeter chain link, to cut of viewing the runway as you drive by 

This one has a towr4e, and they are generally pretty lax but it's owned by the bigger airpot up the road a peice, and they are VERY anal retentive about it.  I've had the police called on me several times sitting in the observation lot outside the fence that was put up for the purpose I use it for.  I know it's them as I have my scanner tuned in on the tower frequency, LOL.  The cops kind of roll up and see that I'm there with a camera, instead of a rocket launcher and then move on with nary a wave.

Depends on the field, but as long as you are not endangering yourself, on many airports you will not be bothered.  Try to stay off the tarmac (operating area) as much as possible- stay on  grass. If the airport has a control tower that complicates things, as the tower folk tend to keep an eye on the ramp.  But most airports in US do not have tower, and few of them are very restrictive of visitors.

I've been thinking about contacting a couple of the clubs out there as there are some rather interesting color schemes parked out there I'd like to go onto the tarmac and take some photos.

One of the things I like about modeling civil aircraft is the ease of obtaining documentation.  Fortunately, even in this day of paranoia, most smaller airports are quite accessible.  One of my model clubs (TCAH) meets at a general av airport, so I usually take a camera along when I go to meetings, in case any new and different plane(s) are parked on ramp.  I also took a couple of pics of the ramp of another airport I visit a lot, to use as a photo backdrop when I photograph my civil aircraft models.