THE FINAL APPROACH TO MANCHESTER AIRPORT runs south west over the eastern part of Greater Manchester, descending over the Pennines, Oldham, Tameside and Stockport, passing over Heald Green before touchdown at Ringway. When there's a north easterly wind, approach is from the south west, over north east Cheshire.

Scores of aircraft make the descent every day, and when the weather's clear, there are fantastic views over the conurbation and the countryside all around. Here are some porthole views that will be familiar to many airline passengers arriving at, or departing from Manchester Airport. Can you recognise the locations? Click at the bottom of the page to find the answers.

Below us is a town centre, crossed by two railway lines and many roads. The clue to the identity of this town in the east of Greater Manchester is the roundabout - there are three of them as you drive from one side of this town to the other.

There's a church next to the roundabout centre left- and in the middle of the roundabout is a telephone exchange.

Below us to the right is a college - you can see the cars parked in the car park.

Can you name this town?

An interesting arrangement of streets extends below us, almost in a grid pattern in the bottom. What's that green area with the arrangement of lines and circles?

And up at the top of the picture are factory buildings, with a scrap yart towards the top right.

Is that a fire station in the upper left centre?

There are many residential streets in this locality.

Do you recognise it?

This is an overspill housing estate - four tower blocks are visible, set amongst gently curving streets lined with houses.

Greenery is all around, and what's that to the top left of the picture? A river? A canal?

Where is this?

There's no mistaking the recently-opened megastore of a very well-known DIY chain, taking advantage of an excellent marketing opportunity.

Red brick houses lie to the upper left, and on the top right is a railway - the overhead electric gantries are clearly visible.

Skirting the very bottom of the picture is a motorway - Which one?

And there's a new road running alongside it. There's no trace now of the railway line that used to run along here. There are more commercial buildings, all recently constructed, to the right and left.

Yes, we see familiar patterns of contemporary urban planning, but which town is this?

Rows of neat, red-roofed houses line leafy roads, extending from either side of a gently winding main road which runs from the lower left to upper centre.

There are also flats and in the upper right, a row of terraced houses.

The main clue as to the identity of this place is the unique combination, at the junction of the road in the upper right, of a white pub and immediately next to it a church - a familiar feature of the typical English village.

But what is the name of this this village - now leafy residential district?

We are close to landing at Manchester International Airport, flying at an altitude of less than a couple of hundred feet - a large residential area extends as far as the eye can see on flat land.

There's a church with a distinctive conical spire on the left, and over to the right, a multi-storey car park indicates a town centre of some sort.

Just visible in the lower right hand corner is an industrial building. On the other side of the road are houses - what's the name of this road? It gave its name to a 1957 air crash.

Which City of Manchester district are we looking at here?

SOON I'LL BE ADDING MORE aerial views of the Manchester conurbation taken on my next flight into or out of Manchester Airport Click here for the answers to the questions.