Plotting aircraft on google maps - my site

[Geoff Leff]

Hi all,

Just after some feedback on a website i'm working on that will allow you to plot an aircraft on google maps. It has a long way to go but thought some of you might find it interesting.

http://www.flighttracker.gleff.com

I'll be improving the plotting function so that all aircraft will show, and will also use a custom icon that points in the direction that the aircraft is tracking. Will be a slow process though as I have to create 360 icons ;(

The site is very much a work in progress but you should be able to see it functioning. Just click on the Open Flight Panel tab and away you go.

The data updates every 20 seconds and if you click on an aircraft, it will auto pan to the new location every 20 seconds. My signal is very flaky though where I live so location data and aircraft come and go.

While I've never actually seen a squawk here in sydney of 7500, 7600, or 7700, the squawk code will flash if it comes across one for an aircraft.

The aircraft photos only work for one or two aircraft at the moment. It's not a bug though. I just want to get the site functioning properly before getting permissions for photos and adding them for specific aircraft.

The distance field isn't functional yet.

Anyway, let me know what you think.

Regards
Geoff

[Grahame Hutchison]

That is looking really good Geoff, I like the way you have the split screen for the aircraft and map. Your aircraft details screen is very nicely presented indeed. On my laptop, the map centering when you click on an aircraft is a little low, and I need to grab the map and drag it down a bit to see the aircraft. Since we have mainly wide screens these days, would it be worth having the screen split vertically rather than horizontally, with the aircraft details down the left, and a more square map area on the right (or vice versa). My preference would be to have the square map area so you have more detail around the aircraft in all directions, rather than a wide narrow band. Great work, keep building.

My Google Maps (http://www.16right.com/ACARSmap.htm) site just bulids during the day, updates every 15 minutes, and clears again at midnight. Click on a QF aircraft to display all he ACARS details received.

[Geoff Leff]

Thanks.. One day when I move into a location where I can pick up Acars half decently I may get into it as well.

Geoff

[Grahame Hutchison]

Hi Geoff, I just edited my post with a few more comments/suggestions.

[Geoff Leff]

Hmmm.. I'm curious what your resolution is because i've tried it on my netbook and the centering looks okay.

As far as splitting the screen vertically instead of horizontally.. I experimented with that, but it wasn't ideal with the tabs and content. It would also need an entire rewrite which i'm not keen to do.

I'd be curious though if others have the same issue. I've tried it on several monitors and they all looked fine.

How much do you have to grab and pan to get it into view, and what's the resolution?

Incidently, you can close the flight panel once you click on the aircraft. Eventually, I hope to have an information balloon with details of the aircraft so you don't need to keep the panel open to see the data.

[Grahame Hutchison]

Hi Geoff,

My screen resolution is 1280x800 and the aircraft baloon is centred if I close the details screen. With the details screen still visible, I need to drag the map down about 1cm to see the aircraft baloon, and about 4cm to centre it in the map window. Close the details window and it is in the correct position.

I guess the only issue is if you are clicking on different aircraft on the details screen, you dont see them on the map window without closing the details screen each time.

I know what you mean about having the details screen on the right or left, the screen real estate is always a compromise, so much to display and never enough space to work with. Did you intend to scroll the details window if you have more than 4 aircraft ? Should the All hyperlink work or are you still working on that one ?

[Geoff Leff]

Hi Grahame,

The aircraft list should give a scrollbar if more than 4 aircraft is visible.. didn't it for you? As far as the All aircraft.. yeh, that's not working yet. I only got the plotting for single aircraft working yesterday.. I should be able to start working on that pretty soon. I just need to work on a few odds and ends first.

[Geoff Leff]

OK... Plotting of all aircraft is now working. I think the wording of Track all aircraft might be a bit confusing though. Basically, all aircraft will appear on the map at all times. When you click on a specific aircraft, the map will pan to the aircraft location. When you click on the ALL (Track all aircraft), it just stops panning to specific aircraft and homes in on the HOME co-ordinates of my location and clears all flight data. Maybe i'll word it as HOME instead of ALL. I'll give that some thought. Distance in the flight data is now working as well.

I've been having a look to see if I can adjust the centering as per your suggestion grahame, but the problem is the data on the panel is already pretty full. I think it will look pretty crappy if I try and squeeze it further to shorten the panel. The centering of the aircraft is based on the center of the map. On resolutions of 1280x800, the center of the map will be slightly hidden which is what you're experiencing.

I'll work on adding flight data to the plotted aircraft though so you don't have to keep the panel open all the time.

Next on the agenda is the above and customizing the icon. The lengthy part will be creating literally 360 icons (one for every degree) so that the aircraft faces in the direction of the track. That should be fun.... NOT! I'm not in a hurry to do that.

Anyway, back to the drawing board.

Please let me know if you see the scroll bar in aircraft list. You're last comment about it has me a bit concerned because it should appear when there are more aircraft in the list than can be shown in the view.

Geoff

[Dan Marz]

Great job Geoff with your Flight Tracker, very impressive.

This may be a newbie question but does Flight Tracker monitor VFR aircraft positions. I am under the impression that these don't use squawk codes but are monitored by airport radar. I am in Sydney and I would like to watch helicopter movements as I am along a popular flight path.

Do you or others know how these are usually tracked?

Daniel

[Bob C]

Looks good Geoff but have you seen this site : http://www.flightradar24.com/

[Geoff Leff]

Great job Geoff with your Flight Tracker, very impressive.

This may be a newbie question but does Flight Tracker monitor VFR aircraft positions. I am under the impression that these don't use squawk codes but are monitored by airport radar. I am in Sydney and I would like to watch helicopter movements as I am along a popular flight path.

Do you or others know how these are usually tracked?

Daniel

Thanks Daniel,

My site only tracks aircraft that transmit ADS-B which is usually commercial aircraft. Non ADS-B transmitting aircraft either need multlateration (MLAT) which I believe is where aircraft locations are calculated mathimatically by multiple people receiving ModeS signals and sharing the data (I could be wrong here). Or alternatively by standard radar.

Geoff

[Geoff Leff]

Looks good Geoff but have you seen this site : http://www.flightradar24.com/

Thanks Bob,

Yeh it's a great site. I know there are a few people that have done similar things to what I've done but I like the buzz of knowing I have developed this all by myself and learned it all as I went. This was really for my own benefit to view aircraft positions on google maps. If other people enjoy the site, then that's an added bonus.

Geoff

[Geoff Leff]

Just a FYI.. I've just recently moved to Brisbane from Sydney and have now brought my flight tracker site up for Brisbane.

Incidently, I'm now getting much better coverage than I was in Sydney ;)

Just a reminder if your interested.. http://www.flighttracker.gleff.com

Geoff