Flightradar24.com

[scaber]

Sorry for those who already know about this, I'm probably a bit late to the party, but was introduced to it by Ian Holmes and found myself captivated by watching the live cockpit view. I think that this could be a great way to get 'real' experience at landing at overseas or unfamiliar airports as you will get to experience the different routes used in different wind conditions.

I have been using FlightRadar for some time, both on my PC and my phone, but had never noticed the Cockpit view button. I can see that I will be watching these a number of times for the airports I visit in the USA and UK.

The website for those who haven't explored this is http://www.flightradar24.com/. Once the flights have uploaded, click an aircraft of interest and then choose the cockpit view in the window which slides out from the left.

You may need to update the Google Earth plugin if it doesn't work. I also had to temporarily disable my firewall to allow Flightradar24 to download and install the plugin.

Sample pictures of a flight into NZCH:

[Ian Warren]

Doug watch's this all time , sure he has one screen on it almost 24/7 , it is accurate to a few seconds , had on the laptop as the 787 started its CHCH Visit , great fun , just need every aircraft now with the tracker unit on it .. be Ideal out at the airport for us plane spotters .

[scaber]

QUOTE (Ian Warren @ Mar 1 2013,11:49 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Doug watch's this all time , sure he has one screen on it almost 24/7 , it is accurate to a few seconds , had on the laptop as the 787 started its CHCH Visit , great fun , just need every aircraft now with the tracker unit on it .. be Ideal out at the airport for us plane spotters .

Yes, I use it quite lot too, it's great checking where my wife's flight is before I leave for the airport (or while I'm waiting at the airport wondering where she is!). The thing is that after a couple of year's using this I hadn't got around to noticing the live cockpit button. Another sign of approaching Alzheimer's maybe . . .

[dbcunnz]

QUOTE (scaber @ Mar 1 2013,11:57 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Yes, I use it quite lot too, it's great checking where my wife's flight is before I leave for the airport (or while I'm waiting at the airport wondering where she is!). The thing is that after a couple of year's using this I hadn't got around to noticing the live cockpit button. Another sign of approaching Alzheimer's maybe . . .

I have tried the cockpit view many times before but it has never worked so I think it has only just been activated great to see it working.
Many more hours wasted getting birds eye view of NZ

[scaber]

QUOTE (dbcunnz @ Mar 1 2013,2:17 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I have tried the cockpit view many times before but it has never worked so I think it has only just been activated great to see it working.
Many more hours wasted getting birds eye view of NZ

Yes, I can see many hours being spent here in front of the computer - wait, my wife already thinks I spend too much time here so maybe a few extra hours will go unnoticed maybe??

[Ian Warren]

QUOTE (scaber @ Mar 1 2013,8:03 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

- wait, my wife already thinks I spend too much time here so maybe a few extra hours will go unnoticed maybe??

I'm lucky ... i just put Marsbar outside if he thinks i've done to much time

[stewartkingswood]

Hi Guys,

Just wondered if anyone has tried this web site http://www.radarbox24.com/ very similar to your offering.

[Ian Warren]

Hey Stewart had three tracking .. they shut themselves down ... don't you hate that , as mentioned only wish every aircraft had the transmitters .

[stewartkingswood]

Hi Ian,

I had that the other day and then realised that it had landed!!!

Fun programmes though I have it on the Ipad which is usefull for quick acccess when I see one through the window, only think missing is the "cockpit view"

[Mith18]

Yeah I find it quite interesting to watch flightrader24.com while playing liveatc.net. Sadly due to a CAANZ Ruling we're not allowed to release information about Radio transmissions so we can't set up one for NZAA, NZWN or NZCH. But you can do YSSY (Sydney airport)

And annoyingly the Q-300's (Dehaviland Dash 8's) don't have a ADS-B tranponder, so I can't track them :/

[Ian Warren]

QUOTE (Mith18 @ Mar 3 2013,11:46 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

And annoyingly the Q-300's (Dehaviland Dash 8's) don't have a ADS-B tranponder, so I can't track them :/

Go's all the small commuters but even have them on cargo's to add to the list ... strange they have the units turned on if it is a security risk only many shut down past or out off the airports charge .

[scaber]

QUOTE (stewartkingswood @ Mar 2 2013,4:23 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Hi Guys,

Just wondered if anyone has tried this web site http://www.radarbox24.com/ very similar to your offering.

Yes, pretty similar though doesn't seem to have the aircraft for NZ at the time I checked it out. Presumably it will improve this over time and so should be worth keeping an eye on I would say.

Not that FlightRadar itself has that many aircraft yet!

[AlisterC]

Thanks for the heads up on this, that is very cool. I flew into Wellington today in an A320 cockpit

[Ian Warren]

Sure you got some photos there Alister ...

[Charl]

Home Advantage!
Auckland has a fair amount of tracked traffic.
Today I watched LAN 800 (A343) out of Sydney trailed by an ANZ 320 coming in from Norfolk Island.
Landing was Rwy 23 so they had to go over the city downwind and come back to land.
The 343 was sent off halfway to Chile while the A320 did a tight turn, landed and had baggage unloading by the time the A340 came in!

[AlisterC]

No photos Ian, maybe next virtual cockpit ride haha
Go the home advantage Charl!

[emfrat]

Excellent displacement activity, especially when you can listen to live ATC online, too...but sad to say, it wants me to install the Google Earth plugin, so I do that, and when I try again it says I need to install the Google Earth plugin and so on and on and on...this has happened with a few other things, which I just discarded, but I investigated this one and it turns out the GE plugin will not work with my 64-bit PaleMoon, although apparently it does with the 32-bit version.
Here's hoping Google get their act together sometime soon.
ATB, and thanks for the HU.
MikeW

[dart15]

I've spent many a wasted hour using Flightradar in the last 18 months or so...

On Saturday I was looking at UK traffic and just by chance noted a track emmanating from the area of Oxford. My interest was piqued by the fact that there was no call-sign assigned to the aircraft - a B777 200ER. Guessing that this might by a UK forces charter out of Brize Norton I thought I would track its flight eastwards.

My initial hunch was this could be a re-supply flight to Afghanistan ansd its intial track and quick gain of height to FL370 tended to lend credance to this. However, as it aproached Croatia the flight swung south-east and tracked down the Agean. If my theory about the flight's origins and customer were correct it could be that Cyprus was the destination? But no... instead of veering east again the flight continued its track south toward the Suez canal, now at FL390.

I continued to moniter progress as it crossed the Egyptian coast only to lose contact about 100 miles further south!!! How frustrating was that! I thought it might pop up again in other areas south and east where other flights were showing but I waited in vain So the destination for this flight and its purpose/payload remained a mystery. Of course all this occured over about a 3-4 hour period but I was doing other things on the PC so all was not lost. Just another example of how this programme can provide enjoyment.

[SA227]

You will slowly see an increase in the number of aircraft with ADS-B. There are currently discussions going on in the industry regarding it's implementation but no dates have been sorted yet.

[HamiltonWest]

Landing Akl Presently
Monarch Airlines
Flight: MON9934
Aircraft: Boeing 757-2T7 (B752)
Reg: G-MONJ
http://www.flightradar24.com/data/airplanes/g-monj