Unreliable Flight Radar Data

[Garry Russell]

Hi Dave

If you have labels selected the identiy is showing on all as long as there is less that 250 displayed

[DaveB]

Yes mate.. something I have to get my head around. I've much less than 250 a/c in view a lot of the time so I'll check this out

ATB
DaveB

[Garry Russell]

I also have my aircraft set to small

[DaveB]

Hello Mate

I don't know what size my aircraft are set at so it's default. I found that button (odd it's greyed out making it seem it's not available) and now have all lines available. I edited the first post to tell you but the forum came back with some unintelligible error code so I let it go

ATB
DaveB

[Garry Russell]

Hi mate

It's greyed out by default ...there is a button to activate it over the panel as some systems don't have the memory to run labels and if it was on it would be taking up resources labelling even if blank

I think it's medium aircraft by default...there is a line of options

[speedbird591]

This shows Iberia flight IBE3180 has on several days recently, been operated by ex BA Boeing 737-236 AP-BKC that was destroyed in a crash in Pakistan last month

Boeing 737-200s are too tough to stay destroyed for long.

Ian

[Tomliner]

Ian, Ben will be pleased! EricT

[ianhind]

Garry

it might be worth sending your findings to the admins at FlightRadar24. On all the occasions when AP-BKC is shown, there is also a valid Iberia Airbus on the same day. I checked out all the spurious flights on FlightRadar24 and all show a red or yellow question mark at the location, ie insufficient data. Quite why AP-BKC is substituted in the log for uncertain data seems strange. On the 20th May example, the spurious flight appears in the Bay of Biscay just as the Iberia Airbus lands at Heathrow - probably not a coincidence.

There are several sources of information as to just what is transmitted by Mode-S. These include (from memory) Mode-S code, flight number, flight level, position. As you say, a lot of interpolation from look up tables for registration and route has to take place using enthusiast-generated information. Every time Brazilian Boeing 767 PR-BRW appears on screen, I have to remind myself that it is really N637TW, 3 years after it changed registration! Then of course we have Voyager ZZ330 which was still flying around for several weeks with the Mode-S code of G-VYGA

But it still doesn't explain why AP-BKC appears in that data on FlightRadar24.

As for subtle location errors, FlightRadar24 merges data from many sources to produce an overall picture (as yet I don't contribute). Errors in PC clocks, latitude/longitude of receiver as entered by user, etc, all contribute to potential aircraft location errors. Recently on my system, which shows another source of shared data, the arrivals at Charles de Gaulle suddenly seemed to be located near Mablethorpe. Short term error but it indicates the type of underlying problem that can occur. Given the human input into all this, I'm amazed that FlightRadar24 works as well as it does.

And certainly delays over the internet contribute. I can see live data from my Mode-S receiver but if for some reason (eg a roof joist stops reception, the shared data is shown. The jumping back and forth between live and shared data can be quite obvious.

Hope all that helps everyone.

Ian

[Garry Russell]

Hi Ian

I have in the past with both 24 and Virtuel radar reported discrepencies

Each time I was ignored and the info not corrected...I so I've not bothered since.

[DaveB]

Not an error report but an observation..

Tuned into FR24 a few mins ago with GUE as my central position. Have you ever noticed how many aircraft fly to the same place at the same time? To the west of the CI, there were 3 aircraft in close proximity and all going to Faro. Two were out of Brum (Tom and Mon) and the third (Ezy)out of Manchester. Glancing up the map, I noticed a further MON aircraft heading for Faro. Everything seems to be going to Malaga or Faro this morning.. excpet me that is and I'm staying here

A boring day today unless the wind backs.. Brum is using 33 so I'll see nothing in cct

ATB
DaveB