On Sun, 28 Jun 2020 00:48:57 -0400,
wrote:

On Sat, 27 Jun 2020 22:50:23 -0400, wrote:

On Sat, 27 Jun 2020 23:53:53 -0000 (UTC), Bill
wrote:

John wrote:
On Sat, 27 Jun 2020 15:42:32 -0400, wrote:

On Sat, 27 Jun 2020 15:32:12 -0400, wrote:

On Sat, 27 Jun 2020 14:16:24 -0400,
wrote:

Things have been a little slow here so thought I'd post something a
bit out of the ordinary and get some discussion going about what we
are all doing to spend time during the Covid crisis.

To set the stage, I've had a long time interest in electronics, ham
radio, short wave radio reception, etc., ever since I was a kid. Those
interests eventually morphed into a career of programming, designing
and managing computer systems, so the skills I learned early on served
me well. About 5 years ago I started another hobby which combined my
interest in boats and boating with my interest in electronics and
computing. I set up a receiving station for the AIS position report
transmissions that all large boats transmit, as well as many smaller
ones. My equipment decodes position reports and boat data, logs it to
my chart plotting software, and forwards it to a web site called
www.marinetraffic.com. Anyone can log onto that site and see the
position of boats all over the world thanks to a network of volunteers
like myself who share their data via the internet.

Recently I learned that there is a similar network of hobbyists who
track the position of aircraft by decoding what is called their ADS-B
transponder data. We live near two fairly active airports, and have a
steady stream of planes and hellicopters flying around so I thought it
would be cool to know more about them. Thanks to some recent advances
in electronics it is now possible to buy a minature USB device which
not only receives radio signals but decodes their data and makes it
available for processing on your PC. All that, with an antenna, for
about $30 or so on Amazon. Now when I hear an airplane fly over, with
a few mouse clicks, I can get all of their flight data and plot the
position of the plane on a chart. With a few more clicks the tail
number, registration data and a picture of the plane is displayed.
From there you can see their flight plan if any, know where they came
from, and where they are going.

I have quickly learned that there is a lot more going on up there than
I'd ever realized. We've got a huge number of private jets zooming
around, lots of small aircraft, flight school planes practicing,
mosquito control hellicopters spraying, sheriff's hellicopters
patrolling, med evac aircraft doing their thing, and the usual number
of commercial flights coming and going. It can be a bit addictive to
watch all of this going on. If you're a real junky you can also
monitor control tower transmissions on various web sites.

https://www.amazon.com/FlightAware-FA-PROSTICKPLUS-1-Receiver-Built-Filter/dp/B01M7REJJW

https://discussions.flightaware.com/t/how-to-install-pro-stick-dvb-t-on-windows/25070/2

https://www.liveatc.net/

You can also listen to RSW here

https://www.liveatc.net/hlisten.php?...rsw&mount=krsw

===

Yes, and FMY is he

https://www.liveatc.net/hlisten.php?...kfmy&icao=kfmy

OK, so what's ESW and FMY?
--

Freedom Isn't Free!


Airport codes.

RSW is the new airport, FMY was built for bi planes in the 20s and
upgraded as a training field in WWII. It was out in the country in
those days, Now it is downtown. They were still landing commercial
727s there when I moved here tho. It was pretty exciting when one
rotated and climbed out about 40' over you on US41.

They all moved over to RSW as their gate leases expired but even in
86, you could go out there and only see a handful of flights an hour
in the middle of the day. At night it pretty much closed. The military
used to play there, flying in from all over.

FMY is all private aviation or charter now.

===

FMY is right across the river from us and surprisingly active for a
small airport. A bunch of corporate and charter jets are based there
as well as a substantial fleet of single and twin engine prop planes.
On a busy day when the flight schools are active there are frequently
two or three planes in the landing pattern at the same time. It's fun
watching them on my tracking screen at the same time they're getting
radio instructions from the tower.

One of my IBM buddies owned a plane that was tied down there. He lived
in the Villas and he could get there without going out on the main
drag. He thought it was cool until his maintenance bills made it too
expensive for a hobby. He did fly to Tennessee a lot tho and he said
that was really the only way to get there easy. When he moved to
Tampa, he sold the plane.

On Sun, 28 Jun 2020 15:19:40 -0400, RCE wrote:

On 6/28/2020 2:06 PM, Its Me wrote:
On Sunday, June 28, 2020 at 7:49:02 AM UTC-4, RCE wrote:
On 6/28/2020 12:48 AM, wrote:
On Sat, 27 Jun 2020 22:50:23 -0400, wrote:

On Sat, 27 Jun 2020 23:53:53 -0000 (UTC), Bill
wrote:

John wrote:
On Sat, 27 Jun 2020 15:42:32 -0400, wrote:

On Sat, 27 Jun 2020 15:32:12 -0400, wrote:

On Sat, 27 Jun 2020 14:16:24 -0400,
wrote:

Things have been a little slow here so thought I'd post something a
bit out of the ordinary and get some discussion going about what we
are all doing to spend time during the Covid crisis.

To set the stage, I've had a long time interest in electronics, ham
radio, short wave radio reception, etc., ever since I was a kid. Those
interests eventually morphed into a career of programming, designing
and managing computer systems, so the skills I learned early on served
me well. About 5 years ago I started another hobby which combined my
interest in boats and boating with my interest in electronics and
computing. I set up a receiving station for the AIS position report
transmissions that all large boats transmit, as well as many smaller
ones. My equipment decodes position reports and boat data, logs it to
my chart plotting software, and forwards it to a web site called
www.marinetraffic.com. Anyone can log onto that site and see the
position of boats all over the world thanks to a network of volunteers
like myself who share their data via the internet.

Recently I learned that there is a similar network of hobbyists who
track the position of aircraft by decoding what is called their ADS-B
transponder data. We live near two fairly active airports, and have a
steady stream of planes and hellicopters flying around so I thought it
would be cool to know more about them. Thanks to some recent advances
in electronics it is now possible to buy a minature USB device which
not only receives radio signals but decodes their data and makes it
available for processing on your PC. All that, with an antenna, for
about $30 or so on Amazon. Now when I hear an airplane fly over, with
a few mouse clicks, I can get all of their flight data and plot the
position of the plane on a chart. With a few more clicks the tail
number, registration data and a picture of the plane is displayed.
From there you can see their flight plan if any, know where they came
from, and where they are going.

I have quickly learned that there is a lot more going on up there than
I'd ever realized. We've got a huge number of private jets zooming
around, lots of small aircraft, flight school planes practicing,
mosquito control hellicopters spraying, sheriff's hellicopters
patrolling, med evac aircraft doing their thing, and the usual number
of commercial flights coming and going. It can be a bit addictive to
watch all of this going on. If you're a real junky you can also
monitor control tower transmissions on various web sites.

https://www.amazon.com/FlightAware-FA-PROSTICKPLUS-1-Receiver-Built-Filter/dp/B01M7REJJW

https://discussions.flightaware.com/t/how-to-install-pro-stick-dvb-t-on-windows/25070/2

https://www.liveatc.net/

You can also listen to RSW here

https://www.liveatc.net/hlisten.php?...rsw&mount=krsw

===

Yes, and FMY is he

https://www.liveatc.net/hlisten.php?...kfmy&icao=kfmy

OK, so what's ESW and FMY?
--

Freedom Isn't Free!


