When an aeroplane flies over you house, where it came from and where it's going to? Try this it's brilliant http://www.flightradar24.com/
Don't get me started on this again. I think I actually lost a day of my life a few weeks back when I discovered this. My sister was over in China, and I watched her flight land at Gatwick... but then I ended up following flights all over the place. The only thing that has stopped me becoming an actual hardened "Plane SPotter" is that it's been cloudy since I discovered it, otherwise I'd be out there watching flights from Manchester to Dusseldorf..... Mega interesting though.
I've spent the day periodically checking where my missus is on this (she's flying to Singapore). It was quite interesting at first, but she's now about to fly over 6 of the 7 countries that end in ...stan and I'm wishing I'd never looked. You only ever hear of these countries when there's a war, terrorism, a military coup or a rebel uprising. Best to be 33,000 feet above land when in those places. She'll be unaware of the turmoil going on a few miles south of her though, as she sleeps off her complimentary booze. I suppose it's like the opposite of travelling on the Northern Line underneath Archway. Nice and calm in your tube carriage, but all kinds of shenanigans going on above ground!
Been looking at that site for years, always been a bit of a geek when it comes to planes although they aren't as interesting these days given that the number of different types of commercial jet has reduced massively since the 90s. I remember going to Majorca on a DC-10, proper old school but impressively big plane that the holiday company must have chartered. Been on internal flights in the USA and Canada on DC9's and 727's...you don't get that variety these days but I suppose it's saves the airlines money sticking to a small variety in their fleet. Not to mention the questionable safety record of the planes I've mentioned! I still find a 747 more impressive than an A380 - although I haven't been on an A380 yet.
Have you tried it as an app? I have it on a ipod touch, there is a setting where you point the ipod at a plane in the sky (using the camera bit) and a little balloon appears pointing at the plane with all the info. To make it a bit more nerdy i have a scanner and i listen to the pilots and tower at leeds airport as they pass over.
It's not always a good reception from the tower but they generally pass over where i live at 4,000ft. I have a Yaesu VR120D scanner small enough for my pocket. i have been trying to find out if the player commentary is still transmitted at the ground on match days then i could listen to it.
I've just got a cheap Radio Shack "Weather Alert" that I picked up in New York years ago for about $80, I've set it up to all the local airports and it does a decent job of scanning through all the communications from the cockpit but obviously nothing from the ground - not sure how close I'd have to be to an airport to pick this up, I would imagine pretty much next to it with the small antenna. I don't think player commentary is transmitted at all apart from over the internet, the old antenna that they used to broadcast on 1575MW is still there but presumably never switched on. I struggled to receive the signal from that about 5 miles away (only the car radio would pick it up) so I think you'd be struggling in Tingley.
Does anyone know if the data on Flight Radar is actually live from a planes transponder and a radar station or is it just showing where a plane should be based on the time it took off and the route it would normally take to that destination?
Zoom out as far as you can on Flight Radar and look at how many planes are in the air - I'm sure me buying a bag for life and walking to the shop instead of driving is really going to make a jot of difference when all those emissions are being expelled into the atmosphere. Not that I'm an advocate of the global warming theory anyway, it's just another theory which is told to us as fact purely to justify the taxes that have been introduced on CO2 emissions.
That is kind of why I asked it to be honest although I would assume a plane at cruising altitude is safe from the kind of ground-based attack a terrorist may be capable of.
