Retrieving radar traces - Essex/Herts area

[hegemon88]

Dear All,

I have a purely academic question - suppose a friend of mine, a PPL, made a navigation error on his Saturday p.m. local bimble and wanted to ascertain how seriously off-track he was. Will he be able to go somewhere and see the radar image(s) of his local flight? (the most likely radars would be Essex and Luton I think) There is no question of controlled airspace incursion, he would just like to learn from his little mistake. Of course he can show it was him flying the aircraft at the time so he would be requesting data about himself and nobody else.

I will be, I mean my friend will be very grateful for any advice.



/h88

[Jim59]

You can buy a FlyWithCE 300 Flight Recorder for £90 including VAT and postage that will record your GPS position every 3 seconds. You can then use one of several tools to see where you went in relation to controlled airspace (I use SeeYou but there are others).

File created is in IGC format.

iPhone/iPad tool APP if you have GPS on your device is WinPilot - does similar.

[hegemon88]

Thanks Jim59

iPhone/iPad tool APP if you have GPS on your device is WinPilot - does similar.

He uses an Android tablet with SkyDemon but it wasn't on on that occasion. The question isn't how to record position, the question is how to see how bad it was if the nav/recording device was bl**dy switched off.

[PA28181]

If he knew he was off track, and got home OK he must have a good idea where he was before heading for base? As for radar traces, until you file or have one filed against you, like an airprox or serious CAS bust, it is the only way you will be likely to see one.

[Sir George Cayley]

If your, ahem, friend's aircraft puts ADS-B out then it may be recoverable via those spotter flight radar type websites.

SGC

[RTN11]

This would be better served in the ATC forum section. Ever thought of picking up the phone and giving Luton a ring, see what they say?

[englishal]

You can replay some radar online....Bournemouth for example, and see youself there which is quite interesting. Luton?

[Cusco]

Find out which radar unit was responsible for the area you, er, your friend was flying in work out an exact time of the occurrence then contact them and ask them if you can see the tapes.

Don't see how they can refuse but I guess gold will have to change hands