Non-motoring > Flying circuits Miscellaneous
Thread Author: legacylad Replies: 9

 Flying circuits - legacylad
Is there any way to track an aircrafts recent flight path ?
Yesterday I flew LS273 ( I think) LBA > ALC at 07:30. pilot announced ‘10 mins to landing’ but we flew circuits for quite a while. No extended flaps so I knew we weren’t close to landing. On the ground ALC was quiet...maybe there were lots of departures hence the delay in putting it down.

Just idle curiosity.
 Flying circuits - Manatee
uk.flightaware.com/live/flight/map/EXS273/history/20230414/0640Z/EGNM/LEAL

Looks like 2 full loops.
Last edited by: Manatee on Sat 15 Apr 23 at 22:54
 Flying circuits - Bromptonaut
Those 'circuits', in a race track pattern, look like a hold. Using my chosen app, FR24, one can see that they were flown descending from 11,000 feet down to 9,000.

www.flightradar24.com/data/flights/ls273#2fe41d1b

Obviously, the usual reason for flying a hold like that is there being a wait to land because of traffic. When we're at one of our favourite CAMC sites, Wyatt's Covert at Denham (Bucks), we can see airliners going round the Bovingdon hold for LHR.

If not 'traffic' then their may have been some other issue such as need for a runway inspection, too few controllers and folks on a break or just spacing and sequencing arrivals from different directions.

Watching Madeira airport recently, in anticipation of our upcoming visit, arriving flights sometimes hold to deconflict them with departures or because the winds are out of limits.

More locally, aircraft inbound to Brum from the SE often do a once round 'loop' which looks as though they need extra track miles to get height off before approaching the NW facing runway.
Last edited by: Bromptonaut on Sun 16 Apr 23 at 01:18
 Flying circuits - legacylad
Many thanks…that’s satisfied my curiosity

Another warm beautiful Sunday morning here..shorter walk today after 6 hard hours in the mountains yesterday from Famorca. ..where at 4PM it was 28C in the valley, fortunately it was several degrees cooler at the high point of our walk, 4700’.
Last edited by: legacylad on Sun 16 Apr 23 at 08:14
 Flying circuits - bathtub tom
>>Watching Madeira airport recently, in anticipation of our upcoming visit, arriving flights >>sometimes hold to deconflict them with departures or because the winds are out of limits.

There's a lot of aborted approaches at Madeira due to air flow off the mountain, resulting in many aircraft making more than one attempt to land. If you're not a nervous flyer, it's quite amusing watching them land there. I've heard a number of tales from folk who've landed elsewhere and shipped to Madeira.
 Flying circuits - legacylad
Is this a free app ? I’ve something like (free) flight radar on my phone but it doesn’t give such detail.
That’s impressive ( to a technophobe numpty)
 Flying circuits - Bromptonaut
Basic FR24 is free with additional facilities via Silver, Gold and Business:

www.flightradar24.com/premium?

I pay for Gold, a tad over $40/pa including VAT. As a lifelong plane nut it's worth it for the history, charts etc. but I think you need at least Silver to look at history.

YMMV.
 Flying circuits - legacylad
Thank you. £40 pa probably worth it for me.
When sat in my garden on a summer afternoon I sometimes know the North Atlantic traffic passing over settle. Saddo.
 Flying circuits - Manatee
The flight aware history was free. FR24 does more stuff if you pay for it and gives more info.
 Flying circuits - Duncan
And of course, if you want to look at boaty type stuff.

www.marinetraffic.com/en/ais/home/centerx:-2.5/centery:51.9/zoom:7
Last edited by: Duncan on Sun 16 Apr 23 at 22:47
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