Flight delayed? Find your plane with FlyteComm

If you travel a lot you are continually having to deal with delayed departures because the incoming plane is late. Trying to get information out of the gate crew to figure out how long you are going to be sitting there is futile. Enter Flytecomm, a web site that can track all US and Canadian flights along with most international ones. Using Flytecomm you get not only textual information but also a radar map showing you exactly where the plane is and its remaining flight time. Now you will know if you have time to head back to Starbucks for that cup of coffee you're dying for.

Comments

[Mike Cane]

My God! An app like this is back again? There used to be something like this on the net, but post-9/11, it was either pulled or greatly modified to be less of an info source for terrorists.

[Matt Smith]

Flightaware.com is another great site. I don't think they have a PDA compatible portal, but for us laptop and tablet users it's great. It's a free site that allows you to check flight status, airport traffic patterns, etc. I'm able to enter a tail number, say from my brother's plane, and if he's filed a flight plan I'll be able to see where he's at, what time he left, what time he arrives/arrived, etc. I'm even able to see a graphic of his flight pattern. That's actually pretty funny sometimes. He spends a lot of time screwing around up there.

[Alan A. Reiter]

By any chance did you see the blog account of the Canadian VC who used the flight tracking program -- plus a Motion Tablet PC and Verizon 1xEV-DO card -- not only track his delayed flight, but also to get a first class upgrade?

By tracking his flight he determined he had plenty of time to grab a cab from the airport to pick up some food for himself -- and for the harried gate attendant -- and still make his fight.

The favor got him an upgrade.

Here's a link to what I wrote...
http://www.wicweblog.com/2006/01/verizon_1xevdo_.html

[Alan A. Reiter]

Sorry, forgot to mention:

1. I read your weblog and listen to your podcasts (and Marc Orchant's) all the time. Great stuff. Very much appreciated.

2. I have an IBM X41 Tablet PC -- some of my impressions of it here...http://www.wirelessmuse.com/winternet/2005/09/first_impressio.html -- as well as using many wireless devices. (I'm a wireless data consultant.)

[Brian Basden]

I second the comment about FlightAware.com. It doesn't look like the FlyteComm radar graphic is dynamic, just a snapshot, unless you download their software. On FlightAware.com (and FBOweb.com) you can track flights with images that update once a minute, which I expect is the frequency of the update from the FAA feed, straight from the web site without downloading/buying software.

Even better, FlightAware.com is also integrated with GoogleEarth (free d/l), so you can watch the flight "live" via the GoogleEarth interface - it's _very_ impressive-looking and adds a lot of 'wow' factor to a Tablet demo! I think the site said something about using GoogleEarth to zoom in to the airport, tilt the view so it's more horizontal, and "watch" the plane land, but I haven't tried to do that yet...