Flightradar24.com

[ozziekiwi]

Just a quick question for the experts please.


On Flightradar24 is the ATD the off-blocks time or the airborne
time which comes up in the left hand panel after you click on the
little yellow icon which represents an aircraft ??


Just curious thanks so much in advance.

[DaveReidUK]

On Flightradar24 is the ATD the off-blocks time or the airborne time which comes up in the left hand panel after you click on the
little yellow icon which represents an aircraft ??

AFAIK, it's usually the airborne time (and they should really refer to it as that) and not the ATD (which is generally understood by the industry to mean the "Out" element of the OOOI time).

If you think about it, there can't be many airports where FR24's enthusiast feeders are able to track aircraft down every cul-de-sac as far as each gate, in fact the airports themselves normally need a multi-antenna setup to do this.

[kcockayne]

A good question. I have seen examples of it being both. Sometimes it has obviously come up as an off blocks time then, after the a/c is airborne, it has apparently changed to the take off time.

[IFPS man]

Why not just compare the time as indicated from FR 24 with that given on a website for the Flight Departures at the associated airfield?
Im

[KelvinD]

Why not just compare the time as indicated from FR 24 with that given on a website for the Flight Departures at the associated airfield?
Because, in the case of LHR at least, that could lead to huge confusion. I often look at the Heathrow Arrivals/Departures board to get an idea of when a particular aircraft might move and it is surprising how often the departure board will announce "Departed. Airborne at xx:xx" when the aircraft is obviously still at the gate preparing to move.

[DaveReidUK]

I often look at the Heathrow Arrivals/Departures board to get an idea of when a particular aircraft might move and it is surprising how often the departure board will announce "Departed. Airborne at xx:xx" when the aircraft is obviously still at the gate preparing to move.If that's true, it's a scary thought, given that ATC are responsible for logging the "Airborne" time and putting it into the system. Hopefully that doesn't mean they are giving takeoff clearance to the wrong aircraft. :O

Having said that, I've never seen "Departed" on Heathrow's flight status page - the normal sequence of events posted is "Last Call", "Gate Closed", "Taxied" and "Airborne hh:mm".

[KelvinD]

It is possible the "Departed" bit was a figment of my imagination! I shall have to keep a look out over the coming days.
I do know the "Airborne" quote is accurate though. Emirates EK8 today was an example, showing Airborne before it had taxied.

[DaveReidUK]

Emirates EK8 today was an example, showing Airborne before it had taxied.According to FlightRadar24, EK8 was airborne at 09:37 (local) this morning.

Between approximately 09:25 and 09:45, HAL's flight status was showing it as "Taxied", and after that as "Airborne 09:38". Sounds OK to me.

[KelvinD]

By coincidence, I thought I would look at what is happening right now and EK8 was obviously moving (showing 2kts). The Heathrow mobile site shows "AIRBORNE:DEPARTED 09:05" (Their caps).
Planefinder & FR24 show the aircraft has just pushed back and is currently pointing East down the taxiway with a speed of 0kts.
The Heathrow non-mobile site shows "Gate Closed".
(I am ever so pleased I hadn't imagined the "Departed" thing!)
By the way, when you refer to HAL's site, which site is that? The site I have been using is Heathrowairport.com

[DaveReidUK]

Hmmm. Interesting that Heathrow's mobile site doesn't seem aligned with what their main site (Heathrow: Flight information | Status updates (http://www.heathrowairport.com/flight-information)) shows. That would certainly explain what we're seeing.

Out of curiosity, I've just installed Heathrow's Android app - that currently shows "AIRBORNE: DEPARTED 09:21" for EK008 (which is more or less correct, it was airborne at around 09:20:50). The main site also shows "AIRBORNE 09:21".

So it would seem that the mobile site wrongly associates "AIRBORNE" with the aircraft starting to move ("DEPARTED" on its own would be technically correct), and then the airborne time gets updated when the flight actually takes off.

As they say, go figure. :O

[I-WEBA]

Just compared with EZY flight tracker which shows the off block time. Flightradar gives the airborne time

[west lakes]

So FR 24 is an APP or program run in their spare time by a few guys in Sweden
Yet it seems that folk think it is a proffessional set up that owes accuracy and precise timing to all

Sorry to say it isn't and I doubt that will ever happen.

About - Flightradar24.com - Live flight tracker! (http://www.flightradar24.com/about)

http://www.flightradar24.com/how-it-works

[DaveReidUK]

Just compared with EZY flight tracker which shows the off block time. Flightradar gives the airborne time

Airlines' own websites almost always show the off-blocks time as that's the basis on which punctuality is measured.

So FR 24 is an APP or program run in their spare time by a few guys in Sweden. Yet it seems that folk think it is a proffessional set up that owes accuracy and precise timing to all.

Sorry to say it isn't and I doubt that will ever happen.

Well it's certainly a commercial undertaking, and they clearly have some clever programmers. It's just unfortunate that the media, in particular, don't seem to have grasped that the product has some limitations and inconsistencies (for example those "ATDs") that need to be taken into account when using the data.

[ozziekiwi]

For those of you guys who are interested.


Sitting here at work in the middle of the night I had Flightradar24 up
and I noticed that QF7524 was showing in AKL. The aircraft was obviously taxying as the speed was about 20 odd knots and 0 feet, so I kept the mouse on the aircraft icon and watched the details changing in the panel top left hand corner of the screen. He got airborne at 0412 according to my watch as I could see the height constantly changing and then he changed course somewhat. I went back to it later and it indeed showed the ATD of 0412 so there is some useless info for you guys and gals out there who may have wondered in the past.


P.S. Thanks DaveReidUK you were spot on with your first reply here

Cheers to you all and Happy Landings.