I have a curiosity question for anyone who might know the answer. I
wonder where places like fboweb and fltplan get their live tracking
information. It seems to me that if the source is the FAA, I should
be able to get the raw data and mangle it myself without paying $15/mo
for their service.

Any ideas?

David

I looked into this a bit recently and discovered that the FAA offers this,
it's called the "Aircraft Situation Display to Industry" (ADSI) feed, and
it's free to businesses if you sign a letter of agreement with the FAA. (I
have no idea what the conditions in that letter are). It's managed out of
the John A. Volpe National Transportation Systems Center in Cambridge, MA
(which is coincidentally within sight of my office where I sit right now),
but I haven't been able to find anything more specific about it online.


"David Mack" > wrote in message
om...
> I have a curiosity question for anyone who might know the answer. I
> wonder where places like fboweb and fltplan get their live tracking
> information. It seems to me that if the source is the FAA, I should
> be able to get the raw data and mangle it myself without paying $15/mo
> for their service.
>
> Any ideas?
>
> David

Jeremy Lew wrote:

> I looked into this a bit recently and discovered that the FAA offers this,
> it's called the "Aircraft Situation Display to Industry" (ADSI) feed, and
> it's free to businesses if you sign a letter of agreement with the FAA. (I
> have no idea what the conditions in that letter are). It's managed out of
> the John A. Volpe National Transportation Systems Center in Cambridge, MA
> (which is coincidentally within sight of my office where I sit right now),
> but I haven't been able to find anything more specific about it online.

I have to confess: after seeing the demo of Flight Explorer at the Expo, I
was tempted to actually purchase a Microsoft product (as FE doesn't run on
any sane environments). That's never occurred before.

If someone had a web or UNIX equivalent...

....I'd probably never get any work done.

- Andrew

"Jeremy Lew" > writes:

>I looked into this a bit recently and discovered that the FAA offers this,
>it's called the "Aircraft Situation Display to Industry" (ADSI) feed, and
>it's free to businesses if you sign a letter of agreement with the FAA.

....and maintain an approved line and equipment in their data center...

>(I have no idea what the conditions in that letter are).

http://www.fly.faa.gov/ASDI/asdi.html

I think I recall that MIT has a feed. I was out there not long ago and
meant to ask around about it.

If someone comes up with a good plan to get the data for distribution as
freely as the FAA will allow (There are limits.), please tell me. I'll
be happy to chip in some money and provide server resources.

--kyler

Andrew Gideon > writes:

>I have to confess: after seeing the demo of Flight Explorer at the Expo, I
>was tempted to actually purchase a Microsoft product (as FE doesn't run on
>any sane environments). That's never occurred before.

No!!!!! Don't do it!!

>If someone had a web or UNIX equivalent...

....my wife would get SMS messages of where I am when I'm flying, my log
book would be filled (almost) automatically, I'd get automatic weather
updates (and FBO info) over SMS, ...

--kyler

Kyler Laird wrote:

> Andrew Gideon > writes:
>
>>I have to confess: after seeing the demo of Flight Explorer at the Expo, I
>>was tempted to actually purchase a Microsoft product (as FE doesn't run on
>>any sane environments). That's never occurred before.
>
> No!!!!! Don't do it!!

So save me. I saw your mention of resources. I'd also chip in.

>>If someone had a web or UNIX equivalent...
>
> ...my wife would get SMS messages of where I am when I'm flying, my log
> book would be filled (almost) automatically, I'd get automatic weather
> updates (and FBO info) over SMS, ...

Hey, I like the messaging bit. A lot.

- Andrew