New To Plane Spotting

[Will]

I'm new to plane spotting but I'm most curious about identifying planes that are well out of clear visual site. For example, if I'm walking down the street and I see a plane at 30,000, and not flying to or from a new york based airport, is there anyway of identifying it?

Thanks

[SmAlbany]

With binoculars and a bit of practice, you can usually figure out aircraft type. Do that in conjunction with an aircraft tracking site such as flightaware and you may be able to figure out airline and flight number (although it's tough with the time delay and the speeds of jets at altitude).

[PhilDernerJr]

Welcome to the site, Will!

If you live in the NYC area, one resource for you is Passur Airport Monitor. It is delayed by about 10 minutes or so, but you can go back in time on there and check out a plane in an approximate position and see what it is. You can see the aircraft type and altitude immediately, but sometimes it takes some hours for the flight number and airline to fill in, if not the next day.

http://www4.passur.com/lga.html

http://www4.passur.com/jfk.html