Flight Explorer / Iridium
 

Hi,

Is there anyone out there using Iridium sat phones to send position reports to Flight Explorer?

Can it even be done?

Their website is not very good and the customer care line is a joke, you're either on hold for a half hour or you leave a message :ugh:

Thanks,

D.O.G

I have it on good authority that...

- Yes, assuming it's Iridium data, not voice
- Not sure if FE can handle this natively, but certainly do-able through an ACARS manager, like AIRCOM Server etc

DOG

My US-based 121 charter air carrier uses Iridium satfones to do exactly what you talk about.

How, I have no clue, but I could possibly find out - our old Director just left to work for SABRE/FltExplorer...

What ours does is the box on the plane tells the Iridium system the present position, and that I can superimpose on the map in Flight Explorer. I know we use Iridium cuz when I dial the airplane, I dial a 12 digit number through the Iridium system, and dial a local number here in the US which answers "Iridium satellite system" or something like that.

Your better off using a "Nano Tracker" that will search first for a GSM signal then the Iridium Sat. We do this to track "assets" and overlay it into Google Earth, which updates every 10 seconds. Nifty stuff and cool on a 100" plasma which can overlay realtime weather. Ops has never been so much fun !