Local ACARS Spotting Info - inbound/outbound aircraft

Folks - it's been about a year I've had a system up monitoring inbound/outbound flights for IAD and BWI at http://www.qatipi.com/acars/ . It's been about three weeks or so that I upgraded it to a new version that monitors multiple airports. I have included for now JFK, IAD, BWI and PHL. My intent is to add EWR and CLT sometime soon.

Since I take photos, I thought it would be very useful to know which aircraft is inbound, that way I can decide whether I need to rush or I can skip going to one airport and go to another.

Currently the programs monitor what is captured by acars listening posts and when it gets a match to the regular flight numbers it collects the registration. Please note that this won't catch any special flights (since we don't know the flight number before hand). Also, while we are working on some redundancy, there is no guarantee that we'll be able to catch all.
It will depend on ISP uptime, acars listening stations being up etc. etc. etc. However some information is better than no information.

The list of flights currently monitored is at
http://www.qatipi.com/acars/localflights.txt

So folks - check it out at http://www.qatipi.com/acars/ and suggestions are welcome

Blendi

Wow, this is pretty freakin' awesome! :) Great work and thanks for sharing!

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Originally Posted by blendq

Currently the programs monitor what is captured by acars listening posts and when it gets a match to the regular flight numbers it collects the registration. Please note that this won't catch any special flights (since we don't know the flight number before hand).

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Where are you getting these "regular flight numbers" from? Are you manually compiling them? Might it might be possible to get a daily, dynamic list off free sites like FlyteComm or FlightAware so you can get special flights?

LGA would be pretty useful, too (not to say that what you already have isn't incredible). If you'd need help getting this off the ground, or with anything else, I know myself and others around here would be ready and willing.

Again, great work!

Brian

I am compiling them manually. I could potentially get a daily update but realistically, since I'm monitoring primarily international/overseas traffic, their flight numbers don't change that often. I've disregarded domestic flights since there would be way too many of them to handle (and list) - at least for the near future

Blendi

that is pretty damn cool!!

I see...I was just thinking about VIP week at JFK, when we get all the weird Russian airliners and SPs. If you had daily updates, everything would show up with (as I understand it) little effort on your part. It'd be more comprehensive, too.

Beggars can't be choosers, so I'm not going to start busting your chops...just a few suggestions. :) Like I said in my previous post, since you compile all the data manually, I'd be up for helping you with the NY area in some way, shape, or form.

Keep it up,

Brian

I just wish you had LGA in there, too. But that's great work!!

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Originally Posted by Futterman

I see...I was just thinking about VIP week at JFK, when we get all the weird Russian airliners and SPs. If you had daily updates, everything would show up with (as I understand it) little effort on your part. It'd be more comprehensive, too.

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Gotcha! It certainly is an interesting idea so I'll chew a bit on it to see what I can figure out. It would certainly be useful. One thing I've noticed is that FlyteComm data for inbound traffic is updated long after I've received a "hit" from the system so I have to figure out some queue mechanism as well as to figure out how to make it a "learning" system, i.e. figure out what the VIP or "special" flights are ...

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Futterman

Beggars can't be choosers, so I'm not going to start busting your chops...just a few suggestions. :) Like I said in my previous post, since you compile all the data manually, I'd be up for helping you with the NY area in some way, shape, or form.

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Suggestions are more than welcome! It started as a project to see stuff myself and if it helps the rest of the crew - it's even better.
Warning ... I'l take you up on that offer ... probably sooner than you think ;)

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Originally Posted by Phil D.

I just wish you had LGA in there, too. But that's great work!!

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Phil - If you have any particular flights going to LGA in mind - send me a message and we'll see what we can do

Blendi

Blendi,

Email me at [email protected]. We've got lots ot talk about. :)