Davis-Monthan AFB

1South Wilmot Road

Moving up and down (depending on the time of day you are there, and the suns position) South Wilmot Road will give you nice views on traffic landing on runway 30.

2East Technical Drive

Traffic landing on runway 12 can be seen, and photographed, from the East Technical Drive. You get here, from spot 1, by taking Valencia Road, joining I-10, continuing on South Alvernon Way and turning left after 2 miles. This will take you about 10 minutes. Be advised, you're in a built up area, traffic may not appear early and people may not feel too happy with your presence there!

3Pima

The Pima Air and Space Museum. Filled with lots and lots of aircraft, mostly here after a stay at AMARG. Excellent material for a visit, as it is a museum (good excuse for a family trip) and you can still watch the proceedings at Davis-Monthan AFB.

4Scrapyards 1 / Herks

From Valencia Road northwards South Wilmot Road (and after a right turn, East Drexel Road) houses some pretty interesting scrapyards, or 'aviation parts resellers'. These sell parts (up to entire aircraft) to operators all over the world. Don't go in unless you have been cleared to do so by the owner/responsible manager!
If you continue on South Wilmot road you will reach an alternate gate of DMAFB, from here you can see the Hercules ramp.

5Scrapyards 2

On Valencia, coming from Pima take the first right after the airbase (South Craycroft Road). Keep following this road (there's a left, right and left turn ahead). Continue this road, turn right and take first right: East Nebraska Street. At the end of this street you'll find a scrapyard with mostly transport aircraft from C-117 to C-130.

6AMARG

South Kolb Road divides AMARG into two parts. It is possible to walk along the fence, reading off and photographing the aircraft near the fences. Same goes for the AMARG sections near Escalante and Irvington. Great hunting, but make sure you bring enough water and sunblock. Keep a sharp lookout for local six and eight legged animals, they do sting when stumbled upon! Also, the many new hangars around the process-in ramps obscure most of the views of that area nowadays.

7Windy point vista

Not visible on the map is Windy point vista. It is 26km to the North-Northeast, as the crow flies. However, it provides a decent overview if you have a strong 'scope. You are at 2.0km/6.600ft elevation. Best when there are no heatwaves, early in the morning. Open 24/7.

8Sentinel park

Sentinel park is a peak some 11km to the Northwest of DMAFB. You have a different angle compared to Windy point. But this one is not open in the early morning yet. It closes at/after sunset so probably better late afternoon on a not-so-hot day...

9Tanque verde ridge trail

This is a ridge about 13km East of AMARG. It is part of the Saguaro park so you will have to buy a week-pass (USD25 by car, that grands you access to various other parks as well.) Besides that, you will have to hike for about 3 km, with 350meters/1000 ft altitude to gain, to reach a decent spot. Also, it opens at 0900, a bit too late for our purposes. Unless it is clouded of course. We have not checked this spot out yet, please share your experience!