I want to help my worrywart wife with a subscription to one of those
web-based IFR flight tracker services. Free would nice, but as far as
I can tell, the free ones cover commercial flights and not GA. What's
a decent one that is cheap that works with GA? I don't want to spend a
meaningful amount of $$$ - this is a total lucury item.

Mitch

(Mitchell Gossman) wrote in
om:

> I want to help my worrywart wife with a subscription to one of those
> web-based IFR flight tracker services. Free would nice, but as far as
> I can tell, the free ones cover commercial flights and not GA. What's
> a decent one that is cheap that works with GA? I don't want to spend a
> meaningful amount of $$$ - this is a total lucury item.

Flight Explorer. Through AOPA (and several others) it's $9.95 per month.

"Mitchell Gossman" > wrote in message
om...
> I want to help my worrywart wife with a subscription to one of those
> web-based IFR flight tracker services. Free would nice, but as far as
> I can tell, the free ones cover commercial flights and not GA. What's
> a decent one that is cheap that works with GA? I don't want to spend a
> meaningful amount of $$$ - this is a total lucury item.
>
> Mitch

Hello Mitch,

We use fboweb.com for that purpose. $10/month. The user interface is a bit
clunky, but it seems to work ok. James Knox mentioned Flight Explorer,
which is a standalone PC application so is likely to have a richer interface
(though I have not used it so YMMV). The fboweb tracking is via a web site
so it is accessable from any PC anywhere, and there have been times this has
been useful "ad-hoc" to allow someone at my destination be able to determine
my ETA...

Cheers,
John Clonts
Temple, Texas
N7NZ

> I want to help my worrywart wife with a subscription to one of those
> web-based IFR flight tracker services. Free would nice, but as far as
> I can tell, the free ones cover commercial flights and not GA. What's
> a decent one that is cheap that works with GA? I don't want to spend a
> meaningful amount of $$$ - this is a total lucury item.

APRS is free. <http://www.ew.usna.edu/~bruninga/aprs.html>

And it works with both IFR & VFR flights. Of course you have to have a HAM
license and some minor amount of equipment.
--
Ken Reed
http://www.dentalzzz.com

(Ken Reed) writes:

>APRS is free. <http://www.ew.usna.edu/~bruninga/aprs.html>

>And it works with both IFR & VFR flights. Of course you have to have a HAM
>license and some minor amount of equipment.

As long as we're getting into hardware solutions...
http://skyhelp.net/dmr-200.htm

--kyler

> >APRS is free. <http://www.ew.usna.edu/~bruninga/aprs.html>

> >And it works with both IFR & VFR flights. Of course you have to have a HAM
> >license and some minor amount of equipment.

> As long as we're getting into hardware solutions...
> http://skyhelp.net/dmr-200.htm

Not sure that qualifies per the 'cheap' part requested above.
Unit $750
Activation --$50
Monthly subscription --$25 (includes 30 reports), web-mapping extra ($10)

You're looking at $1200+ for the first year and then $400+ per year after
that. With APRS, you'll have a $300-400 up front cost with no charges
after that. But as I wrote, you have to have a HAM license too.
--
Ken Reed
http://www.dentalzzz.com

Ken Reed wrote:

> You're looking at $1200+ for the first year and then $400+ per year after
> that. With APRS, you'll have a $300-400 up front cost with no charges
> after that. But as I wrote, you have to have a HAM license too.

You just need a technician class license, for which you have to pass a
pretty simple multiple choice test. With APRS, your position would wind up
on an Internet site in close to real time.