How much time can I waste?

www.flightradar24.com watching SIA946 because five people I really love are on it!

When I went to England in 1988 a phone call home was a rare thing, a letter was written (and hopefully received) at least weekly, if not more often. Now I can watch in (I think) almost-real time, this little airplane going where it really is at this moment. I can email in moments to keep in touch. They phoned me yesterday via skype to my telephone.

It's extraordinary! I remember studying the 20th Century from the perspective of my grandparents. They'd started without electricity and now there were cars and telephones. How much more is technology changing these days? It's hard to fathom the perception differences when we've already been exposed to so much that used to be Sci Fi.

Hell's teeth. Looking at those busy routes over US and Europe, makes me think I will never fly again! :ohmy:

That is such a interesting link

It's fun, isn't it?

Very interesting, I see that I could waste some time exploring and watching!

It's the only time I know exactly where that crazy family are: when they're on a plane I can see on that screen! Mind you, right now they're asleep somewhere in Bali.

There are a few other sites like that, this is another. flightaware.com/
I have watched several flights cross the world, carrying people I know.
Yes it is fun, but when you see it turn back, or do a circle, or a huge deviation one way or another,you do feel a bit worried. I watched my niece and her family flying back to UK via Brisbane, and knowing there was a cyclone forecast, watched a few circles and deviations until I read it had landed safely!

You can watch domestic flights too and check for delays.

I have also watched the height and air speed graphs of the same flight-you can shuffle between them and the actual position, so you can see when it starts to descend or slow down. I did once see a rather big dip but hoped it was just an anomaly in the radar recording as it eventually corrected and the graph didn't show a dip at all!

Yes the air space around the world is hugely congested in places-one just hopes all the air controllers are awake! One of the sites I have watched also show planes like rescue helicopters and light planes.

I noted that on the Ak-Singapore leg, the route went over Sydney, even though it didn't stop there. It looks rather like flights are routed over some of the big control points, perhaps? I had thought they'd want to keep them out of the way.

I found that when our niece came out from the UK...it is addictive... :blush:

Now see what you've done - I've just spotted a plane with no call sign and no destination flying north, just south-west of Whangarei. I'm going to have to watch it now to see where it goes.... :whistle: :whistle:

Just go outside, Kate.

Ruth wrote: I noted that on the Ak-Singapore leg, the route went over Sydney, even though it didn't stop there. It looks rather like flights are routed over some of the big control points, perhaps? I had thought they'd want to keep them out of the way.

Singapore route flies over both the Sydney Beacon and the Darwin one. It's how they stay on course. There was a very crazy flight path of a small craft near us, going all over the place. Then I discovered the call sign thingy and realized it was a glider!

I watched an aircraft land in Egypt (Flight originated from India) It disappeared off the radar at 510ft alt. on runway approach which was a bit disconcerting!

Ruth wrote: I noted that on the Ak-Singapore leg, the route went over Sydney, even though it didn't stop there. It looks rather like flights are routed over some of the big control points, perhaps? I had thought they'd want to keep them out of the way.

It used to be they had big radio towers with radio beacons on them, Dekkan sets or some such spelling, and flights would fly from beacon to beacon to beacon using altitude separation, I.E. northbound at 26000 feet, southbound at 28000 feet, eastbound at 30000 feet etc.

These days they do the same thing, but with GPS waypoints, they still fly defined corridors through the sky, but avoidance separation is now as little as 500 feet and they no longer need physical ground beacon transmitters. They also carry locator broadcasters so other planes can see where they are, and the onboard systems can watch the movement of the onboard beacons around them and alert the pilot of something is on an interception course, hence the separation from Mk 1 eyeball warning systems with 2000 feet clearances to automated electronic systems at 500 feet.

That ADSB broadcast is actually what Flightradar24 picks up, they have volunteers with always-on unlimited broadband internet and a plug-in antenna module attached to their computers and placed where it can see the sky. This picks up the ADSB location data broadcast by the plane, pipes it over the internet to the main servers, which plots it on the map for you to watch.

So thank those volunteers for your ability to follow your friends and family around the world in their planes


I watched a russian woman flying from Tokyo to Guangzhou and then to Auckland most of the Auckland to Chch leg I spent in the car getting to Chch airport so didn't follow her there. They do have a smartphone tracking app, but for one flight, I didn't bother loading it.

Hobbit jet NZ6, 777-319 about to take off from Ak International LAX bound if anyone wants to waste time! :whistle:

NZ skies look so much quieter than many places round the world. Gosh, flightradar24.com even shows the airport ground vehicles and the parked up planes-ooh yes a real time waster!