Recently a friend sent me a link to a website that shows all the airline traffic from around the whole world, including our airways around New Zealand, that I thought was pretty amazing. The site is www.flightradar24.com Have a look at it by clicking on the link. It shows all the airliners that are in the air at that time across the world (at the top of the box on the left of the screen). This number varies but is in the region of five or six thousand planes! You can drag the screen to whatever area you are interested in then you can zoom in or out by scrolling with your mouse.
On the map you will see all the aircraft in the air at that time. When you click on an aircraft, on the left screen you will get all the Information related to; airline, actual aircraft, a photo of that actual aircraft (that you can click on to enlarge), plus air speed, altitude and coordinates in real time that is re-calculated every 10 seconds. On some you can also click on view from the cockpit.
I have also seen some local light aircraft that show up as a different shape on the screen, and an RNZAF King Air.
At lunchtime today I was watching the airliners coming into Auckland on the website - it is an interesting time because 3 Emirates Airbus A 380s arrive in short order from Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane. Today the aircraft are A6-EDN from Melbourne (arrived at 12.34) , A6-EEG from Sydney (arrived 12.46), and A6-EEL from Brisbane (arrived 12 53pm).
The 2 aircraft from Melbourne and Sydney used the approach path Eastwards across the Auckland ithsmus but the Brisbane aircraft approached form the North. So out the back door and there it was!
It makes the world seem pretty small!
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Hi Sir Minty
ReplyDeleteFYI it only shows aircraft fitted with ADSB technology so for now only a small percentage of airborne traffic is visible using FR24. However as the requirement for such equipment slowly becomes mandatory then in time we will be able to monitor more aircraft in real time. Also see www.flightaware.com which does a good job and broadcasts in harmony with information from the NZ ATC provider, Airways Corporation.
Sir Minty.
ReplyDeleteDo not forget the 3-D app on the site too!
You can fly along a virtual approach into Queenstown or where ever the plane is going.
Just like the old day when small boys could go up to the cockpit for a look. But no longer.
Actually, whilst FR24 has historically been ADS-B aircraft only, a new multilateration mode has been turned on in NZ recently which allows some Mode S only aircraft to be seen at times. It's a form of time-based triangulation.
ReplyDeleteADS-B equipped aircraft in NZ skies include all Airbuses, all 737NG, 777, 787 and some AirNZ 737s, all ATR72-600s, the Air Force King Airs, Airwork's freight 737s and a handful of light civvies. There may be more I'm not thinking of.
You can also get FR24 apps for Mac, PC, Android, iPhone and iPad and probably more.
And a special thanks for the plane geeks in NZ who spent a lot of money to set up this (and ongoing monthly costs) so the rest of us can watch
ReplyDeleteAnd a special thanks for the plane geeks in NZ who spent a lot of money to set up this (and ongoing monthly costs) so the rest of us can watch
ReplyDeleteThanks to all for all the extra information.
ReplyDeleteI have seen some NZ light civil aircraft show up - co-incidentally all ZK-W aircraft: ZK-WLK, ZK-WNZ and ZK-WRM.
Check out the marinetraffic.com for ships etc.
ReplyDeleteWatch ferries go bump in the night! It does happen.
My Emirates cobber was sitting on his hotel balcony at Geneva awaiting his return command to arrive, I was skyping him and had FR24 on and watching Falcon and GLEx arrived and depart. I could hear the jet in the background, watch it and talk to him all from here.
ReplyDeleteEven he was amazed how it all come together and he flies 777's. Pretty cool.
And then there is MH370. No where to be seen.
One of the oddest things to watch has been the Google balloons out of, I think, Tekapo. They have LOONnnn call signs. I've seen seven up at once. Some have apparently shown up over South America.
ReplyDeleteOn the civvies side, I've seen the ZK-W?? ones as well as JRV, FDE, DAA, EAW and INC. The latter being an R44 often seen around the North Shore area.
When i was in Riyadh,i provided 400 km range on my SBS-1E receiver for Flght radar and once i get my SBS Aerial mounted back on my roof in Papamoa i will also provide live coverage in the BoP area for everyone to enjoy
ReplyDeleteEnglishmark.
ReplyDeleteWe operate a marine AIS receiver in located at 980ft amsl in South Canterbury and under ideal conditions we have had receptions south or Napier.
Thought of ADS-B up there but not sure what we can add. Airways corp have been doing something up there themselves with Tx devise. Only more coverage will occur over time.
I picked up Beech 1900D ZK-EAR complete with photograph yesterday so perhaps some of the smaller stuff is becoming trackable. Even so, in case you don't know, if you click on the blue airport buttons you can look at all the airline traffic (arr and dep) over the past and coming 24 hours. If you click on the rego, flt nbr you can view historic details over the previous week.You can also get extra info if you run the mouse over the airspeed, rego and from - to panel.
ReplyDeletePeter you almost certainly saw an 'MLAT' return for EAR. I've just been watching 737-300 ZK-NGD on radars 'T-MLAT3' over Marlborough and now 'T-EST1' over the South Taranaki Bight.
ReplyDeleteIf you are using one of the apps and configure it to show the flight numbers, the MLAT ones are easy to spot as the flight number cannot be determined and it generally shows the Mode S code instead. E.g. ZK-NGD is showing up as C813FB.
Non-scheduled aircraft that do have ADS-B seem to show their registration in place of the flight number.
There's also www.planefinder.net Using both Planefinder & FR24, coverage for lower altitude traffic seems to be reasonably good.
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