Flight tracker app
« on: December 27, 2019, 01:26:19 AM »
Hi,
I've been watching a flight tracker app, and there are flights on it from South America to Australia in what they claim is 13 flighthours.
If you take London to Perth 2/3 of the distance on the FE map, it takes them 15:45 hours.
Johannesburg to Sydney 11 hours.
Buenas (sorry) Aires to Johannesburg in 8 hours.

The thing about the Sydney-Santiago flights, the timezones go from -8 to +10 and if you look at the flight route watchback function, it either starts just 1 hour away from Sydney (coming from Santiago) or it start from Sydney, stalls from a few seconds and teleports to 1 hour away from Santiago.
I looked at other flights and some routes do stall and then skip a little distance sometimes, but not nearly the distance of crossing the Pacific Ocean.
It flies over New Zealand and jumps to the coast of Chili every time.
I've seen live flights midway above the Pacific Ocean so what gives.

What do you think?

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Offline TomInAustin

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Re: Flight tracker app
« Reply #1 on: December 27, 2019, 03:57:44 PM »
Hi,
I've been watching a flight tracker app, and there are flights on it from South America to Australia in what they claim is 13 flighthours.
If you take London to Perth 2/3 of the distance on the FE map, it takes them 15:45 hours.
Johannesburg to Sydney 11 hours.
Buenas (sorry) Aires to Johannesburg in 8 hours.

The thing about the Sydney-Santiago flights, the timezones go from -8 to +10 and if you look at the flight route watchback function, it either starts just 1 hour away from Sydney (coming from Santiago) or it start from Sydney, stalls from a few seconds and teleports to 1 hour away from Santiago.
I looked at other flights and some routes do stall and then skip a little distance sometimes, but not nearly the distance of crossing the Pacific Ocean.
It flies over New Zealand and jumps to the coast of Chili every time.
I've seen live flights midway above the Pacific Ocean so what gives.

What do you think?

What you are seeing are aircraft coming into and leaving ground-based radar and tracking.  These do not apply when you are out in the middle of the pacific ocean.   
Do you have a citation for this sweeping generalisation?

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Offline Dr David Thork

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Re: Flight tracker app
« Reply #2 on: December 27, 2019, 04:49:45 PM »
You would think at this time of year, people would treat these flight trackers with the derision that they deserve.

https://www.noradsanta.org/#section-space
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Re: Flight tracker app
« Reply #3 on: December 28, 2019, 06:31:15 PM »
Hi,
I've been watching a flight tracker app, and there are flights on it from South America to Australia in what they claim is 13 flighthours.
If you take London to Perth 2/3 of the distance on the FE map, it takes them 15:45 hours.
Johannesburg to Sydney 11 hours.
Buenas (sorry) Aires to Johannesburg in 8 hours.

The thing about the Sydney-Santiago flights, the timezones go from -8 to +10 and if you look at the flight route watchback function, it either starts just 1 hour away from Sydney (coming from Santiago) or it start from Sydney, stalls from a few seconds and teleports to 1 hour away from Santiago.
I looked at other flights and some routes do stall and then skip a little distance sometimes, but not nearly the distance of crossing the Pacific Ocean.
It flies over New Zealand and jumps to the coast of Chili every time.
I've seen live flights midway above the Pacific Ocean so what gives.

What do you think?

What you are seeing are aircraft coming into and leaving ground-based radar and tracking.  These do not apply when you are out in the middle of the pacific ocean.

But you can see flights 'live' midflight between South Africa and Australia above the Ocean. But that's beside the point.
Maybe I should hire someone from Peru and purchase the ticket for him and make him live stream the whole trip and pay on completion.

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Offline TomInAustin

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Re: Flight tracker app
« Reply #4 on: December 30, 2019, 04:51:54 PM »
What you are seeing are aircraft coming into and leaving ground-based radar and tracking.  These do not apply when you are out in the middle of the pacific ocean.

But you can see flights 'live' midflight between South Africa and Australia above the Ocean. But that's beside the point.
Maybe I should hire someone from Peru and purchase the ticket for him and make him live stream the whole trip and pay on completion.

Yes, you can see them but if you mouse over you will see "estimated" on the metadata..




You are dealing with curvature and huge distances.


Do you have a citation for this sweeping generalisation?

Re: Flight tracker app
« Reply #5 on: February 26, 2020, 01:58:29 PM »

[/quote]

What you are seeing are aircraft coming into and leaving ground-based radar and tracking.  These do not apply when you are out in the middle of the pacific ocean.
[/quote]

Not true. The technology has changed...radar isn’t used any longer for enroute air traffic control...its all done with ADS-B which will provide aircraft position in the middle of the ocean. Worldwide equipment mandate requires aircraft to be equipped with ADS-B now. 

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Offline RonJ

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Re: Flight tracker app
« Reply #6 on: February 26, 2020, 05:02:23 PM »
The flight tracker system is similar to what has been used on ships for many years.  GPS receivers on ships transmit the position data, course & speed to an internal network.  A satellite transceiver then monitors this GPS data and periodically sends data up to a geosynchronous satellite receiver.  Shore based systems, like the ship's corporate office, can then see, at all times, the current position, course & speed, of a ship. 

Aircraft tracking websites have a premium service where you can have access to the up to date positions even in the middle of the ocean, but you have to pay extra if you want it.  Most people won't pay the extra so all they see most of the time is estimated positions.  Then when an aircraft is closer to a land based radar site those positions are updated in more real time. 

Everything is based upon your desire to pay a fee for the extra service.  Of course the airlines will pay the fee but most other people will not.

The ADS-B system is a recent upgrade to aircraft avionics packages that will allow other aircraft, even in the middle of the ocean, to see the positions of other aircraft in their immediate area.  This is quite handy when you want to avoid a collision.  Ships have been using a similar system for a long time and other ships can be seen on your radar display and an alarm can be set off if the system is programmed to do so.  It's all quite nice when you want to survive.   
You can lead flat earthers to the curve but you can't make them think!

Re: Flight tracker app
« Reply #7 on: February 26, 2020, 09:32:43 PM »
And now - https://aireon.com/

For the first time, aviation stakeholders are able to take advantage of a 100 percent global air traffic surveillance system using Aireon’s space-based ADS-B that will increase safety, enhance efficiency, improve predictability, expand capacity and lower costs.

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Offline TomInAustin

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Re: Flight tracker app
« Reply #8 on: March 03, 2020, 06:51:32 PM »


What you are seeing are aircraft coming into and leaving ground-based radar and tracking.  These do not apply when you are out in the middle of the pacific ocean.
[/quote]

Not true. The technology has changed...radar isn’t used any longer for enroute air traffic control...its all done with ADS-B which will provide aircraft position in the middle of the ocean. Worldwide equipment mandate requires aircraft to be equipped with ADS-B now.
[/quote]

I stand corrected.  Do I get a prize for being the first person to admit he was wrong on the internet?


Do you have a citation for this sweeping generalisation?