Friday, October 21, 2005
Live Air Traffic Control
On those rare occasions when I travel by airplane, I invariably find that the inflight entertainment is either Fox Sportsnet or the previous week's episode of CSI. To make these shows more bearable when I am a captive audience, I like to tune my headset to monitor the cockpit communication with air traffic control. Many airlines now offer this as part of their audio entertainment programming, and it has made many a bad flight go quicker.
But sometimes, I admit, I listen purely out of pure geeky fascination. And I know I'm not the only one.
Now, thanks to the Internet, we can enjoy listening in on tired commercial pilots in the comfort of our own homes and workplaces.
Passur Airport Monitor 2.0 is a real-time visual monitor of traffic in and out of Kennedy Airport in New York. You can click on any airplane for detailed information on heading and altititude. I suppose this would come in handy for the wireless-equipped laptop user waiting to meet someone at the airport.
While monitoring traffic at the airport, listen in to air traffic control and monitor radio communication between the tower and the flights you see on the Passur screen.
posted by Full Metal Lunchbox @ 2:59 AM
But sometimes, I admit, I listen purely out of pure geeky fascination. And I know I'm not the only one.
Now, thanks to the Internet, we can enjoy listening in on tired commercial pilots in the comfort of our own homes and workplaces.
Passur Airport Monitor 2.0 is a real-time visual monitor of traffic in and out of Kennedy Airport in New York. You can click on any airplane for detailed information on heading and altititude. I suppose this would come in handy for the wireless-equipped laptop user waiting to meet someone at the airport.
While monitoring traffic at the airport, listen in to air traffic control and monitor radio communication between the tower and the flights you see on the Passur screen.
posted by Full Metal Lunchbox @ 2:59 AM
