Any Pilots here? Can you answer me this please........

[doosht]

I've just returned from another holiday abroad and i love flying, always have.

So, on last nights return to Birmingham from Menorca i was doing my usual looking out of the window fascinated by the landscape below and would love to know what towns/villages i am going over and when you leave the French coast - which part of France is below??!!

Do the commercial airlines take a set path? Can i look up the routes so i can see where i flew over? It was a Thomas Cook flight by the way if that makes any difference.

Many Thanks,
Doosht

[Eric Mc]

Not a current pilot but do no a bit about routing.

Airliners usually follow "Airways" - which are pathways set out and generally are marked out by radio beacons of various sorts.

Obviously, there are often alternative routings that can be taken so, without having the specific flight plan for the flight you were on, it may not be easy to work out what landmarks you passed over.

Jeppesen are the best known of the map makers who produce detailed airways maps for the whole world, so looking up one of their maps for northern Europe might give you an idea of the route you took.

Of course, in certain circumstances, aircraft are allowed by controllers to deviate from an airway.

[LHRFlightman]

Short answer a yes. Commercial aviation flights will follow set routes, called airways. Lower down, when arriving too and departing from airports, they fly SID's and STAR''s.

Have a look at Skyvector.com

And have a look at these too:

http://charts.aero/airport/EGLL

[Leadfoot]

http://planefinder.net/

Has a "playback" function that'll let you see the track of the flight you were on.

Thomas Cook flight numbers don't always tally up with the one that appears on your ticket vs planefinder. If you have problems, let me know the route/time & I'll see what I can dig up.

HTH.

[essayer]

You can view live aircraft positions around the world on a map here

www.flightradar24.com

You might be able to use the history to see where your flight actually flew (you were on TCX 4049 I suppose)

[doosht]

Thanks guys - i will look in to all of that!

Flight code is/was TCX4275

I think we exited France at "Port Deauville"

[Rubymurray]

There's a vor (radio beacon that we use for navigation) at Deauville located here:

http://www.ourairports.com/navaids/DVL/Deauville_V...

9 times out of 10 we'll fly near as damn it a straight line between two airports, especially on shorter flights in Europe. Draw this on a globe and you should have a rough idea where you've flown over.

[mikebradford]

essayer said:

You can view live aircraft positions around the world on a map here

www.flightradar24.com

You might be able to use the history to see where your flight actually flew (you were on TCX 4049 I suppose)

love that,thanks for the link

[Ayahuasca]

Take a GPS with you next time!

[doosht]

Ayahuasca said:

Take a GPS with you next time!

But i thought GPS devices had to be switched off?

[Ayahuasca]

doosht said:

Ayahuasca said:

Take a GPS with you next time!

But i thought GPS devices had to be switched off?

They might say that but they don't mean it

[Simpo Two]

doosht said:

i was doing my usual looking out of the window fascinated by the landscape below and would love to know what towns/villages i am going over and when you leave the French coast - which part of France is below??!!

You can hold an iPad up to the sky and see the names of the constellations - so can you get an 'app' so you can point it downwards and see the names of towns? Same technology I'd have thought.

[Zad]

Near Abbeville, according to this:

http://www.flightradar24.com/data/flights/mt4275

[davepoth]

Simpo Two said:

You can hold an iPad up to the sky and see the names of the constellations - so can you get an 'app' so you can point it downwards and see the names of towns? Same technology I'd have thought.

It just looks at the stars and checks them against a picture I should think. I guess that could be reverse engineered for celestial navigation though...?

[LoudV8]

I've been using my phone GPS on flights quite a bit recently, but it only seems to work up to about 12,000 feet. After that it sees the satellites but can't actually give any data. Maybe it's a limitation of the phone GPS receiver ?

[Zad]

Probably an artificial limitation imposed by the software. Various (mostly US) governments get a bit twitchy about the export and import of high performance GPS gear, so imposed limits on altitude and speed (1000kts and 60,000ft). Now, these are pretty generous, considering you have to be doing both 1000kts AND over 60,000ft, but many manufacturers play on the safe side. For this reason, hobbyists using "space" weather balloons have to be careful which GPS receiver they use.

http://ravtrack.com/GPStracking/cocom-gps-tracking...

[Ayahuasca]

My Garmin GPS60csx Map tracks flights perfectly well, except that the altimeter is barometric so it is fooled by the cabin pressure.

Most airlines insist that GPS units (and other electronics) are switched off during takeoff/landing but are otherwise OK with them. It's not as if they transmit anything like say a phone would.