Airport codes.

RSW is the new airport, FMY was built for bi planes in the 20s and
upgraded as a training field in WWII. It was out in the country in
those days, Now it is downtown. They were still landing commercial
727s there when I moved here tho. It was pretty exciting when one
rotated and climbed out about 40' over you on US41.

They all moved over to RSW as their gate leases expired but even in
86, you could go out there and only see a handful of flights an hour
in the middle of the day. At night it pretty much closed. The military
used to play there, flying in from all over.

FMY is all private aviation or charter now.

===

FMY is right across the river from us and surprisingly active for a
small airport. A bunch of corporate and charter jets are based there
as well as a substantial fleet of single and twin engine prop planes.
On a busy day when the flight schools are active there are frequently
two or three planes in the landing pattern at the same time. It's fun
watching them on my tracking screen at the same time they're getting
radio instructions from the tower.



We live very near Plymouth Airport (where I got my ticket years ago) and
we are also on the southerly final to Boston's Logan airport.
Sometimes when bored I listen on my scanner to all
the traffic at both. You can easily distinguish who is a student pilot
at Plymouth and the seasoned, commercial pilots landing at Boston.
Some of those conversations get funny sometimes.

The founder of the company I work for was a pilot, and went through a few airplanes. He started with a Cessna 182, then a Bonanza, then a Baron, and somewhere in there a Zlin fully aerobatic airplane. I've been up in all of them except the Baron.

Back when he had the 182, he wanted to fly into Atlanta to visit a prospective customer, Delta Airlines. He filed his flight plan and took off. When he got into the ATL airspace, he radio'd the tower for landing clearance. They were not happy. A 182 landing in between MD80's, L-1011's and various 7xx's? Heh. They told him to keep his speed up to max on approach and fly it down to the runway. He did, had the meeting and flew home. But that was the last time he ever flew into ATL in his private plane.



One of the reasons I sorta lost interest in flying is because I never
found it to be "relaxing" as others do. Flying into a controlled
airport can be nerve wracking for small planes and sometimes flying
at an uncontrolled airport (like Plymouth) can be just as bad.
You really have to keep a keen eye on what's going on around you and
an ear to the radio.

Boating is a lot more relaxing. :-)

That is the way I feel about it. I like the idea of flying but the
reality is not as exciting. I know a lot of pilots and they seem to
love the regimentation and process. I would only like it if I was
somewhere in the boonies where nobody was paying that much attention
to what I was doing. Unfortunately I always seem to live in rigidly
controlled air space. It is ridiculous around DC, where I was, the
last time I really looked into it. Hyde Field was always trying to
find students and I drove by there a few times a week.

On Sun, 28 Jun 2020 18:19:16 -0400, wrote:

On Sun, 28 Jun 2020 15:19:40 -0400, RCE wrote:

On 6/28/2020 2:06 PM, Its Me wrote:
On Sunday, June 28, 2020 at 7:49:02 AM UTC-4, RCE wrote:
On 6/28/2020 12:48 AM, wrote:
On Sat, 27 Jun 2020 22:50:23 -0400, wrote:

On Sat, 27 Jun 2020 23:53:53 -0000 (UTC), Bill
wrote:

John wrote:
On Sat, 27 Jun 2020 15:42:32 -0400, wrote:

On Sat, 27 Jun 2020 15:32:12 -0400, wrote:

On Sat, 27 Jun 2020 14:16:24 -0400,
wrote:

Things have been a little slow here so thought I'd post something a
bit out of the ordinary and get some discussion going about what we
are all doing to spend time during the Covid crisis.

To set the stage, I've had a long time interest in electronics, ham
radio, short wave radio reception, etc., ever since I was a kid. Those
interests eventually morphed into a career of programming, designing
and managing computer systems, so the skills I learned early on served
me well. About 5 years ago I started another hobby which combined my
interest in boats and boating with my interest in electronics and
computing. I set up a receiving station for the AIS position report
transmissions that all large boats transmit, as well as many smaller
ones. My equipment decodes position reports and boat data, logs it to
my chart plotting software, and forwards it to a web site called
www.marinetraffic.com. Anyone can log onto that site and see the
position of boats all over the world thanks to a network of volunteers
like myself who share their data via the internet.

Recently I learned that there is a similar network of hobbyists who
track the position of aircraft by decoding what is called their ADS-B
transponder data. We live near two fairly active airports, and have a
steady stream of planes and hellicopters flying around so I thought it
would be cool to know more about them. Thanks to some recent advances
in electronics it is now possible to buy a minature USB device which
not only receives radio signals but decodes their data and makes it
available for processing on your PC. All that, with an antenna, for
about $30 or so on Amazon. Now when I hear an airplane fly over, with
a few mouse clicks, I can get all of their flight data and plot the
position of the plane on a chart. With a few more clicks the tail
number, registration data and a picture of the plane is displayed.
From there you can see their flight plan if any, know where they came
from, and where they are going.

I have quickly learned that there is a lot more going on up there than
I'd ever realized. We've got a huge number of private jets zooming
around, lots of small aircraft, flight school planes practicing,
mosquito control hellicopters spraying, sheriff's hellicopters
patrolling, med evac aircraft doing their thing, and the usual number
of commercial flights coming and going. It can be a bit addictive to
watch all of this going on. If you're a real junky you can also
monitor control tower transmissions on various web sites.

https://www.amazon.com/FlightAware-FA-PROSTICKPLUS-1-Receiver-Built-Filter/dp/B01M7REJJW

https://discussions.flightaware.com/t/how-to-install-pro-stick-dvb-t-on-windows/25070/2

https://www.liveatc.net/

You can also listen to RSW here

https://www.liveatc.net/hlisten.php?...rsw&mount=krsw

===

Yes, and FMY is he

https://www.liveatc.net/hlisten.php?...kfmy&icao=kfmy

OK, so what's ESW and FMY?
--

Freedom Isn't Free!


Airport codes.

RSW is the new airport, FMY was built for bi planes in the 20s and
upgraded as a training field in WWII. It was out in the country in
those days, Now it is downtown. They were still landing commercial
727s there when I moved here tho. It was pretty exciting when one
rotated and climbed out about 40' over you on US41.

They all moved over to RSW as their gate leases expired but even in
86, you could go out there and only see a handful of flights an hour
in the middle of the day. At night it pretty much closed. The military
used to play there, flying in from all over.

FMY is all private aviation or charter now.

===

FMY is right across the river from us and surprisingly active for a
small airport. A bunch of corporate and charter jets are based there
as well as a substantial fleet of single and twin engine prop planes.
On a busy day when the flight schools are active there are frequently
two or three planes in the landing pattern at the same time. It's fun
watching them on my tracking screen at the same time they're getting
radio instructions from the tower.



