FlightRadar24 too good to be true?

$2.99 for a real time merge of ADS-B and radar? Is this too good to be true or is it time for me to finally break down and buy a smart phone? There is no obvious subscription fee (but that might be buried in the fine print).

https://play.google.com/store/apps/d...c e%3Dwebsite


A lot of the ADS data comes from private parties who hook up an ADS-B receiver to the internet. Has anyone done this at a remote gliderport to expand local ADS-B coverage?

http://www.flightradar24.com/increase-coverage

Is there anything this cheap for weather radar while in the air?

Maybe Mr flubber understands this, but it doesn't seem like it reading his post...

Smartphones almost never have data coverage in the air. This isn't going to be useful flying a glider at all. Same is true for smartphone weather info.

It looks like a really fun app to while away the time, but I don't think you
want to be relying in something like that for traffic avoidance.

I don't know what the resolution is, but judging by the pictures on the Play
Store, a wingspan is several miles across. Where is the actual aircraft in
that? You'd be much better served placing your smart phone (when you
finally get one) into "Airplane Mode" when you fly and spend more time
looking outside. Besides, it's prettier out the window!

"Steve Koerner" wrote in message
...
Maybe Mr flubber understands this, but it doesn't seem like it reading his
post...

Smartphones almost never have data coverage in the air. This isn't going
to be useful flying a glider at all. Same is true for smartphone weather
info.

The way that I think this might be interesting would be to zoom in where you fly and review the traffic pattern for the last week or so (you can speed up the replay), especially in wave season. Just for general awareness. I've heard that a lot of people are surprised by the amount of traffic they never see when they first turn on a ZAON.

Of course, Powerflarm displays ADS-B traffic for the fortunate.

On Saturday, March 8, 2014 6:08:54 PM UTC-5, son_of_flubber wrote:
The way that I think this might be interesting would be to zoom in where you fly and review the traffic pattern for the last week or so (you can speed up the replay), especially in wave season. Just for general awareness. I've heard that a lot of people are surprised by the amount of traffic they never see when they first turn on a ZAON.



Of course, Powerflarm displays ADS-B traffic for the fortunate.

PowerFLARM also displays ADS-B traffic for the unfortunate.