does anyone else use this site to see what is around up there ?

we often have Chinooks, Pumas and Apaches over here as we are on a low flying route, and occasionally have Hercs and Atlas, though not as often as we used to.

when I bring up flightradar24, it does not usually show any trace of these, although it did one day show a Puma, so I assume that tactical a/c and rotors do not show.

however this morning I clicked on a rotor in the Selsey area which came up as 'no callsign' but the data panel showed it as an RAF Chinook ZH892, at between 900 and 1100 ft and speeds between 68 and 150 kts.

it then disappeared off the plot in the Winchester area, supposedly at 1100ft and 150 kts heading north.

any suggestions / info anyone can supply would be appreciated.

The data in Flightradar is from the Secondary Surveillance Radar system and is dependant on the airplane/helicopter being in radar visibility, having the SSR equipment in the aircraft turned on and the aircraft SSR equipment enabled to transmit data to the SSR ground equipment.

Tony

Thanks for the info @gawain . I wondered where they got the info from. I assumed military flights had their transponders off most of the time to avoid detection.

I'm on a flight path into/out of RAF Coningsby and use Flightradar quite a bit but their Typhoons and American visiting jets never show up, neither do other military aircraft as far as I can tell.

Mind you who needs Flightradar when you can hear them coming and sometimes reach up and touch them as they fly directly over our house. Well, it seems like that sometimes.

one sunday I checked Brize, and found an A400 taking off, and being bored I tracked it, off and on, all the way to Copenhagen.
I've also found various a/c either heading Brize - Akrotiri or vice versa.

I assume these flights have their transponders on as they are in the normal flight corridors.

Quote from: class37025 on November 03, 2020, 11:26:04 AM
does anyone else use this site to see what is around up there ?

Yes, I live in the west of Tokyo which (I found out a couple of years ago) is on the boundary of a large swathe of airspace in central Japan which is controlled by the US military, which means we get a fair bit of military traffic flying more-or-less directly overhead at times (particularly, it seems, when Rocketman Kim is being uppity). Most of it doesn't show up, what does are mainly transport flights (Hercules and the like if memory serves correctly) and what I suspect are commercial airliners flying troop and military freight transport.

I am also very sure we had the Trumpocopter fly over us when he was visiting Japan, and that certainly didn't show up.

Quote from: Malc on November 03, 2020, 11:59:49 AM
Thanks for the info @gawain . I wondered where they got the info from. I assumed military flights had their transponders off most of the time to avoid detection.

also Hotel 900 does not show up here, thought the air ambulance does.

I'm not sure (haven't checked recently) but when I first started  using this website a few years ago, it would only show when a particular make of aircraft transponder was being received. I presume by now that the site now also tracks transponders of different makes.

I don't use it very much, but a couple of years ago, I heard a multi-engine prop plane passing overhead; the site indicated it was a Dakota, and the the track started in Dublin, and I followed it on and off until the plane landed in Hannover.

It sometimes shows things like warbirds flying over Duxford, but not all preserved military aircraft appear to have the transponder; I've seen a Spitfire, plus others, flying in sight of me, but no corresponding track on the website.

Aircraft such as Apache Longbows, and occasional Hercules, which fly near me on training don't show.

martyn

I quite like having the app on my phone purely for a novelty

We need a rail one, "Freightradar24" 

THE BOYS ARE BACK IN TOWN 

Chinook just passed over the fields at sod all feet ,

checked and no transponder showing on flightradar  :'(

Hercs used to come over at the same sort of height, duck if in fields with HB, but now I suppose they are using their new simulator, cheaper.

that's what the bean counters like.

Quote from: gavin_t on November 03, 2020, 02:15:51 PM
I quite like having the app on my phone purely for a novelty

We need a rail one, "Freightradar24" 

have you used realtimetrains ?

down here all we get mostly are electric slugs, but it does show the RHTT trains out of Tonbridge.

I have the app and usually have a look at it when there is a helicopter flying over our house. It is normally the Coastguard, which quite often take medical cases to Sligo Hospital. I did once check the route of a flight I had taken from Liverpool to Knock Airport and found that it had flown almost directly over my house.

Looking at the moment at my local area and there's an RAF Hawk trainer whizzing around the Lincolnshire coast, out of Leeds according to the track.

Trust me to say earlier I never see military stuff on FR!

It's one its way back north now after making many circuits over the Donna Nook shooting ranges.

got it, though from the icon I was expecting a Typhoon