I can see my house from here

[SectorZ]

Before living in my current location, I lived in Fitchburg Mass for around a decade. My development (at 700 feet above sea level) was on a hill that had a very clear view of Mount Wachusett (2006 feet above sea level) 7.2 miles away on a line.

One Spring day, before leaf up, I was curious if I could achieve the opposite view. With a pair of binoculars from the observation deck on the summit of Wachusett, I could actually see my house. I could see the development of 6 houses without binoculars, but needed them to see my own house.

Has anyone been able to spot their house, likely with the aid of binoculars or a telescope, from a rather large distance?

[SEWIGuy]

Back when I lived in southern Wisconsin, and I was usually flying Madison to O'Hare to elsewhere for work, on the return trip I would sit on the left hand side of the plane and could routinely pick out my house.

[TheHighwayMan3561]

Back when I lived in southern Wisconsin, and I was usually flying Madison to O'Hare to elsewhere for work, on the return trip I would sit on the left hand side of the plane and could routinely pick out my house.

Damn, are you in the air all of 20 minutes for Madison-O'Hare?

[SEWIGuy]

Back when I lived in southern Wisconsin, and I was usually flying Madison to O'Hare to elsewhere for work, on the return trip I would sit on the left hand side of the plane and could routinely pick out my house.

Damn, are you in the air all of 20 minutes for Madison-O'Hare?

Yeah pretty much.  O'Hare to Milwaukee is even better. 

The last few years I lived there, I started to fly more out of Milwaukee.  Longer drive but cheaper airfare and more direct options.

[1995hoo]

Occasionally when I've been on a flight into Reagan and they've been using the southern approach, the plane has passed over my neighborhood and I've been able to pick out both my house and one of my cars from the air.

Other than from the air, there wouldn't be any good way to pick out my house or neighborhood from a distance* due to topography. The best place around here from which to try would be from the top of the George Washington National Masonic Memorial in Alexandria, but when I tried that in July 2018 (aided by binoculars) I was unsuccessful–the topography and the trees prevent that. (Great view from up there, though, worth the visit.)

*"From a distance" denoting there are two office buildings at the nearby shopping center and if I could get up on their roofs during the winter, maybe I could see my neighborhood through the trees, but they're so close by that it would be fairly unremarkable.

[thspfc]

I can see my house from my neighbor's driveway. About 40 feet away. It was shocking when I realized this.

[webny99]

All incoming flights to ROC from points west do a loop around the city on their way in, making landing back at home one of the most interesting and fun parts of air travel.

I've never actually identified my house (too high an elevation over the east side of town for that, and it's often dark), but I could certainly give a good approximation.

[ftballfan]

Many years ago, my dad was on a flight into MBL and flew right over his parents' house (which is where I live now), but his plane couldn't land due to weather conditions, so they went back to MKG

[Rothman]

All incoming flights to ROC from points west do a loop around the city on their way in, making landing back at home one of the most interesting and fun parts of air travel.

I've never actually identified my house (too high an elevation over the east side of town for that, and it's often dark), but I could certainly give a good approximation.

Approaches are dependent upon the active runway, which can change due to wind direction.

[webny99]

All incoming flights to ROC from points west do a loop around the city on their way in, making landing back at home one of the most interesting and fun parts of air travel. ...

Approaches are dependent upon the active runway, which can change due to wind direction.

Maybe at larger airports, but ROC is so small that I've never had it vary.

[Rothman]

All incoming flights to ROC from points west do a loop around the city on their way in, making landing back at home one of the most interesting and fun parts of air travel. ...

Approaches are dependent upon the active runway, which can change due to wind direction.

Maybe at larger airports, but ROC is so small that I've never had it vary.

No, it's true at all airports.  Even airports with one runway have two designations (one for each direction).  You'd be surprised how often the active runway changes.

Somehow, I doubt that you're flying multiple times a week.

[formulanone]

All incoming flights to ROC from points west do a loop around the city on their way in, making landing back at home one of the most interesting and fun parts of air travel. ...

Approaches are dependent upon the active runway, which can change due to wind direction.

