At International Aviation HQ, we often throw around the term “Avgeek”, they are often the people who read our site, but we have never defined what they are. So, what is an “Av Geek”?
The term “Avgeek” only appeared relatively recently. The term is used by millennials to describe people who are fans of aircraft, airlines and any other aviation related topics!
History
Whilst not explicitly called “Av Geeks”, the heritage of aviation lovers can be traced back to even before we began to fly!
Since the Roman and Greek times, man has wondered what it would be like to learn how to fly. It’s even likely that people before the Greeks wondered what it would be like to fly, although the Greeks were the first to write it down!
Throughout the years, this has led many people to try to learn to fly, whether from studying birds, or trying to work out why we can’t fly!
This led to the invention of the wingsuit and the theory of gravity!
Then, in 1903, we finally managed to do it! The Wright brothers finally managed to get humanity flying!
Since that first fateful day in Kitty Hawk, more and more people have become interested in aviation. Each year since 1903, the interest in aviation has only grown. Never faltering.
Fast forward 100 or so years, and there has never been more people interested in aviation!
The term “Avgeek” only really began to appear in the mid 2010’s. The term was used by the youngest members of the aviation community to describe themselves.
Since then, the term has been thrown around on message boards, forums, blogs, and even major media outlets to describe lovers of aviation!
Before that, the group who would go on to be called “Av Geeks” would’ve simply called themselves “aviation fans” or “people who like aviation” or a number of other terms.
Even people in the Air Capital of the world (Wichita) would’ve used these terms! People like William Boeing, Clyde Cessna and Lloyd Stearman would’ve used these terms!
However, despite the fact that this is what many have come to know the group as, it is only a small percentage of people in the group that use the term.
And more are increasingly hating the term, as it doesn’t necessarily encompass everyone!
What do “Avgeeks” do?
“Av Geeks” aren’t aviation professionals, rather preferring to admire the industry from a distance, rather than actually working in it!
Plane spotting
Av Geeks are famous for their plane spotting abilities. Many Avgeeks spend their time near local airports or air fields watching various planes come in to land and take off!
Often, Avgeeks can tell the aircraft type simply from the rumble of the engine! For example, they know that when comparing an A350 with a 787, the A350 is slightly quieter!
Av Geeks are also famous for knowing the different liveries (paint schemes) of different aircraft and different airlines! They can tell apart the different airline alliances and different airlines from the way the aircraft is painted!
Often, these Avgeeks accompany their plane spotting with photography or checklist of different aircraft they’d love to see!
Aviation Photography
With that being said, Av Geeks are famous for their aviation photography skills! Many spend hundreds, if not thousands on their photography equipment.
Many are talent photographers in their own right as well!
Av Geeks tend to have an innate sense of how to best angle the camera to get the best shot, or the best place to stand in order to do so!
As a result, many of these photographers have impressive photo collections that are available on sites like Flickr!
When I went to RIAT, there were hundreds of people, many with cameras worth five figures, all taking pictures of all the different aircraft. Both static and flying aircraft!
Fly on airlines
For some Avgeeks, sitting in a car park of an airport, or freezing half to death in order to get that perfect shot, isn’t what motivates them. It’s simply the flying itself that motivates them!
For many Av Geeks, they love flying on airlines! Most of them do it out of their own pocket, although, due to the sheer amount they fly, many are able to get free upgrades or flights due to airline loyalty schemes!
Many Avgeeks spend their free time jetsetting across Europe, the US and the world, in all different classes on all different airlines, just for the thrills that it brings them!
It’s nothing more than that, nothing less than that!
Social media
Many Avgeeks spend hours going through social media.
Sites like Instagram, Twitter and Facebook have all become homes to large aviation communities, who discuss, argue and debate the recent av news, events and topics!
Social media has also become home to a quiz subculture, where Av Geeks from around the world come together to test one another on various aviation topics.
Sometimes, these are pictures of an aircraft, other times, it is videos of aircraft taking off or landing. Then, the aim is to guess correctly what the aircraft is and the airline it is flying with!
Social media too has become home to many aviation photographers, who share their amazing photos with the world, rather than just putting those images on the internet!
Forums
With the advent of the internet, came the birth of niche forums. Many of these niche forums became aviation-related ones!
As such, many Avgeeks have taken to aviation forums to debate, discuss and occasionally argue about all things aviation!
Some of the largest aviation forums are:
Many of these sites have become tight knit communities of aviation lovers, from all over the world, despite the fact that some of them may live on opposite sides of the planet to one another!
These sites have also become a home where new aviators can come to ask those obvious questions that they don’t know the answers to!
Fly yourself
Many Av Geeks have taken the time to learn how to fly themselves!
Instead of sitting there photographing or spotting different types of aircraft, some av geeks choose to fly in their own aircraft!
It’s certainly not cheap to do this, but for those who do it, they’d say that it’s totally worth it!
Most of these Avgeeks tend to fly small single engine piston aircraft like the Cessna 152 or 172, rather than big aircraft like the 747!
Collect models
For others, collecting models is the only (or the preferred way) to show that they’re an Av Geek!
And the thing is, that there are several ways you can collect models!
Some people collect Airfix/Revell aircraft models and build and paint them, whereas others tend to collect pre-built ones or 1:2000 scale models that they have to partially assemble!
Do you consider yourself to be an Avgeek? Tell me in the comments!
Featured Image courtesy of the US Navy