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Hello, Travel Tracker
December 12, 2008 2:14 PM
Say "hello" to HelloFlight.com, the latest entrant to the online flight tracking community.
The free site allows travelers to track any flight in the U.S. -- all you need is the airline and flight number to get the information. You can also pick up the latest news about airport delays, something that could come in handy during the winter months. Users can also go big picture to find out how many flights are in the sky above the U.S. At the time of this writing, 5,241 were winging their way through the air.
"We have every piece of information in the air: heading, altitude, speed, you name it," said HelloFlight's Clark Scott.
Aviation enthusiasts can use HelloFlight to track particular airlines' flights, or even a specific make of aircraft. For instance, I clicked on the link for Super King Air 200's and learned there are 50 of these aircraft currently in the sky. I also viewed a map displaying their location. I clicked on the icon for one of the flights that was over Utah and learned that it was due to land in Las Vegas at 1:50p EST. Good luck to you at the tables.
Other features would allow users to match HelloFlight's data with its parent website HelloMetro.com. Do you live near an airport? "You can pick out your neighborhood and show how many flights went over your neighborhood and at what height," Scott said.
How does it work? It's both very simple and extremely complicated. HelloFlight.com receives flight data directly from the Federal Aviation Administration, that's the simple part. However they get so much data that the company had to purchase two additional servers to handle the massive amount of information.
"It's like drinking from a firehose, the data we have coming [in] from the FAA," Scott added.
As HelloFlight evolves in the coming weeks, the company hopes to add more complex features such as a media player that would allow users to play and rewind airplane flight paths, including ones from previous days. Scott also believes the company will be able to provide near real-time information on loss of separation or near-miss incidents. Called "Close Calls," the tool will track the distances between planes and publish information on these events that occur when two aircraft get too close to each other.
-ABC News' Matt Hosford
December 12, 2008 | Permalink | User Comments (4)
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Do You Speak EEL?: Translating FAA Bobby Sturgell - PART III
http://ejectsturgell.blogspot.com/2008/11/do-you-speak-eel-translating-faa-bobby_30.html
Exiting FAA Acting Administrator Bobby Sturgell: “You’ll notice I’m throwing lots of new runways, equipment, money, jobs, acronyms, programs, kudos, and concocted self-serving study “results” at communities right before I get chucked out of office. That’s on purpose. Those are called ‘bribes’. They are intended to buy the silence and cooperation of those that receive them. Others, I’ll abuse. For fun, I once again will try to blame Air Traffic Controllers, pilots, Congress, co-workers, community residents, Israel, India, the Philippines, potash miners, unions, Mother Nature, and even my economic co-conspirators the airlines on my way out the door, for all of my own failures. The remaining other folks, well, I’ll just tell FAA ‘Safety Officer’ Nick Sabatini to intimidate. My best strategy is comprised of the bribes, though. This provides me job security in the private sector for years to come, and might make everybody forget those 3,500-and-climbing aviation fatalities that occurred on my FAA watch”.
http://indictsturgell.blogspot.com/2008/10/failed-faa-pilot-bobby-sturgell-racks.html
Posted by: John J. Tormey III, Esq. | Dec 13, 2008 5:30:22 PM
Nice article on a cool flight info website. I really like the graphics showing the path, height, and progress towards destination. Much more info and way easier to use then individual airline sites! Thanks a lot for the tip to this hot site!
Posted by: bw | Dec 13, 2008 9:55:34 PM
There is a similar site for custmized travel requirements and travel agents by the name of hellotravel.com
Posted by: Saurabh | Apr 6, 2009 8:39:01 AM
Yes you have every piece of information on flight related queries.
Informative ....I would say interesting
Posted by: Aparana Chauhan | Aug 31, 2009 7:58:12 AM
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