We live very near Plymouth Airport (where I got my ticket years ago) and
we are also on the southerly final to Boston's Logan airport.
Sometimes when bored I listen on my scanner to all
the traffic at both. You can easily distinguish who is a student pilot
at Plymouth and the seasoned, commercial pilots landing at Boston.
Some of those conversations get funny sometimes.

The founder of the company I work for was a pilot, and went through a few airplanes. He started with a Cessna 182, then a Bonanza, then a Baron, and somewhere in there a Zlin fully aerobatic airplane. I've been up in all of them except the Baron.

Back when he had the 182, he wanted to fly into Atlanta to visit a prospective customer, Delta Airlines. He filed his flight plan and took off. When he got into the ATL airspace, he radio'd the tower for landing clearance. They were not happy. A 182 landing in between MD80's, L-1011's and various 7xx's? Heh. They told him to keep his speed up to max on approach and fly it down to the runway. He did, had the meeting and flew home. But that was the last time he ever flew into ATL in his private plane.



One of the reasons I sorta lost interest in flying is because I never
found it to be "relaxing" as others do. Flying into a controlled
airport can be nerve wracking for small planes and sometimes flying
at an uncontrolled airport (like Plymouth) can be just as bad.
You really have to keep a keen eye on what's going on around you and
an ear to the radio.

Boating is a lot more relaxing. :-)

That is the way I feel about it. I like the idea of flying but the
reality is not as exciting. I know a lot of pilots and they seem to
love the regimentation and process. I would only like it if I was
somewhere in the boonies where nobody was paying that much attention
to what I was doing. Unfortunately I always seem to live in rigidly
controlled air space. It is ridiculous around DC, where I was, the
last time I really looked into it. Hyde Field was always trying to
find students and I drove by there a few times a week.


Motorcycling wins.
--

Freedom Isn't Free!

On Sunday, June 28, 2020 at 5:39:26 PM UTC-4, RCE wrote:
On 6/28/2020 4:54 PM, Its Me wrote:
On Sunday, June 28, 2020 at 3:19:46 PM UTC-4, RCE wrote:
On 6/28/2020 2:06 PM, Its Me wrote:
On Sunday, June 28, 2020 at 7:49:02 AM UTC-4, RCE wrote:
On 6/28/2020 12:48 AM, wrote:
On Sat, 27 Jun 2020 22:50:23 -0400, wrote:

On Sat, 27 Jun 2020 23:53:53 -0000 (UTC), Bill
wrote:

John wrote:
On Sat, 27 Jun 2020 15:42:32 -0400, wrote:

On Sat, 27 Jun 2020 15:32:12 -0400, wrote:

On Sat, 27 Jun 2020 14:16:24 -0400,
wrote:

Things have been a little slow here so thought I'd post something a
bit out of the ordinary and get some discussion going about what we
are all doing to spend time during the Covid crisis.

To set the stage, I've had a long time interest in electronics, ham
radio, short wave radio reception, etc., ever since I was a kid. Those
interests eventually morphed into a career of programming, designing
and managing computer systems, so the skills I learned early on served
me well. About 5 years ago I started another hobby which combined my
interest in boats and boating with my interest in electronics and
computing. I set up a receiving station for the AIS position report
transmissions that all large boats transmit, as well as many smaller
ones. My equipment decodes position reports and boat data, logs it to
my chart plotting software, and forwards it to a web site called
www.marinetraffic.com. Anyone can log onto that site and see the
position of boats all over the world thanks to a network of volunteers
like myself who share their data via the internet.

Recently I learned that there is a similar network of hobbyists who
track the position of aircraft by decoding what is called their ADS-B
transponder data. We live near two fairly active airports, and have a
steady stream of planes and hellicopters flying around so I thought it
would be cool to know more about them. Thanks to some recent advances
in electronics it is now possible to buy a minature USB device which
not only receives radio signals but decodes their data and makes it
available for processing on your PC. All that, with an antenna, for
about $30 or so on Amazon. Now when I hear an airplane fly over, with
a few mouse clicks, I can get all of their flight data and plot the
position of the plane on a chart. With a few more clicks the tail
number, registration data and a picture of the plane is displayed.
From there you can see their flight plan if any, know where they came
from, and where they are going.

I have quickly learned that there is a lot more going on up there than
I'd ever realized. We've got a huge number of private jets zooming
around, lots of small aircraft, flight school planes practicing,
mosquito control hellicopters spraying, sheriff's hellicopters
patrolling, med evac aircraft doing their thing, and the usual number
of commercial flights coming and going. It can be a bit addictive to
watch all of this going on. If you're a real junky you can also
monitor control tower transmissions on various web sites.

https://www.amazon.com/FlightAware-FA-PROSTICKPLUS-1-Receiver-Built-Filter/dp/B01M7REJJW

https://discussions.flightaware.com/t/how-to-install-pro-stick-dvb-t-on-windows/25070/2

https://www.liveatc.net/

You can also listen to RSW here

https://www.liveatc.net/hlisten.php?...rsw&mount=krsw

===

Yes, and FMY is he

https://www.liveatc.net/hlisten.php?...kfmy&icao=kfmy

OK, so what's ESW and FMY?
--

Freedom Isn't Free!


Airport codes.

RSW is the new airport, FMY was built for bi planes in the 20s and
upgraded as a training field in WWII. It was out in the country in
those days, Now it is downtown. They were still landing commercial
727s there when I moved here tho. It was pretty exciting when one
rotated and climbed out about 40' over you on US41.

They all moved over to RSW as their gate leases expired but even in
86, you could go out there and only see a handful of flights an hour
in the middle of the day. At night it pretty much closed. The military
used to play there, flying in from all over.

FMY is all private aviation or charter now.

===

FMY is right across the river from us and surprisingly active for a
small airport. A bunch of corporate and charter jets are based there
as well as a substantial fleet of single and twin engine prop planes.
On a busy day when the flight schools are active there are frequently
two or three planes in the landing pattern at the same time. It's fun
watching them on my tracking screen at the same time they're getting
radio instructions from the tower.



We live very near Plymouth Airport (where I got my ticket years ago) and
we are also on the southerly final to Boston's Logan airport.
Sometimes when bored I listen on my scanner to all
the traffic at both. You can easily distinguish who is a student pilot
at Plymouth and the seasoned, commercial pilots landing at Boston.
Some of those conversations get funny sometimes.

The founder of the company I work for was a pilot, and went through a few airplanes. He started with a Cessna 182, then a Bonanza, then a Baron, and somewhere in there a Zlin fully aerobatic airplane. I've been up in all of them except the Baron.

Back when he had the 182, he wanted to fly into Atlanta to visit a prospective customer, Delta Airlines. He filed his flight plan and took off. When he got into the ATL airspace, he radio'd the tower for landing clearance. They were not happy. A 182 landing in between MD80's, L-1011's and various 7xx's? Heh. They told him to keep his speed up to max on approach and fly it down to the runway. He did, had the meeting and flew home. But that was the last time he ever flew into ATL in his private plane.



