The World On Time

[pshaw_raven]

I sometimes log in to Fox's FlightAware page and look at all the aircraft around us. Obviously we hop onto this thing when something is "buzzing" the house, though that often turns out to be a military aircraft with no available flight plan, which isn't unusual coming out of Camp Blanding. Keystone Air Park is also nearby and gets a lot of the smaller plane traffic.

Overnight, though, there aren't a lot of planes in the air. You'll have a few red-eye flights but those are often outside of our sight range. So before sunup, most of what I can see on FlightAware is either FDX or UPS. And you might be amazed at how many of them there are.

Now that it's getting light - nautical twilight was around 5:30 and I'm not sure if planes go by that but it doesn't seem unreasonable to me - there's a lot more flights showing up. But if I'm up very early, it's all mainly package delivery.

And that one "N/A" that's so not-available there isn't even an icon for the type of plane it is. Cue the "X Files" theme.

And, not that they fly, but the bears are active. When I was running yesterday I came across two sets of bear tracks in the sand. So mom has a cub again this year! On the one hand, yay for bear cubs, on the other, I'd better watch my ass out there because I do not want Mama Bear opening up a can of industrial-strength whoopass on me. She doesn't come down our end of the road much anymore because everyone here has finally started locking up their trash cans.

Comments

[zefyr]

It's incredible how many planes are flying at any given time. On the many flights I've taken, I've never seen another plane in the sky, so it feels a bit unnerving to know how many of them there are around you that you just can't see...

Also, please be careful of being eaten, Raven!

[pshaw_raven]

I've noticed that - it seems like when you fly, the only time you really see another plane is right around the airport. Looking at the flight map, I realize they actually are pretty far apart here, but along busier paths there must be more crowding.

I do not want to end up as a bear snack :D I don't think she'd believe me if I told her I wasn't tasty or nutritious!

[foggynights]

I've never heard of FlightAware until now. I saved it for future reference. There was one time that we heard a plane hitting the tops of the trees near our house (he eventually corrected himself and got back up in the air I would assume since there was no crash/no reporting of an accident), but this could have told me who it was and I could have followed up further!

I hope you don't make mama mad!!

[pshaw_raven]

FlightAware is a lot of fun - and I'm nosy so I love it. Fox has a PiAware, which is just a Raspberry Pi outfitted to pick up the plane's squawks, so it's all public info, you just have to be able to gather it. It also picks up things like helicopters and balloons. Hot air balloons anyway, weather balloons have their own tracking thing. We tried to find one recently that we think went down several miles from here, but we didn't have a transponder and no good way to find it.

I will be very happy to give mama bear alllll the space she wants!