Hi Guy,
Not sure where in the world you're based, but this may be helpful, if a
little in-depth...
The majority of commercial flights use a system of routes known as "airways=
"
which run between pre-defined points - some of these are ground-based radio
beacons, and some are simply a designated set of lat/long coordinates.
Aircraft departing from and arriving at a major airport will usually use
Standard Instrument Departures (SIDs) and Standard Terminal Arrival Routes
(STARs) to travel from the airport to the closest point of the airway
network. So an aircraft's route is usually goes: Departure airport > SID >
Airway routing > STAR > Arrival airport.
If you're planning to record beyond about 30 miles from a major airport you
probably don't need to worry about SIDs and STARs and can just check whethe=
r
you're going to be under an airway. If you're in the USA this is easy to
check - just go to http://www.skyvector.com, chose "charts" and take a look
at the low and high en-route charts for your area of interest.
If you ARE going to be close to a major airport then you might also want to
see if you're going to be under a SID or STAR. Again this is easy in the US=
A
- go to http://skyvector.com/airports and track down the page for the
airport in question. Scroll down and you will see a list of SIDs and STARs
(they refer to the STARS as DPs but it's the same thing). Annoyingly the
charts don't show any ground features so you'll have to match up the
lat/long of the route points with a topo map or Google Earth to see exactly
where the route goes. Often different routes are used at different times of
day and this is indicated on the charts.
If you're outside of the USA getting hold of the info may be a bit trickier=
,
but most countries do make it freely available in a document known as the
Aeronautical Information Publication (AIP) which is usually available onlin=
e
- for example the UK one is located here:
http://www.nats-uk.ead-it.com/public/index.php.html
Once you have all this info you can then use a site like FlightAware (USA)
or http://www.flightradar24.com (Europe) to find out which of the airways
are most heavily used and at what times of day.
None of this is foolproof - when traffic volumes are low an air traffic
controller will often give pilots more direct routes which doesn't follow
one of the published airways. In addition military aircraft are a law unto
themselves, as are general aviation flights which often fly at low altitude
and navigate by means of visual references like roads and rivers rather tha=
n
airways and radio beacons. Also these kinds of flights don't show up on
flight tracking sites, so there's no guarantee you won't find yourself unde=
r
a military low-flying route or next to a private airstrip.
Hope this helps!
Tom
On 5 February 2011 18:48, hartogj <> wrote:
>
>
> Hi Guy,
> I think this is the site I have used before for flight tracks in my area:
> http://flightaware.com/live/
>
> John Hartog
>
>
> --- In <naturerecordists%40yahoogroups.co=
m>,
> Badger <> wrote:
> >
> > Is there a good online reference for commercial flight paths--
> > specifically a map?
> >
> > Thanks, Guy M.
> >
> >
> > On Feb 4, 2011, at 7:31 PM, Paul Dickinson wrote:
> >
> > > Some of you may have already come across this online book: "Old
> > > Growth in the East: A Survey", by Mary Byrd Davis. It is a state-by-
> > > state assessment of primary and old growth forests in the eastern
> > > US. Looks like a pretty handy resource for nature recordists. If
> > > only there were a cross-reference to commercial airline flight paths.
> > >
> >
> >
> >
> >
>
>
>
|