Spotting at Boca Raton Airport

The observation deck

The public observation deck is beside runway 5/23, about 650 ft in from the runway's northeast end, on its southeast side. From the deck you look northwest across the runway.

Map position: 26.38267, -80.10162

Runway 23 or runway 05

Boca Raton Airport has one runway, 5/23, used in either direction. Which way it is in use decides what you see from the deck.

• Runway 23 Arrivals touch down right in front of the deck.
• Runway 05 Departures lift off and climb out past the deck. Arrivals touch down at the far end.

Of the takeoffs, landings and low passes in the 29 days of flight tracks on file, 72% used runway 05 and 28% used runway 23.

The light

Worked out from the sun's position at the deck, for the 15th of each month, in local time. Golden hour here means the sun between 6 degrees above and 4 degrees below the horizon.

• Across the runway (aircraft passing in front of you, either direction): the sun is behind you in the morning golden hour, all year.
• Looking northeast (arrivals on 23, coming toward you): the sun is behind you in the evening golden hour, every month but June.
• Looking southwest (arrivals and departures on 05, coming toward you): the sun is behind you in the morning golden hour, every month but January and December.

Golden hour at the deck

When the sun is behind you

The hours of the day when the sun is at your back, for each way you can point the camera at a plane coming toward you or passing in front of you. A plane going away from you shows its tail and belly, so those shots are left out.

When the jets fly

Jets within 5 nm of the field and below 3,000 ft, by hour of the day, averaged over the 29 days of flight tracks on file, between Jan 3, 2025 and Oct 28, 2026. Those days are not every day in that span, and these averages say nothing about the days that are not on file.

The busiest hours on file: 12 PM, 1 PM and 3 PM.

1. 12 AM0.9
2. 1 AM0.4
3. 2 AM0.3
4. 3 AM0.1
5. 4 AM0.1
6. 5 AM0.4
7. 6 AM1.0
8. 7 AM3.6
9. 8 AM6.7
10. 9 AM7.6
11. 10 AM9.9
12. 11 AM10.9
13. 12 PM11.9
14. 1 PM12.4
15. 2 PM11.2
16. 3 PM11.6
17. 4 PM11.2
18. 5 PM10.1
19. 6 PM8.1
20. 7 PM6.2
21. 8 PM3.8
22. 9 PM2.6
23. 10 PM1.6
24. 11 PM1.4

Jets per hour, local time. Flight data: adsb.lol (ODbL).