Whilst watching FlightRadar24 as you do on a lazy Sunday afternoon, I spotted something small heading out to sea, so I clicked and got this....
... not informative thought I until the altitude caught my eye. Then it looked like it had a friend to the North.....
A bit of Googling suggests the HBAL277 belongs to a Google project called Project Loon. Strikes me as mighty odd but there you go. There seems to be too much behind it and it's not April 1
BTW I saw both of these show heights flipping between the six hundreds and the 65 thousands which suggests FR24 uses an unsigned integer for the altitude display. Has anyone seen anything higher than 65536 feet on FR24?
Paul
It's not a 'bird', it's an aeroplane or an aircraft
I offered my services as a "test pilot" for this Google project.
Then I realised that at 65000ft, I won't be able to breathe
So much for snuggling up to the air hostess in the basket.
Looks like a short term job anyway, the balloons only last 100 days.
Wonder what the retirement pension will be.
I'm not so sure that Flightradar24 is all that accurate. This Sat I was elected to go pick up my son at YVR incoming from Stewart BC. I checked Flightradar24 for his flight which was displayed as an Air Canada 737 correct flight number etc. He was actually on board a WestJet DHC8. Maybe that is why his flight arrived 10 mins early and I got moaned at 'cause he had to stand and wait.
I don't even think ACA still flies the 737 does it?
The DHC.8 will not show up on anything other than FR24 as it doesn't use mode S
Things like the Dash Eight are displayed using a special programme that triangulates the fixed position it does transmit using at least four reporting stations to give the movement.
Ultimately is only as accurate as the info put it.
Did it actually display the reg of a 737 or was just the type wrong. Had that base info not been updated by the feeder then it will display wrongly. Was it a reg that was onece used by a 737?
For many months BA were using a King Air and aRobin DR.400. Thomas Cook were using a BA 747...or so it was displayed due to the wrong base info put in.
You have to be wary of such instances, but generally it is right.
Garry
"In the world of virtual reality things are not always what they seem."
I cannot remember exactly what was displayed now, it had the correct flt no. It also showed the flight as being YVR -> Bellingham (in Washington State) yet the graphic clearly showed the a/c/ having just left Stewart which is quite a bit north of YVR.
