The Random thought thread

[octave]

You can also type an aircraft's registration on FlightAware for example VH-*** for historic data.

[onetrack]

O.K., that's good info - but if you don't have a flight number, tail number, airline, or any of those details, how do you just find a mystery aircraft that flew overhead last night?

 

[octave]

I am not sure if you can do that or not on the free versions of FR24 or Flight Aware but there is a site run by Air Services Australia called WebTrak. II think its main purpose is for reporting aircraft noise. You can go back 3 months, I think, only for capital cities, though

 

https://www.airservicesaustralia.com/community/environment/aircraft-noise/webtrak/

 

 

Edited 17 hours ago by octave

[octave]

Here you go OT. Flight Radar 24 historic flights.

 

 

 

[rgmwa]

42 minutes ago, onetrack said:

O.K., that's good info - but if you don't have a flight number, tail number, airline, or any of those details, how do you just find a mystery aircraft that flew overhead last night?

 

I tapped the history icon on the screen menu, entered the date and time (4 March, 17:20Z) and it replayed the flights around that time. If you tap on the aircraft symbol on the map it brings up all the aircraft details. One flight left Perth and headed to Singapore and passed the incoming aircraft which I assume was the one you heard. 

Edited 17 hours ago by rgmwa

[old man emu]

I use the free version for a quick check to see what's making the noise overhead. Most of teh heavies are heading to China and Korea. It is a funny route. A straight line from Sydney to just southeast of my place, then a bit of a right hand turn to pass over the top of me at 30,000 ft. I like to use he program to see what the odd flights are. A lot of RFDS transport flights. 

[old man emu]

This morning I was listening to music on my radio. The music was mainly orchestral and the radio is mono. The thought struck me what a wonderful device the radio's speaker is. It can reproduce the wide range of pitch and tone  produced by a number if instruments playing at the same time simply by an electrical current causing a fibre cone to vibrate. 

[octave]

I also use both Flight Radar 24 and Flight Aware when my wife has been away on a solo trip. This happens about 4 times a year. We have the pickup down to a fine art.  I park at a large service station a couple of KMs from the airport (free). I can then find her flight on either of these apps. and see exactly where it is.  This means I can get to the pickup zone at just the right time.

 

Another purpose I use it for is following other people's flights.  Recently, my son and partner spent 3 weeks in China.  I tracked all of their flights, not out of concern but out of interest. 

 

[nomadpete]

I use FR24 free app to find out what is flying past. Jets are pretty rare this far south. Many of the jets do not show up on FR24, I suspect military activity. One that was lowish, maybe under 10k, was grey, coming from due south. Others too high to see clearly. You'd expect them to have transponders on at least when overflying a capital city.

[nomadpete]

It's a bit mind bending to view the track from Aukland to Dubai. It flies via southern Tassie. I guess the great circle route is a straight line, but Mercator's projection makes the track appear ridiculously curved.

Edited 4 hours ago by nomadpete
FFS

[facthunter]

Mercators is Not orthomorphic or conformal. One NZ  flight  regularly passes about 80nm north of Melbourne, at very high altitude. Some days you can see the contrails.  When the Poles appear as big as the equator there's a lot of distortion.   A string on a globe between ant 2 points will be a great circle.  All lines of Longitude are great circles as is the equator. Nev