Tracking airports

[phil2]

I want to track flights to / from airports etc Eg MAN
iv found this site
Airport Tracker


I Did Manchester but all the flights arrivals/departing didnt show up, i know there is a airnav thing i can buy but at the moment i cant afford it, so whats free online that i can see them all lol.
thanks

[ZOOKER]

"I want to track flights to / from airports etc Eg MAN"
Why?

[HEATHROW DIRECTOR]

phil2... Some of the online flight tracking sites do not display details of aircraft flying over the UK. However, there is a site to which SBS users can feed data from their receivers and this is displayed with a 5+ minute delay. For the life of me I cannot recall the URL, but someone more knowledgeable is bound to respond..

[ImnotanERIC]

that sounds REALLY interesting.

[HEATHROW DIRECTOR]

I knew it was in my rusty brain somewhere... openATC

[phil2]

Thanks, i tried wont work though :@ it just doesent come up,google earth does but nout else :S

[topdrop]

it just doesent come up,google earth does but nout else

Certaily working at the moment. Did you try going to Places (Left hand middle in my version of Google Earth) and putting a tick in the box that says Open ATC Air Traffic.
The other reason there may be nothing there is if noone in UK is uploading their SBS data.
Hope that helps.

[HEATHROW DIRECTOR]

It was certainly working last evening.

Make sure you have it set up right, as suggested by topdrop.

[phil2]

I will try later,kept freezing so wound me up lol,is there anything after iv downloaded it i need 2 do to the file? also when it works what is it like? look like etc?
thanks

[HEATHROW DIRECTOR]

You don't need to download anything, assuming that you have Google Earth installed. On the OpenATC page, click the "Show Airtraffic" box at the top of the screen. Then click "Google Earth". Then click where it says: "Then, simply click here and Google Earth will launch automatically and display your Air Traffic"..

When Google Earth appears, ensure that you tick the selection box on the left. You should see lots of triangles with flight numbers next to them. They are aircraft and their positions are 5+ minutes behind.

[phil2]

thanks i did it but after a minute it freezes and doesent come back and have to turn off the whole comp

[HEATHROW DIRECTOR]

Presumably you have a fast broadband connection so do you regularly clear out the temporary internet files, etc?

[phil2]

thanks iv got it going now, I take it it doesent display every plane over the UK lol thanks

[HEATHROW DIRECTOR]

No, because the information is derived from equipment receiving Mode S transmissions. Some aircraft equipment can include the precise position of the aircraft in these transmissions and it is these aircraft that you see. Somewhere in excess of 50% of aircraft send this data.