Looks like in this thread from three years ago there is at least a guess how it’s calculated:
Searching for “rank” or similar keywords throws a lot of threads on the table. Maybe it’s an important feature for many FA users.
So I’m back again with questions. Observations: Many more aircraft flying here in NE Florida USA. I’m getting upwards of 2000+ a day for the past 5 or 6 days. I will grant you that has a lot to do with my 30 day ranking, but suddenly I’m rocketing up…was fighting to break #2000 for a couple months, then suddenly (like under a week) I’m sitting in the mid 1300s and all appearances don’t show me slowing much. Did that many bad data days drop off or what? It’s just crazy to me!
I use the ranking to help me figure out if any tuning I do (hardware or software) makes any difference–I haven’t changed anything since I put up the 978 feed about 3-4 weeks ago–and there’s not that much traffic here I don’t think to significantly affect the stats.
my 30 day ranking here is going down constantly due to the lower traffic. That’s something you can see for almost all receivers in Europe.
And if these are going down, the other receivers (e.g US or Asia) without that downtrend on traffic will go up.
Did you compare your values with other sites close to you?
Completely agree.
Firstly, with the current downturn in aircraft traffic, any previous “rankings” are probably blown away if you are in Europe. Traffic closed down while USA and Asia just continues to fly (empty?) aircraft.
Even before that, a ranking was just a snapshot of your location and topography. Little you could do to change that ranking since it was dependent on just how many aircraft there were in your location. Live near LAX or LHR and your ranking could be very high. I can never overtake the guy who lives the other side of the hill and can “see” the south of the UK. Well perhaps I can if I put up a 300 foot high antenna!
Then there is the perceived value of the data. Those at the top of the rankings will be at high throughput airports or airways - data also contributed by hundreds (even thousands?) of other Piaware.
Yet the person on a remote island location with just a few contributions that no one else overlaps will be somewhere at the bottom of the “rankings”. Which are the most important to Flightaware? And do the rankings indicate that? NO!
So by all means go for the “longest streak” or “highest ranking” - just know that that the first is trivia. The second is location-dependent and nothing that I will try to beat. I cannot since I have the best setup I can justify and I can never equal those who live near a major airport.
Other opinions may differ but I am happy that my setup covers aircraft 200 miles around me (I’m really only interested in those I can see so that is overkill). Spending money on a setup to try to increase those numbers is of no interest. 30-day ranking is a Flightaware statistic of no relevance to me.
I too agree. I have an ordinary indoor antenna, not even right by a window.
Live about 14 miles from Heathrow and see a fair bit of traffic, much of which passes overhead at around 8000 feet. Don’t feel a need to go to any great lengths to increase range other than minor tweaks.
But, wouldn’t criticise anyone with big aerials, filters or boosters, technology is a hobby as much as ADS-B tracking.
Geoff
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For me too, this is the point than makes the 30 day ranking irrelevant.
There are a few really obscure sites discussed here (Cocas Keeling comes to mind), where a very small number of planes are at least as interesting as a large number at a busy airport.
Comparing my site to another on a different continent, holds no relevance (to me).
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I just came from US in Italy (work) last week. In the US flight and over the Atlantic there were many seats empty, to insure that no passenger sits next to another. Basically empty terminals in airports.
Fast forward to Paris - Naples flight with AirFrance. Crowded terminal (all EU flights), seemed that half of people were wearing the masks under the nose or even on the chin. The plane was full to capacity (no empty seats), lots of people that looked to come in vacation in family groups. No wonder the cases jumped right up.
Now, the situation changed again this week, so the 30 days might be affected.
