Tracking aircraft movements in real time

I was only wondering the other day if anyone does this... I've seen a similar thing done with US flight data mapped against Google Earth. As a kid (believe it or not) I used to do exactly this - but manually! - with a VHF radio and a sheet of tracing paper laid over a map. I'd plot aircraft movements as they left the gate at Sydney and tracked them as far as I could, switching frequencies as they handed over to different controllers, from the ground controllers until as far away as Hawaii at times... well it fascinated me at the time (and I was a weird kid)!

Check it out: http://syd.webtrak-lochard.com/template/index.html

Military pics too

Yes, we even have a few military aircraft in the gallery, like these... an ex-RAAF Mustang, flame-throwing F111s and some RAN A4 Skyhawks.

Sometimes even Fokkers crash - EWA F27

Yes folks, like the sharemarket, planes can crash. This is what was left of the fuselage of East West F27 VH-PWM after it struck the ground on approach near Bathurst, NSW. (Pic taken at Bankstown airport months later, circa 1977. (Someone look that up please.) Basically it slid wheels-up and flattened the bottom. Not the worst crash but one of the more common. Still it's safer - far safer - than driving on public roads.

Air India Boeings at Sydney

Again - still dealing with the letter A - we have many Air India shots, also at Sydney. Both 707s and 747s, individual and in sequence (as in taxying, more taxying, taking off and disappearing...). Samples include this 747 disappearing behind a house (actually my house at the time!) on approach to Sydney's runway 16 and a 707 taking off in a cloud of smoke from the same runway.

Images from Sydney and Bankstown airports: 1975 and 76

Folks, I have updated the galleries... airliner, military, historical and light/executive. Here's a sample...

From 1975 we have a series of images of an Air New Zealand DC10 taxying at Sydney Airport... and from 1976 a shot of ZK-NZG in the air on approach to Sydney. Both images are shot with a Pentax K2 or KX loaded with Kodak Tri-X, 1/125th sec .

Skycontrol news link

Looks like a useful aviation news aggregator, if you don't already get enough news...

Aircraft spotting via Google Earth

Yes, I do it too. There's a DC3 at the southern end of Warnervale strip, Wyong NSW Australia for example. And here's an interesting crash site (no fatalities, if it's the crash people think it was). Personally I just like looking at the airports and their facilities and seeing what's there. And sometimes tilting the view and pretending to land. Hey, some people like Flight Simulator, too ;-)

Fancy some black and white shots?

I'm thinking CPAir DC-8 Super 63, the really long fuselage gives it away; an Air NSW Viewmaster DC3 (the big square window conversion) and an AirNiugini 707 flying through some bad weather coming into Sydney in the 70s. The Aircraft gallery is here.

Anyone like to see an EWA DC3?

Well I would. This is VH PWM, an East West Airlines machine, at the 'civilian' side of Williamtown RAAF base just a few short years ago.... OK, some 30 years ago.

Here's a gallery of airliner images. And another of airliner postcards.