Flight Radar

leaskovski · 10 Mar 2013 at 09:42

How accurate is this site? Is it really live? I'm guessing there is a delay with it as I am currently in bed listening to the plans on their arrival into Heathrow, and the sounds above don't seem to match up with the planes on the site?

I'm wondering what the altitude is of the little beggars that come over our street when the wind comes from the east.

!Sargent_Mango! · 10 Mar 2013 at 10:05

Its not live (100% realtime) for obvious reasons.

I believe its delayed by 5 minutes.

neodude · 10 Mar 2013 at 10:08

It's virtually live. The delay is only a few seconds. I've sat and compared it whilst plugged in at work and it's virtually spot on. It doesn't show all aircraft mind, only those that transmit ADS-B info which is the majority of airliners but not all and no military or light aircraft.

And if you tell me what street you live on I'll tell you what altitude the planes are at

cork-spotters · 10 Mar 2013 at 10:25

It's live. It works by a network of people around the globe feeding in information from their ADS-B desktop "radar" boxes.

I believe the information from the US (orange aircraft symbols, not the yellow ones) is provided by the FAA and is indeed delayed by a few minutes.

!Sargent_Mango! · 10 Mar 2013 at 10:28

Again, its not perfectly live.

Its delayed by at least 30seconds, otherwise you would have terrorists using it in order to try and shoot planes out of the sky with perfectly accurate tracking.

Think about it....

arknor · 10 Mar 2013 at 10:30

theres a phone app you can get as well where you use your phone as you would when your taking a photo and it overlays where the planes are and what they are called which is pretty cool almost like how "person of interest" is

inferno · 10 Mar 2013 at 10:33

its live. Interesting watching the arrivals into heathrow over London and seeing where they have come from

cork-spotters · 10 Mar 2013 at 10:41

!Sargent_Mango! said:
Again, its not perfectly live.

Its delayed by at least 30seconds, otherwise you would have terrorists using it in order to try and shoot planes out of the sky with perfectly accurate tracking.

Think about it....

Not correct. The only delay is introduced in time taken for signal to be received by ADS-B desktop box, processed, sent to a computer and uploaded to the internet. There is no addition of a deliberate delay. The terrorist argument doesn't hold up whatsoever - they could just lie in the bushes on the approach to any airport with a rocket launcher - they don't need fancy radars.

As I said, the only deliberate delay is from the FAA data in the US because there is much less widespread use of ADS-B in the States.

neodude · 10 Mar 2013 at 10:44

!Sargent_Mango! said:
Again, its not perfectly live.

Its delayed by at least 30seconds, otherwise you would have terrorists using it in order to try and shoot planes out of the sky with perfectly accurate tracking.

Think about it....

It's certainly not as much as 30s. Like I said I've compared it with a live ATC radar display and it was spot on.

Richie · 10 Mar 2013 at 11:28

neodude said:
It's certainly not as much as 30s. Like I said I've compared it with a live ATC radar display and it was spot on.

^^^ think I would take this guy's word for it given, IIRC, he is an ATC.

leaskovski · 10 Mar 2013 at 11:32

arknor said:
theres a phone app you can get as well where you use your phone as you would when your taking a photo and it overlays where the planes are and what they are called which is pretty cool almost like how "person of interest" is

Is there? What app is that?

neodude · 10 Mar 2013 at 11:35

leaskovski said:
Is there? What app is that?

FlightRadar24 is a pretty good app and does this. Just select AR view in options.

I use the pro version, it's very good. Even gives you an alert if any aircraft in coverage starts squawking emergency.