By now, we bet you’ve heard of FlightAware. In fact, we’re pretty sure you’ve used it, or you’ve visited a similar site. Whether you were planning an airport pickup, checking to see if a family member’s flight arrived safely, or betting on which plane gets to JFK first, your air traffic request was among the two million FlightAware gets every day.
We got featured in Wired. And by “we” I mean all of you, the users.
robbreid got a whole paragraph, thanks in large part to his tireless dedication to reporting incidents (though he seems to be slacking-off lately ).
A little more than half of FlightAware’s registered users are pilots, one of whom is Robert Reid of Toronto. Reid is a private pilot and lives close to both Buttonville (YKZ) and Downsview (YZD) airports. He uses FlightAware to track when a particularly interesting plane is taking off or landing, and to follow friends’ flights. YZD is used by Bombardier to fly their unfinished ultra-exclusive Global 5000 jets for completion at other locations. “I can click on YZD, and if a Global 5000 files a flight plan, I can catch them on camera departing YZD,” Reid told Wired.com. Such a picture is shown below. “I have a friend that owns a Cessna 421 in Torrance California, so I have it on FlightAware Flight Alert. When ever the aircraft files a flight plan, departs, or lands on the flight plan I get an email flight alert.” Reid also used LiveATC.net to listen to in-flight communications of a friend’s recent trip to West Palm Beach.