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Oh wow, you can see every plane in the sky online

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DLeRium said:
i wonder if they're missing some data? or how much they're missing. europe looks quite empty considering how busy some airports like Heathrow are.
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The real-time data they have is done by picking up ADS-B, which not all commercial aircraft have yet. Also, the ADS-B is being picked up by essentially volunteers that have ADS-B receivers setup that then feed the traffic to the site. Those receivers can be quite expensive, and coverage areas will depend on how good of an install is done or practical, and whether the receiver is online at any time.

For US traffic, the gaps in ADS-B coverage is picked up by using FAA ASDI data.
 
It looks like a lot when you zoom out...but impossibly few planes when you zoom in.

I mean, I see/hear planes taking off and landing at Nashville International (a relatively small international airport, really) pretty damn frequently...and there's only one plane in mid-TN right now? That...seems a little off.

Why would there be large gaps in data from the FAA? That seems...kinda unsettling.

edit: lot more traffic on the west coast, where it's not so late. Is this only commercial/passenger traffic? I would think cargo would be flying 24/7.
 
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Wish there was an option to change the representation of each plane to something like a small pulsing/flashing dot. Then it wouldn't look so scary.
 
phucheneh said:
Why would there be large gaps in data from the FAA? That seems...kinda unsettling.
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The data presented is from all IFR flight plans, including general aviation. Military flights will be blocked by the ASDI vendor they are using. Also, private planes (general aviation, charters, corporate and the like) are able to request that their aircraft are blocked and do not appear in the ASDI data.

phucheneh said:
edit: lot more traffic on the west coast, where it's not so late. Is this only commercial/passenger traffic? I would think cargo would be flying 24/7.
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I don't see anything scheduled passenger wise either arriving or departing from Nashville International for a few more hours yet. It looks like the list of cargo operators based at the airport is pretty small, so I'm not sure how much traffic you would be seeing right now. If you hear regular TOs and landings right now, then I'm not sure.
 
Nah, there's no regular traffic right now. Also my house is a few miles away and only lined up with one runway, I think, so all I notice are jumbo jets on approach (or is it takeoff? I forget).

I just didn't realize how late it was when I first posted. But it does seem odd that there's not cargo traffic flying around during the night...when I checked earlier, TN was the only state with zero planes in it. Heh.

But perhaps I've always just had a false notion that cargo flies all through the night. I know there are people working for UPS and FedEx at all hours, but maybe they're just loading/unloading/sorting for stuff that will leave in the morning. Low priority stuff probably gets trucked to Memphis, also.

I did notice out airport (BNA) is missing from the map, though. Any other international airports missing?
 
phucheneh said:
I just didn't realize how late it was when I first posted. But it does seem odd that there's not cargo traffic flying around during the night...when I checked earlier, TN was the only state with zero planes in it. Heh.
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Well Fedex left BNA for Memphis around midnight. Looks like the return FedEx from Memphis is at 5. LabCorp had an arrival not too long ago

phucheneh said:
But perhaps I've always just had a false notion that cargo flies all through the night. I know there are people working for UPS and FedEx at all hours, but maybe they're just loading/unloading/sorting for stuff that will leave in the morning. Low priority stuff probably gets trucked to Memphis, also.
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It does, but since the hub is not that far from you, they will only want to make 1 trip and they have to wait for anything else coming into the hub for BNA.

phucheneh said:
I did notice out airport (BNA) is missing from the map, though. Any other international airports missing?
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It's in their actual database, so I'm not sure why you can't search for it on the map and why it isn't pinned.

*EDIT: Check the arrivals and departures for Memphis and see all the cargo traffic that has been going through there.
 
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