NLC - helicopter question - Tut?

[Eric K]

When I look at FlightRadar in the late evening (22:00 - 01:00) I often see an S92 which takes off from Inverness and just has a fly around.

This was on Saturday night ...



... and this evening ...



Any idea what it's doing?

I wondered if it was search and rescue but it always seems to be around the same time.

[j2 lot]

Chip shop run.. ?

[tut]

It's the Bristow SAR aircraft Erik that is based at Inverness Airport.
They will be doing night training for the crews.

tut

ps:- that looks a neat program, what are the requirements for its use?

[tut]

Found it, http://www.flightradar24.com, wish I had known about it before, brilliant program, just watching the helicopter movements around Aberdeen, and can track Luke's aircraft when he comes ashore on Wednesday.

tut

[Eric K]

... Bristow SAR aircraft ... based at Inverness Airport ... night training for the crews.

Superb - thanks.

For some reason, FR24 doesn't seem to show all helicopter movements - I'm not sure why.

Sometimes an aircraft will go over my house at an odd time and I'll look and there'll be nothing shown.

Could be the Police Scotland unit I suppose or an aircraft headed to ARI.

[graeme]

Not all helicopters(or fixed-wing flights) have ADS-B transponders, and I don't think flightradar has much mode S coverage to fill in the rest.

I have my own ADS-B reciever (basically, a DIY flightradar) in the attic and lots of things don't show up on my maps.

[graeme]

This one was fun: heard him circling over the office, so had a look at my homebrew radar. It was a helicotper (even though the symbol is a fixed wing.. .mine doesn't change the icon like flightradar does)

[graeme]

Flightradar is basically a crowd-sourced network of similar setups to mine, sending the received data back to central flightradar servers for processing and consolidation onto one map, so their accuracy depends on how many receiving stations they have in your area. If coverage is poor, you can request a box from them that plugs into your home network, receives ADSB transmissions and uploads them over your broadband. Basically, you volunteer your electricity and bandwidth to improve their tracking. They won't send you a box unless they need coverage in your area though.

Sample rates on flightradar are quite low though, so flight paths can appear jaggy... mine has much higher sample rate, so the turns appear as smooth curves instead of jaggy corners. Obvioously mine has very limited line-of-sight though.
Range depends on altitude. This guy was at 34,000 ft and I picked him up about 100 miles out.

[graeme]

I just read the flightradar website for the first time in a while...

It seems you can get free access to their premium features in return for uploading your own data... doesn't have to be from one of their own boxes, they're encouraging you to build your own. If anyone wants to build a raspberry pi based one, let me know. Probably ~£50-60 for the bits.

[tut]

Looks like a standard six monthly VFR Base Check Ride Graeme.

tut

[Mr Momo]

FlightRadar and MarineTraffic are you friends in Aberdeen. FR was about £4

[pete]

SPOTTERS!

[Mikie711]

SPOTTERS!