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Dingbatt:Oblivian:Dingbatt: I see one of them has just drifted past the approach path to AKL international airport. If its altitude readout of 648ft is correct, that may have made them unpopular.
On its current trajectory it looks like it's going to fly right over the Auckland cbd (or just west of it).
Naaahhh, as I pointed out earlier some funky reporting. It will be 64,8xx. They don't bounce 0-600-60,000+ in seconds like it keeps showing. Most are all above 56,000.. unless crashing like that other one did :)
Because of the height you should get a good view from nearly anywhere within about a 60K radius of its location, especially nearer sunset as the sun drops, they light up like wee lights/UFOs.
I await the calls/media article tomorrow reporting them :)
As for where they end up. The last lot have circled the globe and gone past, last seen heading to more northern orbit
Yes. I guess that is why I questioned the validity of the altitude readout. Is that a problem with the transponder they are using, or the radar's ability to interpret it? If it is the transponder, then that presents problems with TCAS conflicts with the aircraft in the vicinity.
Be nice if FR24 could change the symbol from a swept wing jet to something more appropriate like a sphere when the tag has HBAL in it.
Think its due to the altitude ceiling changes they made. My receiver shows the correct altitude of the targets all the time with no fluctuations. Prior to the loon project the ceiling was 50,000ft on FR24 period to eliminate bogus contacts. Some convincing got them to show the higher altitudes, but I suspect there is some sneaky filtering being applied before it is displayed to ensure it's not a random error. As a result of it combining the data from a few different sources at once (their own beaglebone based units, DVB sticks, FAA data and other receivers) it's likely clarifying the altitude as wrong and dropping a decimal or 2
