Katie Park



Katie Park is a self proclaimed #avgeek. Since a young age, Park has always been fascinated with the airplanes passing overhead. Growing up in Conway, Florida, a southeastern suburb of Orlando, Park grew up watching planes full of excited tourists come into final approach at Orlando International Airport (MCO/KMCO).

“I grew up in Conway which is like right next to the furthest west runway at the airport. When we were little, all my friends would be playing at the playground and I would be there, but I would always lay on the slides and just watch the planes come in to land.”

Map of Conway, Florida in relation to the Orlando International Airport. Map from Google, 2018.

It should come as no surprise that when Park got her driver’s license, she picked up a new hobby: plane spotting.

“When I turned 16, first thing. I got a camera that I had been saving up for, and I drove myself to the airport. I have now done this hundreds of times, and even now living in a new city, I still do it.”

In 2016, Park graduated from college and took a job in Atlanta. As a spotter, she was excited to call the world’s busiest airport her home field.

“I was super excited about moving up here. There’s literally a plane that takes off or lands every like 27 seconds or something crazy like that. There’s always something to see. What there is not, however, is diversity. (laughs) Basically every plane is Delta, unless you come in the evening for the international rush, but then the pictures are so blurry because it’s a dusk shoot.”

Get to know Katie Park in this audio interview. Ian Webb, 2018.

Park has expressed her desire to make a career shift into the aviation world, if not to get just a few yards closer to the airfield. Whether she actually makes the switch, she says, is still up in the air, but you can count on her sitting on the top of the domestic south parking deck every Saturday.