Tracking light aircraft - FlightRadar?
Discussion
Hi gang.
I was wondering if there is any way to track the flightpath of a light aircraft? On Monday at about 1.30pm, we had an aircraft do (perform?) a low altitude fly by for the funeral of a friend's child, who loved planes and helicopters. I was chatting to the parents yesterday and we were discussing seeing if we could see the flightpath on any of the websites, but we have pretty much zero expertise in such matters, or even any knowledge about whether they are tracked.
It was a twin-propeller driven plane, I would say a 4 or 6 seater, it would have taken off from Earls Colne airfield in Essex probably about 1.15pm on Monday, circled the church a few times and then a direct overflight at about maybe 500feet.
What are my chances? Slim to none?
I was wondering if there is any way to track the flightpath of a light aircraft? On Monday at about 1.30pm, we had an aircraft do (perform?) a low altitude fly by for the funeral of a friend's child, who loved planes and helicopters. I was chatting to the parents yesterday and we were discussing seeing if we could see the flightpath on any of the websites, but we have pretty much zero expertise in such matters, or even any knowledge about whether they are tracked.
It was a twin-propeller driven plane, I would say a 4 or 6 seater, it would have taken off from Earls Colne airfield in Essex probably about 1.15pm on Monday, circled the church a few times and then a direct overflight at about maybe 500feet.
What are my chances? Slim to none?
Basically Flightradar24 works by having people with receivers (modified digital tv tuners and aerials) picking up the information from aircrafts transponders (equipment to tell air traffic control about the aircraft) and feeding it to flight radar through the internet. Flight radar gather all the info, filter out some people who don't want to be seen and display it on their apps and website.
Large aircraft have to have a certain type of transponder which is what you normally see on flight radar. This obviously depends on the location of the people with the receivers feeding it to flight radar. Small aircraft don't have to have this so don't normally get shown on flight radar.
As there are now so many enthusuiasts picking up these small aircraft and their lesser transponspders they sometimes show some information for these aircraft using triangulation and other jiggerypokery which has mixed results and depends on location size of aerial etc of the people who pick up the data.
Using flight radar websites playback feature I saw that this aircraft was in the area at the time you mentioned but it didn't come from earls colne it came from the south west with little data and no real flight path information.
The only one shown on that site from earls colne was this one,
But it doesn't fit the description and had no route flown.
I think the amount of information needed to show a route or flight track makes your request very difficult indeed as even someone with a receiver wouldn't be able to pick it up as they'd need triangulation from a few other spotters in the area to even show it.
I think if you're looking for a line showing exactly what the aircraft did, it's going to be almost impossible.
Large aircraft have to have a certain type of transponder which is what you normally see on flight radar. This obviously depends on the location of the people with the receivers feeding it to flight radar. Small aircraft don't have to have this so don't normally get shown on flight radar.
As there are now so many enthusuiasts picking up these small aircraft and their lesser transponspders they sometimes show some information for these aircraft using triangulation and other jiggerypokery which has mixed results and depends on location size of aerial etc of the people who pick up the data.
Using flight radar websites playback feature I saw that this aircraft was in the area at the time you mentioned but it didn't come from earls colne it came from the south west with little data and no real flight path information.
The only one shown on that site from earls colne was this one,
But it doesn't fit the description and had no route flown.
I think the amount of information needed to show a route or flight track makes your request very difficult indeed as even someone with a receiver wouldn't be able to pick it up as they'd need triangulation from a few other spotters in the area to even show it.
I think if you're looking for a line showing exactly what the aircraft did, it's going to be almost impossible.
Non-ADSB flights can also be tracked with MLAT triangulation.
My site is enabled for MLAT, 194 aircraft seen so far today.
http://flightaware.com/adsb/stats/user/boostbyslin...
My site is enabled for MLAT, 194 aircraft seen so far today.
http://flightaware.com/adsb/stats/user/boostbyslin...
el stovey said:
2fast748 said:
You could try adsbexchange.com. It's one I've found recently that displays more than the usual fr24 or planefinder stuff.
I don't think they or 360radar have playback? I couldn't find any on my phone anyway.Try RAF Wattisham, they may have tracked the aircraft if the church was local to Earls Colne. It's possible that they could provide you with a replay of the route. Some of the controllers there work at Earls Colne in their spare time. You'll need to provide aircraft registration & time of flight.
el stovey said:
I assumed it came from Earls Colne as the airfield is only a mile or so away but it could well have come from Kent or beyond.
OpulentBob said:
I assumed it came from Earls Colne as the airfield is only a mile or so away but it could well have come from Kent or beyond.
so basically bob, you wanted us to find out what overflew you three days ago without telling us where you were and the wrong departure airfield. Based on your new information, I would say that Seneca was exactly the one that you saw. As I said, it came from the south west but the track only shows it flying towards you and later away. The low Flyby and orbits aren't shown.
el stovey said:
OpulentBob said:
I assumed it came from Earls Colne as the airfield is only a mile or so away but it could well have come from Kent or beyond.
so basically bob, you wanted us to find out what overflew you three days ago without telling us where you were and the wrong departure airfield. 
Yep pretty much... I'd forgotten I hadn't given you my location - Greenstead Green church, google map link below.
https://goo.gl/maps/wkNvV4rTUxJ2
But it's academic, you've found the plane! Thanks
weeboot said:
Non-ADSB flights can also be tracked with MLAT triangulation.
My site is enabled for MLAT, 194 aircraft seen so far today.
http://flightaware.com/adsb/stats/user/boostbyslin...
Just had a look at the log file for my site.. My site is enabled for MLAT, 194 aircraft seen so far today.
http://flightaware.com/adsb/stats/user/boostbyslin...
[2016-09-15 13:41 BST] mlat(11928): Server status: synchronized with 62 nearby receivers
So, my kit is synced with 62 other receivers to enable MLAT locations
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