Maybe at larger airports, but ROC is so small that I've never had it vary.

No, it's true at all airports.  Even airports with one runway have two designations (one for each direction).  You'd be surprised how often the active runway changes.

Somehow, I doubt that you're flying multiple times a week.

All incoming flights to ROC from points west do a loop around the city on their way in, making landing back at home one of the most interesting and fun parts of air travel. ...

Approaches are dependent upon the active runway, which can change due to wind direction.

Maybe at larger airports, but ROC is so small that I've never had it vary.

No, it's true at all airports.  Even airports with one runway have two designations (one for each direction).  You'd be surprised how often the active runway changes.

Somehow, I doubt that you're flying multiple times a week.

There's also weather, destinations, other aircraft, and pilot ability which also makes up some unusual approaches. The last 3-5 minutes of the take-off or landing are usually very similar, unless you have several active runways to choose from.

[webny99]

No, it's true at all airports.  Even airports with one runway have two designations (one for each direction).  You'd be surprised how often the active runway changes.

Somehow, I doubt that you're flying multiple times a week.

Well, of course I'm not flying all the time, especially now. I'm not disputing that the active runway could/does change, but formulanone describes my roughly 30 or so experiences with landing in ROC:

The last 3-5 minutes of the take-off or landing are usually very similar, unless you have several active runways to choose from.

[Rothman]

No, it's true at all airports.  Even airports with one runway have two designations (one for each direction).  You'd be surprised how often the active runway changes.

Somehow, I doubt that you're flying multiple times a week.

Well, of course I'm not flying all the time, especially now. I'm not disputing that the active runway could/does change, but formulanone describes my roughly 30 or so experiences with landing in ROC:

The last 3-5 minutes of the take-off or landing are usually very similar, unless you have several active runways to choose from.

Of course the last 3-5 minutes are going to feel similar, but the approaches commercial planes follow on their IFR plans start out much, much further than that.

KROC has two runways -- 4-22 and 10-28.  Depending upon wind direction, the plane could be headed for 4, 22, 10 or 28.  So, again, it's nice that you have 30 flights under your belt, but the approaches are definitely not the same all the time.

[US 89]

Flying to the same airport, even from the same origin, never gets boring because there are always slight differences. I fly ATL-SLC fairly often and it's always neat to look at exactly how far north or south we are - and it can vary substantially. Sometimes we fly over Kansas City, but sometimes we're further south than Tulsa or even Oklahoma City.

And even if you're landing on the same runway each time, there can be wildly different approaches to get there. Most of my ATL-SLC flights in the past couple years have landed at the north ends of the runways: sometimes we'll come in over Wyoming and Logan and turn south, but other times we come in from the southeast, fly past the airport several miles to the west, then flip around near Farmington.

As for which approach/runway you land on: the active runways shift around so that planes can land into the wind as much as possible. At Salt Lake City, for example, there are usually two wind shifts a day, one in mid-morning and one in early evening, due to the effects of the Great Salt Lake and local topography. During the day, you'll usually get a breeze blowing off the lake up into the Salt Lake Valley, so you'll almost always be landing and taking off towards the north (runways 34L, 34R, 35). But when the wind switches to a down-valley, lakeward breeze at night, you'll come in towards the south (17, 16L, 16R). I'm not familiar with the local wind patterns in Rochester, but if you're always flying in at the same time of day, there's a decent chance you'll land the same direction each time.

[webny99]

I'm not familiar with the local wind patterns in Rochester, but if you're always flying in at the same time of day, there's a decent chance you'll land the same direction each time.

Prevailing winds are from the west year-round. That could definitely be part of it, because most of the landings I can immediately think of have been afternoon, evening, or night (owing to the fact that it's a small airport with a high concentration of outbound flights in the early morning, while most inbound flights are collecting passengers from other hubs, thus arriving throughout the afternoon and evening).

[Max Rockatansky]

I could see my house from the top of Piestwa Peak in Phoenix.  It was only about two miles due north of said peak over AZ 51. 

[frankenroad]

Considering I live in a high-rise on top of a hill- my building can be seen from several vantage points around town, some several miles away.