Anyone looking at FlightRadar?

[pussycatinfluffyslippers]

There's an A380 supposed to be Heathrow to Dubai (UAE30) currently just north of Wakefield.

Thoughts?

Google is correct.

Over /close to land FR gets most of it's data from amateur run receivers..

Over oceanic airspace data comes from Air Traffic data based on data received from the aircraft by satellite.

If the aircraft is oceanic and not being satellite tracked (still possible - that was the case with the little single engined aircraft yesterday) then it's trail is a dotted black line, indicating it's an estimated track/position.

DD is a private pilot and will look at random planes, or the most popular ones currently being watched.

A couple of years back her friend told her a plane was behaving weirdly, then they both watched it disappear off FR… she messaged me saying “I think this plane has crashed” and about 20 minutes later it was on bbc news.

That one really freaked me out to be honest.

@notimagain that’s how I got to use it too! I also did the fear of flying course with virgin where you take a flight at the end, best £300 I’ve ever spent. Made such a difference to my ability to fly, and now my kids view flying as fun too. Didn’t want them to see my fears

Good morning my people! Go and have a look at Sumburgh airport in Shetland, there’s a Loganair been circling for ages, another circling and one given up and heading back to Aberdeen.

The clue for that might in the the last weather report for Sumburgh.

Mist (4000 metres, temporarily 2000 metres) with a low cloud base ( broken at 200 feet) and fog is also in the vicinity....

or, for those that speak aviation weather:

EGPB 130720Z 05010KT 4000 BR VCFG BKN002 13/12 Q1021 TEMPO 2000

Not sure what Sumburgh's legal limits are for making an approach but that weather on the margins of being useable for any airport not equipped with reasonably advanced landing aids..

@notimagain yes, I think it’s a regular occurrence.

Yes, my relatives recently flew from Helsinki to Hong Kong, now a 13 hour
instead of 8.5 flight owing to diversion. Can’t fly over Russia so flew over southern Europe instead.

Yep the airspace closures, especially the Russian one, has really screwed up flight times and routings between Europe and China, HK, Japan etc...

Not sure if anyone is now going Westwards out of Europe > Canada > Alsaka but a heck of a lot of traffic now routes via SE Europe> Turkey and onwards..That was always a busy part of the world but if you look at the routes during the rush hours you'll see there's a real bottle neck in the vicinity of Istanbul.

Is that moon flight that's top tracked one of those anti gravity ones? Just tried the beta FR site as on laptop but couldn't work out how to zoom in 😳

Fraid not, the two I can see, Moon26 and Moon21 are KC-135 tankers..

For the details you could try expanding the "most tracked" tile by clicking on the down arrow, then clicking on the callsign you are interested in.

Thanks - I'd been sidetracked but it's looping pattern and didn't think to click!

I like zooming in on Heathrow and "watching" the planes take off. It's cool when you can see the Estimated time leaving then jump to Actual time in the airline information box.

FWIW/for info on that topic a pet gripe of many is that Flightradar doesn't display departure or arrival times correctly/iaw industry standards.

In the industry departure time is defined as the time off gate and arrival is time on gate. That info usually get transmitted to the company from the aircraft via company datalink

Flight radar doesn't get that detail so instead displays the departure time as the time the aircraft gets airborne and arrival as landing time, which often gives a misleading impression.

Classic example at LHR a few minutes ago, the BA 654 left the gate, i.e. departed on time at 1010, but flight radar would have you believe it departed late at 1028, since that was the time it took off

Oh that's very interesting! Thank you x

My son flew a few weeks ago on a school trip, and I checked departure time for the flight on FR, the Flightview app, and the airline's website. All three showed diff times of the departure. The flight was late taking off, and it was frustrating having conflicting reports bec I didn't know when exactly the flight had left.

I much prefer watching FR as a fun flight enthusiast rather than as an anxious parent! :)

Well, I missed that one. There's a light aircraft upside down in the water off Porthcawl. The pilot reportedly walked ashore and has been taken off to hospital by the ambulance service.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-65887992

How can you tell if there is drama? I am so confused

I’m in London & the weather is gorgeous (26C) 😎

I don’t think it’s that unusual. We live near Birmingham airport and not unusual to get randoms here as a divert

Chinooks fly over my house at least once or twice a week, sometimes a lot more frequently (daily at some times). I must leave near a base (i dont actually know, oops!) as they are barely above the rooftops. I only know their frequency as a. I work at home and b I am terrified of them and really wish we didnt live under their flight path. We also have a local V. expensive hotel with helipad so have regular helicopters flying over the house too. Its quite noisy considering i dont live near a commercial airport 😁

I watch marine traffic and flight radar every day. We depend on planes and ships for food, fuel, etc, and I used to watch son's helicopter flights to and from North Sea. it's addictive!

Never knew about flight radar.
thanks for introducing me to it

Just in case of a power surge

I think it's quite rare but it happened to us in our new house the summer we got married. Well, it happened to neighbours because we had unplugged everything.
Set the adjacent field alight! This was 40 years ago mind, when if your mother told you to pull out the plugs during overhead storms, you did it - and without making fun of her.

I was thinking that and I was born in the English Midlands.

I like zooming in on Heathrow and "watching" the planes take off

I wasted a good few hours watching planes land at Heathrow during high winds last year.
It was riveting, but so stressful!!

Maybe I’m biased as I was born in Glasgow but I’d rather go there than Dubai any day!

I have the same bias and I was born in Sheffield.