Question about flight tracking/plane spotting apps

[road_rascal]

About a year ago one of my coworkers showed me an app called Flightradar24, which I use pretty much daily now to see what's going on overhead (plus I'm an aviation nut). I have a basic understanding on how ADS-B works, and I realize that not all aircraft have it, and not all planes are showing up on the app (especially military planes). So I'm wondering how exactly all this work, since I saw 2 unique planes fly over our cabin this weekend (near Siren WI airport KRZN).

First was what I believe to be a Pilatus PC-12 or a TBM-700 and second was what it looked like to be a Grumman Goose/ Mallard turbine conversion. These aircraft didn't show up on the app. Now a lot of corporate jets only show the tail info but not the flight path, but shows up anyways.

Can someone school me on this? Thanks!

 

[Chris142]

I dunno but I watch them too. Being between Edwards AFB,Ft Irwin and area 51 I sure do see a lot of planes with "No info".

 

[Capt]

Try https://flightaware.com/ , Everyone of my flights (adsb equipped) have been tracked with excellent accuracy. I recently saw my friends' Aerostar fly over my house and I checked departures at my local airport and sure enough it was him. Some aircraft (private) are blocked from these public sites such as Tiger Woods Gulfstream 550 or whatever (forgot his tail #); his jet landed shortly after I did and it was ''Ghosted''

 

[Capt]

Here is Trump 1997 citation 10 https://flightaware.com/live/flight/N725DT

 

[cpayne5]

You can read about ADS-B here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automatic_dependent_surveillance_–_broadcast

It's fairly trivial to listen for and decode the broadcasts. Buy a $25 piece of hardware and download some open source software and you're basically in business. I've got the hardware, but I've never used it for this purpose. It would be interesting, though!

Interesting note - the blue planes on Flightradar24 are being tracked from satellites, while the yellow are tracked from the ground.

 

[pilottravis]

Both Flightaware and Flightradar24 have an option to host an ADS-B receiver site so as to improve their accuracy. If you choose to host they will ship you the hardware, you only need to provide a place for the antenna and an internet connection. As a host you are allocated a business account which affords additional options over a the free service. You can also view the "hits" on the receiver once installed and your ranking on how busy your airspace is above your head. Pretty cool info..

 

[wwillson]

If you choose to host they will ship you the hardware, you only need to provide a place for the antenna and an internet connection.

Or you can just build your own with a Raspberry PI, antenna, and the receiver. Mine has tracked about 60,000 flights in the last two years.

 

[cpayne5]

Or you can just build your own with a Raspberry PI, antenna, and the receiver. Mine has tracked about 60,000 flights in the last two years.

Do you have to use a particular receiver, or will their software work with an RTL-SDR (or similar)?

A free business account is great incentive to host. I may just do it.

Thanks for the info, pilottravis & wwillson.

 

[wwillson]

Do you have to use a particular receiver, or will their software work with an RTL-SDR (or similar)?

You'll have to use their USB receiver, as it's what their drivers work with.

See instructions here: https://flightaware.com/adsb/piaware/build

 

[cpayne5]

Thanks for the link. I did some research and you can use an RTL-SDR.

What separates the devices marketed by the flight tracking sites is the filters built into the devices. So, they perform better than a generic SDR.

The FlightAware Pro USB dongle is only $20 on Amazon. That's the way to go if you're going to be doing this long term. If you have an SDR laying around and you just want to play, then that's a good option.

 

[cpayne5]

I'm home with my little boys who are sick with chicken pox, so I decided to play with my RTL-SDR some. This is using an antenna not tuned for 1090 and not optimally placed - about 15 feet inside my house, with a south facing window. Fun stuff.

 

[loneryder]

About a year ago one of my coworkers showed me an app called Flightradar24, which I use pretty much daily now to see what's going on overhead (plus I'm an aviation nut). I have a basic understanding on how ADS-B works, and I realize that not all aircraft have it, and not all planes are showing up on the app (especially military planes). So I'm wondering how exactly all this work, since I saw 2 unique planes fly over our cabin this weekend (near Siren WI airport KRZN).

First was what I believe to be a Pilatus PC-12 or a TBM-700 and second was what it looked like to be a Grumman Goose/ Mallard turbine conversion. These aircraft didn't show up on the app. Now a lot of corporate jets only show the tail info but not the flight path, but shows up anyways.

Can someone school me on this? Thanks!

I have a friend who was VP of Security for UPS at Louisville. He's retired now but when those apps came out, he testified before congress about the dangers of terrorism and other negative stuff with bad guys being able to track flights. Late at night you can spot the lines of UPS planes going into Louisville and Fedex planes going into Memphis. They were worried from a security aspect.