New to Sydney- a few spotting questions

[Nick Peterman]

Hello! My name is Nick Peterman, and I'm an American photographer/spotter who will be spending the next 5-or-so months at university in Sydney. I wanted to briefly introduce myself in case I bump in to one of you out there (I'll probably be the guy who looks hopelessly lost and/or excited to see "boring" things like Qantas 737s). As a moderator on a photography site here in the USA, I know how annoying these questions from newbies can be, so I have tried to avail myself of the info here on the site, and wondered if someone could answer a quick few questions for me.

1st- in the mornings at Qantas drive, how much lense is too much? I'm shooting with a 7D and a 100-400 & 28-135.

2nd- is there any noteworthy rule for determining runway usage other than prevailing winds, such as time, day of the week, etc? (It seems to me that most heavy arrivals land on 16R for example)

3rd- is there somewhere good to shoot 34L departures in the AM, and somewhere good to shoot 16R arrivals in the PM while they are still in the air (so not from the beach)

That's about all I can think of for now, but I'm sure I will think of something else when I get down there in a few weeks. At any rate, I'd really appreciate any help you guys might be able to offer. I look forward to hopefully meeting some of you out there!


Cheers,

Nick