The FR24 appreciation thread

I’m on QF63 in about 2mths and have heard that if you’re lucky you can see Antartica. I’ve been keeping an eye on the flight path it takes on FR24 and wish I was on todays flight!
 

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Would have thought mid-winter means around 24 hr darkness?
 
It often flies further north than that.
For example the 20july

I’ve asked in the Ask the Pilot thread whether the 2 engines have to fly further north compared with the 4 engines
Yes, I realise it often flies further north. That’s why I was so interested in this route…it’s the furthest south I’ve seen. I think I had read somewhere that the strength of the winds influence the flight path?
 
It often flies further north than that.
For example the 20july

I’ve asked in the Ask the Pilot thread whether the 2 engines have to fly further north compared with the 4 engines
If wind were not a factor, then the route would track a little north of the islands (French Southern and Antarctic lands) you can see mid route. But wind is always a factor and the mid point of the flight could easily vary by 1,000 nm north or south, chasing that minimum flight time.

Twin engined aircraft have historically been quite limited, but the 787 is flying with over 330 minutes of EROPs approval these days. If you have a look at this map (A map from Great Circle Mapper), you can see that just using Johburg, Reunion, and Perth gives you coverage almost to the ice shelf.

The wisdom of being 330 minutes from somewhere with an engine out is an entirely different discussion.
 
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Not seen many flights take this path out of SYD.

View attachment 285957

The "path" ends before QFA19 starts turning back. It's the KAMPI5 departure out of Sydney - at that position (KAMPI), it's radar vectors back to track.

Long way round turns, especially to be overhead the field like this, is a very common ATC tool. QFA19's already at an altitude where they can still get departures away on 16L. As for why ATC chose L instead of R in this specific instance I couldn't comment based just off that screenshot, but it wasn't much difference in track miles as it's close to a 180 degree turn either way.
 
I had reason to check the arrival today at Frankfurt of SQ26. The track matched a usual 25L landing and gate position, just shifted by 1.3km (as measured on google maps). Pic shows red star at the usual gate.
I always thought ADSB data transmitted from an aircraft was supposed to be (legally ??) accurate, based on the GPS receivers in the aircraft.
Any ideas on what may cause this ?
Seems a little alarming if ATC or other aircraft are using this incorrect ADSB information. (do they ?)
Other tracks at the time looked normal.

sq26.png
 
another crazy FR24 track...
this one is apparently a light aircraft Blackshape Gabriel rego N787BK from Sao Paulo in Brazil just passing Doha ... maybe was heading for World Cup and overshot ?
crazy plane.png
 
Alternative to FR24?
I think a lot is going on out of Amberley today but as usual, nothing shows up on fr24 despite a lot of noise around the Brisbane western suburbs.
ADS app shows an RAAF Wedgetail hanging around off the sunshine coast at 31,000ft. There for a reason.

Anyone found an app that shows up military aircraft?
 
Alternative to FR24?
I think a lot is going on out of Amberley today but as usual, nothing shows up on fr24 despite a lot of noise around the Brisbane western suburbs.
ADS app shows an RAAF Wedgetail hanging around off the sunshine coast at 31,000ft. There for a reason.

Anyone found an app that shows up military aircraft?
I think the entire point of many of the military aircraft is that they either don’t want to be seen, or specialise in blinding your radars. FR24 relies upon an ATC/ADSB transponder, which is not going to be turned on for any military exercise.

I expect the Russians are looking for the same app.

As an aside, if you look at pictures of the F35, you’ll see two small lumps on the upper fuselage just ahead of the tails. They’re there to enhance the radar image (i.e. make it bigger). When they’re removed they’re getting serious…
 

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