(If this was already covered, I apologize.)
I love FA’s tracking maps, but one thing that annoys me is that when I’m tracking a flight’s path and looking at the sky, I’m not sure where I am on the map. That’s why I propose a “You are here” pointer. You enter your zip code or airport code in your user settings, and if the flight map has your location in it, it will show up.
Thanks everyone,
Josh
Don’t forget that FA is btwn 5-9 minutes behind, so finding a specific aircraft will be that much harder to find when looking at the sky.
True, but many flights make the same procedures every day, so you can look at yesterday’s flight and (assuming they are the same route) judge where to look. You’re right, because of the delay, you can’t look outside when FA says it’s right above you b/c it will be gone by then.
What I do is I make myself a sheet when flight spotting, writing which way the a/c is coming from, scheduled arrival time, etc. and check FA every so often to update my info. The hard part is I have to guesstimate where I am, and many times I thought I was looking at McKeesport (where I live, 4.5 miles east of KAGC) when I was really looking at another city or part of Pittsburgh.
yeah Pika, I found that out the hard way. Thought it was only 3 mins though. Ah well it’s still a lot…
If you’ve downloaded Google Earth, you can turn on the lat/lon overlay and, with the cursor, find the exact coordinates of your house. You can also take the flight track lat/lon and by moving your cursor, read the lat/lon at the bottom of the frame until you match the flight track lat/lon.
You’ll also come to quickly release how coarse the tracking grid is when you’re rounding all positions to .01 degrees.