One of the reasons I sorta lost interest in flying is because I never
found it to be "relaxing" as others do. Flying into a controlled
airport can be nerve wracking for small planes and sometimes flying
at an uncontrolled airport (like Plymouth) can be just as bad.
You really have to keep a keen eye on what's going on around you and
an ear to the radio.

Boating is a lot more relaxing. :-)




I agree. I love airplanes, and like to fly in small, private craft, but I never wanted to get my ticket. Too much responsibility, and I'm a bit of a perfectionist, so it wouldn't be fun for me.


My CFI once told me that technical types are the worst students they teach.

Interesting. I wonder if it's because they would tend to question everything about the process?

The three friends that are private pilots I have been up with are all engineers, two electrical and one chemical. I can imagine two of them being painful students.

On Sunday, June 28, 2020 at 6:19:54 PM UTC-4, wrote:
On Sun, 28 Jun 2020 15:19:40 -0400, RCE wrote:

On 6/28/2020 2:06 PM, Its Me wrote:
On Sunday, June 28, 2020 at 7:49:02 AM UTC-4, RCE wrote:
On 6/28/2020 12:48 AM, wrote:
On Sat, 27 Jun 2020 22:50:23 -0400, wrote:

On Sat, 27 Jun 2020 23:53:53 -0000 (UTC), Bill
wrote:

John wrote:
On Sat, 27 Jun 2020 15:42:32 -0400, wrote:

On Sat, 27 Jun 2020 15:32:12 -0400, wrote:

On Sat, 27 Jun 2020 14:16:24 -0400,
wrote:

Things have been a little slow here so thought I'd post something a
bit out of the ordinary and get some discussion going about what we
are all doing to spend time during the Covid crisis.

To set the stage, I've had a long time interest in electronics, ham
radio, short wave radio reception, etc., ever since I was a kid. Those
interests eventually morphed into a career of programming, designing
and managing computer systems, so the skills I learned early on served
me well. About 5 years ago I started another hobby which combined my
interest in boats and boating with my interest in electronics and
computing. I set up a receiving station for the AIS position report
transmissions that all large boats transmit, as well as many smaller
ones. My equipment decodes position reports and boat data, logs it to
my chart plotting software, and forwards it to a web site called
www.marinetraffic.com. Anyone can log onto that site and see the
position of boats all over the world thanks to a network of volunteers
like myself who share their data via the internet.

Recently I learned that there is a similar network of hobbyists who
track the position of aircraft by decoding what is called their ADS-B
transponder data. We live near two fairly active airports, and have a
steady stream of planes and hellicopters flying around so I thought it
would be cool to know more about them. Thanks to some recent advances
in electronics it is now possible to buy a minature USB device which
not only receives radio signals but decodes their data and makes it
available for processing on your PC. All that, with an antenna, for
about $30 or so on Amazon. Now when I hear an airplane fly over, with
a few mouse clicks, I can get all of their flight data and plot the
position of the plane on a chart. With a few more clicks the tail
number, registration data and a picture of the plane is displayed.
From there you can see their flight plan if any, know where they came
from, and where they are going.

I have quickly learned that there is a lot more going on up there than
I'd ever realized. We've got a huge number of private jets zooming
around, lots of small aircraft, flight school planes practicing,
mosquito control hellicopters spraying, sheriff's hellicopters
patrolling, med evac aircraft doing their thing, and the usual number
of commercial flights coming and going. It can be a bit addictive to
watch all of this going on. If you're a real junky you can also
monitor control tower transmissions on various web sites.

https://www.amazon.com/FlightAware-FA-PROSTICKPLUS-1-Receiver-Built-Filter/dp/B01M7REJJW

https://discussions.flightaware.com/t/how-to-install-pro-stick-dvb-t-on-windows/25070/2

https://www.liveatc.net/

You can also listen to RSW here

https://www.liveatc.net/hlisten.php?...rsw&mount=krsw

===

Yes, and FMY is he

https://www.liveatc.net/hlisten.php?...kfmy&icao=kfmy

OK, so what's ESW and FMY?
--

Freedom Isn't Free!


Airport codes.

RSW is the new airport, FMY was built for bi planes in the 20s and
upgraded as a training field in WWII. It was out in the country in
those days, Now it is downtown. They were still landing commercial
727s there when I moved here tho. It was pretty exciting when one
rotated and climbed out about 40' over you on US41.

They all moved over to RSW as their gate leases expired but even in
86, you could go out there and only see a handful of flights an hour
in the middle of the day. At night it pretty much closed. The military
used to play there, flying in from all over.

FMY is all private aviation or charter now.

===

FMY is right across the river from us and surprisingly active for a
small airport. A bunch of corporate and charter jets are based there
as well as a substantial fleet of single and twin engine prop planes..
On a busy day when the flight schools are active there are frequently
two or three planes in the landing pattern at the same time. It's fun
watching them on my tracking screen at the same time they're getting
radio instructions from the tower.



We live very near Plymouth Airport (where I got my ticket years ago) and
we are also on the southerly final to Boston's Logan airport.
Sometimes when bored I listen on my scanner to all
the traffic at both. You can easily distinguish who is a student pilot
at Plymouth and the seasoned, commercial pilots landing at Boston.
Some of those conversations get funny sometimes.

The founder of the company I work for was a pilot, and went through a few airplanes. He started with a Cessna 182, then a Bonanza, then a Baron, and somewhere in there a Zlin fully aerobatic airplane. I've been up in all of them except the Baron.

Back when he had the 182, he wanted to fly into Atlanta to visit a prospective customer, Delta Airlines. He filed his flight plan and took off. When he got into the ATL airspace, he radio'd the tower for landing clearance. They were not happy. A 182 landing in between MD80's, L-1011's and various 7xx's? Heh. They told him to keep his speed up to max on approach and fly it down to the runway. He did, had the meeting and flew home. But that was the last time he ever flew into ATL in his private plane.



One of the reasons I sorta lost interest in flying is because I never
found it to be "relaxing" as others do. Flying into a controlled
airport can be nerve wracking for small planes and sometimes flying
at an uncontrolled airport (like Plymouth) can be just as bad.
You really have to keep a keen eye on what's going on around you and
an ear to the radio.

Boating is a lot more relaxing. :-)

That is the way I feel about it. I like the idea of flying but the
reality is not as exciting. I know a lot of pilots and they seem to
love the regimentation and process. I would only like it if I was
somewhere in the boonies where nobody was paying that much attention
to what I was doing. Unfortunately I always seem to live in rigidly
controlled air space. It is ridiculous around DC, where I was, the
last time I really looked into it. Hyde Field was always trying to
find students and I drove by there a few times a week.

That made me remember going up with a friend in the early '80s that had a Cessna 150. We took off from a cornfield runway out in the country and flew down to a small airport to check into a jump school there. That was a tiny plane. We were pretty much shoulder to shoulder. He did let me take control for a while, that was fun. He got married and sold the plane shortly after. Funny how that happens.

