Does AirService's WebTrack "Cuteness Flights" Option Work?

[S.Bartfast]

I live in Adelaide, South Australia an I have spent a modest amount of time listening to ATC-Live while following the traffic on FlightRadar24 or PlaneFinder but many of the aircraft don't show up.

I know AirServices have a "Web Track" service which seems to show a lot more aircraft but when in "Show current flights" mode the movements don't seem to correlate to ACTLive, FlightRadat24, PlaneFinder or even my own observations. Is anyone able to explain the disparity and possibly suggest a better method of observing?



Here are a couple of screen grabs I took within a few seconds of each other showing the difference between "Web Track" and FlightRadar24:

Web Track:


FlightRadat24:


As you can see there are numerous discrepancies between the images. The only thing that seems to correlate is the SYD-ADL flight in the NE but even then one lists it as a A320 at 4500' while the other lists it as a B737 at 6700'. In my observation FlightRadar24, PlaneFinder and LiveATC all seem to correlate with my own observations so it appears it's AirServies "Web Track" that's out. I know "Web Track" use to have a 1/2 hour delay but I see that is has a "Show current flights" mode now a but is this mode still delayed?

Just now I brought up these three sites as a large helicopter just flew low over my house and I wanted to see what it was. I suspect it was the Westpac 1 rescue helicopter but wanted to see it on radar to confirm. It has not shown up on any of the radar sites and I have been monitoring "Web Track" for over half an hour now and it still hasn't shown.

Is anyone able to explain what is going on?

Thanks.

[DaveReidUK]

Is anyone able to explain the disparity and possibly suggest a better method of observing?

At present, the Adelaide WebTrak site is showing "current flight" data that's about 40 minutes old.

AFAIK, none of the B&K/Lochard WebTrak airport sites show real-time data.

[S.Bartfast]

At present, the Adelaide WebTrak site is showing "current flight" data that's about 40 minutes old.

Well that's misleading

The Control panel even says:

To view "life" flights, select the "Show current flights" checkbox.

But you're right.
After I submitted the post but before moderators had approved it a B412 was indeed shown tracking within meters of my place.

The trace then shows the B412 heading down to the southern end of "Maslin Beach", buzzing about at a low altitude for a while then heading home again. No idea what they were doing down there but yesterday was a nice sunny day
(For those that don't know Maslin beach is a nudist beach 35km SW of Adelaide.)
It's kind of fun to play with the 'time slider' and watch the heli scoot about down there.

[DaveReidUK]

40 minutes delay isn't bad - here in the UK, WebTrak data for Heathrow, for example, is delayed by 24 hours "for security reasons".