Its Me wrote:
On Sunday, June 28, 2020 at 6:19:54 PM UTC-4, wrote:
On Sun, 28 Jun 2020 15:19:40 -0400, RCE wrote:

On 6/28/2020 2:06 PM, Its Me wrote:
On Sunday, June 28, 2020 at 7:49:02 AM UTC-4, RCE wrote:
On 6/28/2020 12:48 AM, wrote:
On Sat, 27 Jun 2020 22:50:23 -0400, wrote:

On Sat, 27 Jun 2020 23:53:53 -0000 (UTC), Bill
wrote:

John wrote:
On Sat, 27 Jun 2020 15:42:32 -0400, wrote:

On Sat, 27 Jun 2020 15:32:12 -0400, wrote:

On Sat, 27 Jun 2020 14:16:24 -0400,
wrote:

Things have been a little slow here so thought I'd post something a
bit out of the ordinary and get some discussion going about what we
are all doing to spend time during the Covid crisis.

To set the stage, I've had a long time interest in electronics, ham
radio, short wave radio reception, etc., ever since I was a kid. Those
interests eventually morphed into a career of programming, designing
and managing computer systems, so the skills I learned early on served
me well. About 5 years ago I started another hobby which combined my
interest in boats and boating with my interest in electronics and
computing. I set up a receiving station for the AIS position report
transmissions that all large boats transmit, as well as many smaller
ones. My equipment decodes position reports and boat data, logs it to
my chart plotting software, and forwards it to a web site called
www.marinetraffic.com. Anyone can log onto that site and see the
position of boats all over the world thanks to a network of volunteers
like myself who share their data via the internet.

Recently I learned that there is a similar network of hobbyists who
track the position of aircraft by decoding what is called their ADS-B
transponder data. We live near two fairly active airports, and have a
steady stream of planes and hellicopters flying around so I thought it
would be cool to know more about them. Thanks to some recent advances
in electronics it is now possible to buy a minature USB device which
not only receives radio signals but decodes their data and makes it
available for processing on your PC. All that, with an antenna, for
about $30 or so on Amazon. Now when I hear an airplane fly over, with
a few mouse clicks, I can get all of their flight data and plot the
position of the plane on a chart. With a few more clicks the tail
number, registration data and a picture of the plane is displayed.
From there you can see their flight plan if any, know where they came
from, and where they are going.

I have quickly learned that there is a lot more going on up there than
I'd ever realized. We've got a huge number of private jets zooming
around, lots of small aircraft, flight school planes practicing,
mosquito control hellicopters spraying, sheriff's hellicopters
patrolling, med evac aircraft doing their thing, and the usual number
of commercial flights coming and going. It can be a bit addictive to
watch all of this going on. If you're a real junky you can also
monitor control tower transmissions on various web sites.

https://www.amazon.com/FlightAware-FA-PROSTICKPLUS-1-Receiver-Built-Filter/dp/B01M7REJJW

https://discussions.flightaware.com/t/how-to-install-pro-stick-dvb-t-on-windows/25070/2

https://www.liveatc.net/

You can also listen to RSW here

https://www.liveatc.net/hlisten.php?...rsw&mount=krsw

==
Yes, and FMY is he

https://www.liveatc.net/hlisten.php?...kfmy&icao=kfmy

OK, so what's ESW and FMY?
--

Freedom Isn't Free!


Airport codes.

RSW is the new airport, FMY was built for bi planes in the 20s and
upgraded as a training field in WWII. It was out in the country in
those days, Now it is downtown. They were still landing commercial
727s there when I moved here tho. It was pretty exciting when one
rotated and climbed out about 40' over you on US41.

They all moved over to RSW as their gate leases expired but even in
86, you could go out there and only see a handful of flights an hour
in the middle of the day. At night it pretty much closed. The military
used to play there, flying in from all over.

FMY is all private aviation or charter now.

==
FMY is right across the river from us and surprisingly active for a
small airport. A bunch of corporate and charter jets are based there
as well as a substantial fleet of single and twin engine prop planes.
On a busy day when the flight schools are active there are frequently
two or three planes in the landing pattern at the same time. It's fun
watching them on my tracking screen at the same time they're getting
radio instructions from the tower.



We live very near Plymouth Airport (where I got my ticket years ago) and
we are also on the southerly final to Boston's Logan airport.
Sometimes when bored I listen on my scanner to all
the traffic at both. You can easily distinguish who is a student pilot
at Plymouth and the seasoned, commercial pilots landing at Boston.
Some of those conversations get funny sometimes.

The founder of the company I work for was a pilot, and went through a
few airplanes. He started with a Cessna 182, then a Bonanza, then a
Baron, and somewhere in there a Zlin fully aerobatic airplane. I've
been up in all of them except the Baron.

Back when he had the 182, he wanted to fly into Atlanta to visit a
prospective customer, Delta Airlines. He filed his flight plan and
took off. When he got into the ATL airspace, he radio'd the tower for
landing clearance. They were not happy. A 182 landing in between
MD80's, L-1011's and various 7xx's? Heh. They told him to keep his
speed up to max on approach and fly it down to the runway. He did,
had the meeting and flew home. But that was the last time he ever
flew into ATL in his private plane.



One of the reasons I sorta lost interest in flying is because I never
found it to be "relaxing" as others do. Flying into a controlled
airport can be nerve wracking for small planes and sometimes flying
at an uncontrolled airport (like Plymouth) can be just as bad.
You really have to keep a keen eye on what's going on around you and
an ear to the radio.

Boating is a lot more relaxing. :-)

That is the way I feel about it. I like the idea of flying but the
reality is not as exciting. I know a lot of pilots and they seem to
love the regimentation and process. I would only like it if I was
somewhere in the boonies where nobody was paying that much attention
to what I was doing. Unfortunately I always seem to live in rigidly
controlled air space. It is ridiculous around DC, where I was, the
last time I really looked into it. Hyde Field was always trying to
find students and I drove by there a few times a week.

That made me remember going up with a friend in the early '80s that had a
Cessna 150. We took off from a cornfield runway out in the country and
flew down to a small airport to check into a jump school there. That was
a tiny plane. We were pretty much shoulder to shoulder. He did let me
take control for a while, that was fun. He got married and sold the
plane shortly after. Funny how that happens.


I am a big guy, so I doubt a 150 would fly with me and another adult and
stay in it’s weight limit.

On Mon, 29 Jun 2020 07:15:41 -0700 (PDT), Its Me
wrote:

On Sunday, June 28, 2020 at 5:39:26 PM UTC-4, RCE wrote:
On 6/28/2020 4:54 PM, Its Me wrote:
On Sunday, June 28, 2020 at 3:19:46 PM UTC-4, RCE wrote:
On 6/28/2020 2:06 PM, Its Me wrote:
On Sunday, June 28, 2020 at 7:49:02 AM UTC-4, RCE wrote:
On 6/28/2020 12:48 AM, wrote:
On Sat, 27 Jun 2020 22:50:23 -0400, wrote:

On Sat, 27 Jun 2020 23:53:53 -0000 (UTC), Bill
wrote:

John wrote:
On Sat, 27 Jun 2020 15:42:32 -0400, wrote:

On Sat, 27 Jun 2020 15:32:12 -0400, wrote:

On Sat, 27 Jun 2020 14:16:24 -0400,
wrote:

Things have been a little slow here so thought I'd post something a
bit out of the ordinary and get some discussion going about what we
are all doing to spend time during the Covid crisis.

To set the stage, I've had a long time interest in electronics, ham
radio, short wave radio reception, etc., ever since I was a kid. Those
interests eventually morphed into a career of programming, designing
and managing computer systems, so the skills I learned early on served
me well. About 5 years ago I started another hobby which combined my
interest in boats and boating with my interest in electronics and
computing. I set up a receiving station for the AIS position report
transmissions that all large boats transmit, as well as many smaller
ones. My equipment decodes position reports and boat data, logs it to
my chart plotting software, and forwards it to a web site called
www.marinetraffic.com. Anyone can log onto that site and see the
position of boats all over the world thanks to a network of volunteers
like myself who share their data via the internet.

Recently I learned that there is a similar network of hobbyists who
track the position of aircraft by decoding what is called their ADS-B
transponder data. We live near two fairly active airports, and have a
steady stream of planes and hellicopters flying around so I thought it
would be cool to know more about them. Thanks to some recent advances
in electronics it is now possible to buy a minature USB device which
not only receives radio signals but decodes their data and makes it
available for processing on your PC. All that, with an antenna, for
about $30 or so on Amazon. Now when I hear an airplane fly over, with
a few mouse clicks, I can get all of their flight data and plot the
position of the plane on a chart. With a few more clicks the tail
number, registration data and a picture of the plane is displayed.
From there you can see their flight plan if any, know where they came
from, and where they are going.

I have quickly learned that there is a lot more going on up there than
I'd ever realized. We've got a huge number of private jets zooming
around, lots of small aircraft, flight school planes practicing,
mosquito control hellicopters spraying, sheriff's hellicopters
patrolling, med evac aircraft doing their thing, and the usual number
of commercial flights coming and going. It can be a bit addictive to
watch all of this going on. If you're a real junky you can also
monitor control tower transmissions on various web sites.

https://www.amazon.com/FlightAware-FA-PROSTICKPLUS-1-Receiver-Built-Filter/dp/B01M7REJJW

https://discussions.flightaware.com/t/how-to-install-pro-stick-dvb-t-on-windows/25070/2

https://www.liveatc.net/

You can also listen to RSW here

https://www.liveatc.net/hlisten.php?...rsw&mount=krsw

===

Yes, and FMY is he

https://www.liveatc.net/hlisten.php?...kfmy&icao=kfmy

OK, so what's ESW and FMY?
--

Freedom Isn't Free!


Airport codes.

RSW is the new airport, FMY was built for bi planes in the 20s and
upgraded as a training field in WWII. It was out in the country in
those days, Now it is downtown. They were still landing commercial
727s there when I moved here tho. It was pretty exciting when one
rotated and climbed out about 40' over you on US41.

They all moved over to RSW as their gate leases expired but even in
86, you could go out there and only see a handful of flights an hour
in the middle of the day. At night it pretty much closed. The military
used to play there, flying in from all over.

FMY is all private aviation or charter now.

===

FMY is right across the river from us and surprisingly active for a
small airport. A bunch of corporate and charter jets are based there
as well as a substantial fleet of single and twin engine prop planes.
On a busy day when the flight schools are active there are frequently
two or three planes in the landing pattern at the same time. It's fun
watching them on my tracking screen at the same time they're getting
radio instructions from the tower.



We live very near Plymouth Airport (where I got my ticket years ago) and
we are also on the southerly final to Boston's Logan airport.
Sometimes when bored I listen on my scanner to all
the traffic at both. You can easily distinguish who is a student pilot
at Plymouth and the seasoned, commercial pilots landing at Boston.
Some of those conversations get funny sometimes.

The founder of the company I work for was a pilot, and went through a few airplanes. He started with a Cessna 182, then a Bonanza, then a Baron, and somewhere in there a Zlin fully aerobatic airplane. I've been up in all of them except the Baron.

Back when he had the 182, he wanted to fly into Atlanta to visit a prospective customer, Delta Airlines. He filed his flight plan and took off. When he got into the ATL airspace, he radio'd the tower for landing clearance. They were not happy. A 182 landing in between MD80's, L-1011's and various 7xx's? Heh. They told him to keep his speed up to max on approach and fly it down to the runway. He did, had the meeting and flew home. But that was the last time he ever flew into ATL in his private plane.



One of the reasons I sorta lost interest in flying is because I never
found it to be "relaxing" as others do. Flying into a controlled
airport can be nerve wracking for small planes and sometimes flying
at an uncontrolled airport (like Plymouth) can be just as bad.
You really have to keep a keen eye on what's going on around you and
an ear to the radio.

Boating is a lot more relaxing. :-)




I agree. I love airplanes, and like to fly in small, private craft, but I never wanted to get my ticket. Too much responsibility, and I'm a bit of a perfectionist, so it wouldn't be fun for me.


My CFI once told me that technical types are the worst students they teach.

Interesting. I wonder if it's because they would tend to question everything about the process?

The three friends that are private pilots I have been up with are all engineers, two electrical and one chemical. I can imagine two of them being painful students.

Like a lot of things, I bet those CFIs hate answering the question
"Why"?

That was one thing I always had in mind when I was inspecting. I
always wanted an answer to "why". I really wanted it for myself but it
usually calmed down the person asking.

On 6/29/2020 10:21 AM, Its Me wrote:
On Sunday, June 28, 2020 at 6:19:54 PM UTC-4, wrote:
On Sun, 28 Jun 2020 15:19:40 -0400, RCE wrote:

On 6/28/2020 2:06 PM, Its Me wrote:
On Sunday, June 28, 2020 at 7:49:02 AM UTC-4, RCE wrote:
On 6/28/2020 12:48 AM, wrote:
On Sat, 27 Jun 2020 22:50:23 -0400, wrote:

On Sat, 27 Jun 2020 23:53:53 -0000 (UTC), Bill
wrote:

John wrote:
On Sat, 27 Jun 2020 15:42:32 -0400, wrote:

On Sat, 27 Jun 2020 15:32:12 -0400, wrote:

On Sat, 27 Jun 2020 14:16:24 -0400,
wrote:

Things have been a little slow here so thought I'd post something a
bit out of the ordinary and get some discussion going about what we
are all doing to spend time during the Covid crisis.

To set the stage, I've had a long time interest in electronics, ham
radio, short wave radio reception, etc., ever since I was a kid. Those
interests eventually morphed into a career of programming, designing
and managing computer systems, so the skills I learned early on served
me well. About 5 years ago I started another hobby which combined my
interest in boats and boating with my interest in electronics and
computing. I set up a receiving station for the AIS position report
transmissions that all large boats transmit, as well as many smaller
ones. My equipment decodes position reports and boat data, logs it to
my chart plotting software, and forwards it to a web site called
www.marinetraffic.com. Anyone can log onto that site and see the
position of boats all over the world thanks to a network of volunteers
like myself who share their data via the internet.

Recently I learned that there is a similar network of hobbyists who
track the position of aircraft by decoding what is called their ADS-B
transponder data. We live near two fairly active airports, and have a
steady stream of planes and hellicopters flying around so I thought it
would be cool to know more about them. Thanks to some recent advances
in electronics it is now possible to buy a minature USB device which
not only receives radio signals but decodes their data and makes it
available for processing on your PC. All that, with an antenna, for
about $30 or so on Amazon. Now when I hear an airplane fly over, with
a few mouse clicks, I can get all of their flight data and plot the
position of the plane on a chart. With a few more clicks the tail
number, registration data and a picture of the plane is displayed.
From there you can see their flight plan if any, know where they came
from, and where they are going.

I have quickly learned that there is a lot more going on up there than
I'd ever realized. We've got a huge number of private jets zooming
around, lots of small aircraft, flight school planes practicing,
mosquito control hellicopters spraying, sheriff's hellicopters
patrolling, med evac aircraft doing their thing, and the usual number
of commercial flights coming and going. It can be a bit addictive to
watch all of this going on. If you're a real junky you can also
monitor control tower transmissions on various web sites.

https://www.amazon.com/FlightAware-FA-PROSTICKPLUS-1-Receiver-Built-Filter/dp/B01M7REJJW

https://discussions.flightaware.com/t/how-to-install-pro-stick-dvb-t-on-windows/25070/2

https://www.liveatc.net/

You can also listen to RSW here

https://www.liveatc.net/hlisten.php?...rsw&mount=krsw

===

Yes, and FMY is he

https://www.liveatc.net/hlisten.php?...kfmy&icao=kfmy

OK, so what's ESW and FMY?
--

Freedom Isn't Free!


Airport codes.

RSW is the new airport, FMY was built for bi planes in the 20s and
upgraded as a training field in WWII. It was out in the country in
those days, Now it is downtown. They were still landing commercial
727s there when I moved here tho. It was pretty exciting when one
rotated and climbed out about 40' over you on US41.

They all moved over to RSW as their gate leases expired but even in
86, you could go out there and only see a handful of flights an hour
in the middle of the day. At night it pretty much closed. The military
used to play there, flying in from all over.

FMY is all private aviation or charter now.

===

FMY is right across the river from us and surprisingly active for a
small airport. A bunch of corporate and charter jets are based there
as well as a substantial fleet of single and twin engine prop planes.
On a busy day when the flight schools are active there are frequently
two or three planes in the landing pattern at the same time. It's fun
watching them on my tracking screen at the same time they're getting
radio instructions from the tower.



We live very near Plymouth Airport (where I got my ticket years ago) and
we are also on the southerly final to Boston's Logan airport.
Sometimes when bored I listen on my scanner to all
the traffic at both. You can easily distinguish who is a student pilot
at Plymouth and the seasoned, commercial pilots landing at Boston.
Some of those conversations get funny sometimes.

The founder of the company I work for was a pilot, and went through a few airplanes. He started with a Cessna 182, then a Bonanza, then a Baron, and somewhere in there a Zlin fully aerobatic airplane. I've been up in all of them except the Baron.

Back when he had the 182, he wanted to fly into Atlanta to visit a prospective customer, Delta Airlines. He filed his flight plan and took off. When he got into the ATL airspace, he radio'd the tower for landing clearance. They were not happy. A 182 landing in between MD80's, L-1011's and various 7xx's? Heh. They told him to keep his speed up to max on approach and fly it down to the runway. He did, had the meeting and flew home. But that was the last time he ever flew into ATL in his private plane.



One of the reasons I sorta lost interest in flying is because I never
found it to be "relaxing" as others do. Flying into a controlled
airport can be nerve wracking for small planes and sometimes flying
at an uncontrolled airport (like Plymouth) can be just as bad.
You really have to keep a keen eye on what's going on around you and
an ear to the radio.

Boating is a lot more relaxing. :-)

That is the way I feel about it. I like the idea of flying but the
reality is not as exciting. I know a lot of pilots and they seem to
love the regimentation and process. I would only like it if I was
somewhere in the boonies where nobody was paying that much attention
to what I was doing. Unfortunately I always seem to live in rigidly
controlled air space. It is ridiculous around DC, where I was, the
last time I really looked into it. Hyde Field was always trying to
find students and I drove by there a few times a week.


That made me remember going up with a friend in the early '80s that had a Cessna 150. We took off from a cornfield runway out in the country and flew down to a small airport to check into a jump school there. That was a tiny plane. We were pretty much shoulder to shoulder. He did let me take control for a while, that was fun. He got married and sold the plane shortly after. Funny how that happens.


The Cessna 150 with the downward drooping wingtips is often referred to
as "the flying nun".

I learned in 152's and 172's. First time I flew a 150 I had a hard time
getting it to plant on the ground during landing. As soon as it hit
ground effects it popped back up in the air.



--
This email has been checked for viruses by AVG.
https://www.avg.com

On 6/29/2020 10:15 AM, Its Me wrote:
On Sunday, June 28, 2020 at 5:39:26 PM UTC-4, RCE wrote:
On 6/28/2020 4:54 PM, Its Me wrote:
On Sunday, June 28, 2020 at 3:19:46 PM UTC-4, RCE wrote:
On 6/28/2020 2:06 PM, Its Me wrote:
On Sunday, June 28, 2020 at 7:49:02 AM UTC-4, RCE wrote:
On 6/28/2020 12:48 AM, wrote:
On Sat, 27 Jun 2020 22:50:23 -0400, wrote:

On Sat, 27 Jun 2020 23:53:53 -0000 (UTC), Bill
wrote:

John wrote:
On Sat, 27 Jun 2020 15:42:32 -0400, wrote:

On Sat, 27 Jun 2020 15:32:12 -0400, wrote:

On Sat, 27 Jun 2020 14:16:24 -0400,
wrote:

Things have been a little slow here so thought I'd post something a
bit out of the ordinary and get some discussion going about what we
are all doing to spend time during the Covid crisis.

To set the stage, I've had a long time interest in electronics, ham
radio, short wave radio reception, etc., ever since I was a kid. Those
interests eventually morphed into a career of programming, designing
and managing computer systems, so the skills I learned early on served
me well. About 5 years ago I started another hobby which combined my
interest in boats and boating with my interest in electronics and
computing. I set up a receiving station for the AIS position report
transmissions that all large boats transmit, as well as many smaller
ones. My equipment decodes position reports and boat data, logs it to
my chart plotting software, and forwards it to a web site called
www.marinetraffic.com. Anyone can log onto that site and see the
position of boats all over the world thanks to a network of volunteers
like myself who share their data via the internet.

Recently I learned that there is a similar network of hobbyists who
track the position of aircraft by decoding what is called their ADS-B
transponder data. We live near two fairly active airports, and have a
steady stream of planes and hellicopters flying around so I thought it
would be cool to know more about them. Thanks to some recent advances
in electronics it is now possible to buy a minature USB device which
not only receives radio signals but decodes their data and makes it
available for processing on your PC. All that, with an antenna, for
about $30 or so on Amazon. Now when I hear an airplane fly over, with
a few mouse clicks, I can get all of their flight data and plot the
position of the plane on a chart. With a few more clicks the tail
number, registration data and a picture of the plane is displayed.
From there you can see their flight plan if any, know where they came
from, and where they are going.

I have quickly learned that there is a lot more going on up there than
I'd ever realized. We've got a huge number of private jets zooming
around, lots of small aircraft, flight school planes practicing,
mosquito control hellicopters spraying, sheriff's hellicopters
patrolling, med evac aircraft doing their thing, and the usual number
of commercial flights coming and going. It can be a bit addictive to
watch all of this going on. If you're a real junky you can also
monitor control tower transmissions on various web sites.

https://www.amazon.com/FlightAware-FA-PROSTICKPLUS-1-Receiver-Built-Filter/dp/B01M7REJJW

https://discussions.flightaware.com/t/how-to-install-pro-stick-dvb-t-on-windows/25070/2

https://www.liveatc.net/

You can also listen to RSW here

https://www.liveatc.net/hlisten.php?...rsw&mount=krsw

===

Yes, and FMY is he

https://www.liveatc.net/hlisten.php?...kfmy&icao=kfmy

OK, so what's ESW and FMY?
--

Freedom Isn't Free!


Airport codes.

RSW is the new airport, FMY was built for bi planes in the 20s and
upgraded as a training field in WWII. It was out in the country in
those days, Now it is downtown. They were still landing commercial
727s there when I moved here tho. It was pretty exciting when one
rotated and climbed out about 40' over you on US41.

They all moved over to RSW as their gate leases expired but even in
86, you could go out there and only see a handful of flights an hour
in the middle of the day. At night it pretty much closed. The military
used to play there, flying in from all over.

FMY is all private aviation or charter now.

===

FMY is right across the river from us and surprisingly active for a
small airport. A bunch of corporate and charter jets are based there
as well as a substantial fleet of single and twin engine prop planes.
On a busy day when the flight schools are active there are frequently
two or three planes in the landing pattern at the same time. It's fun
watching them on my tracking screen at the same time they're getting
radio instructions from the tower.



We live very near Plymouth Airport (where I got my ticket years ago) and
we are also on the southerly final to Boston's Logan airport.
Sometimes when bored I listen on my scanner to all
the traffic at both. You can easily distinguish who is a student pilot
at Plymouth and the seasoned, commercial pilots landing at Boston.
Some of those conversations get funny sometimes.

The founder of the company I work for was a pilot, and went through a few airplanes. He started with a Cessna 182, then a Bonanza, then a Baron, and somewhere in there a Zlin fully aerobatic airplane. I've been up in all of them except the Baron.

Back when he had the 182, he wanted to fly into Atlanta to visit a prospective customer, Delta Airlines. He filed his flight plan and took off. When he got into the ATL airspace, he radio'd the tower for landing clearance. They were not happy. A 182 landing in between MD80's, L-1011's and various 7xx's? Heh. They told him to keep his speed up to max on approach and fly it down to the runway. He did, had the meeting and flew home. But that was the last time he ever flew into ATL in his private plane.



One of the reasons I sorta lost interest in flying is because I never
found it to be "relaxing" as others do. Flying into a controlled
airport can be nerve wracking for small planes and sometimes flying
at an uncontrolled airport (like Plymouth) can be just as bad.
You really have to keep a keen eye on what's going on around you and
an ear to the radio.

Boating is a lot more relaxing. :-)






I agree. I love airplanes, and like to fly in small, private craft, but I never wanted to get my ticket. Too much responsibility, and I'm a bit of a perfectionist, so it wouldn't be fun for me.


My CFI once told me that technical types are the worst students they teach.

Interesting. I wonder if it's because they would tend to question everything about the process?

The three friends that are private pilots I have been up with are all engineers, two electrical and one chemical. I can imagine two of them being painful students.


To be a good pilot requires a bit of intuitive "seat of the pants"
ability along with all the formal training and procedures. Technical
types tend to over-analogize everything. When I was in training my
CFI asked me one day what I did for a living. When I told him I was an
engineer he said he "knew it".

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On Sun, 28 Jun 2020 17:39:21 -0400, RCE wrote:

On 6/28/2020 4:54 PM, Its Me wrote:
On Sunday, June 28, 2020 at 3:19:46 PM UTC-4, RCE wrote:
On 6/28/2020 2:06 PM, Its Me wrote:
On Sunday, June 28, 2020 at 7:49:02 AM UTC-4, RCE wrote:
On 6/28/2020 12:48 AM, wrote:
On Sat, 27 Jun 2020 22:50:23 -0400, wrote:

On Sat, 27 Jun 2020 23:53:53 -0000 (UTC), Bill
wrote:

John wrote:
On Sat, 27 Jun 2020 15:42:32 -0400, wrote:

On Sat, 27 Jun 2020 15:32:12 -0400, wrote:

On Sat, 27 Jun 2020 14:16:24 -0400,
wrote:

Things have been a little slow here so thought I'd post something a
bit out of the ordinary and get some discussion going about what we
are all doing to spend time during the Covid crisis.

To set the stage, I've had a long time interest in electronics, ham
radio, short wave radio reception, etc., ever since I was a kid. Those
interests eventually morphed into a career of programming, designing
and managing computer systems, so the skills I learned early on served
me well. About 5 years ago I started another hobby which combined my
interest in boats and boating with my interest in electronics and
computing. I set up a receiving station for the AIS position report
transmissions that all large boats transmit, as well as many smaller
ones. My equipment decodes position reports and boat data, logs it to
my chart plotting software, and forwards it to a web site called
www.marinetraffic.com. Anyone can log onto that site and see the
position of boats all over the world thanks to a network of volunteers
like myself who share their data via the internet.

Recently I learned that there is a similar network of hobbyists who
track the position of aircraft by decoding what is called their ADS-B
transponder data. We live near two fairly active airports, and have a
steady stream of planes and hellicopters flying around so I thought it
would be cool to know more about them. Thanks to some recent advances
in electronics it is now possible to buy a minature USB device which
not only receives radio signals but decodes their data and makes it
available for processing on your PC. All that, with an antenna, for
about $30 or so on Amazon. Now when I hear an airplane fly over, with
a few mouse clicks, I can get all of their flight data and plot the
position of the plane on a chart. With a few more clicks the tail
number, registration data and a picture of the plane is displayed.
From there you can see their flight plan if any, know where they came
from, and where they are going.

I have quickly learned that there is a lot more going on up there than
I'd ever realized. We've got a huge number of private jets zooming
around, lots of small aircraft, flight school planes practicing,
mosquito control hellicopters spraying, sheriff's hellicopters
patrolling, med evac aircraft doing their thing, and the usual number
of commercial flights coming and going. It can be a bit addictive to
watch all of this going on. If you're a real junky you can also
monitor control tower transmissions on various web sites.

https://www.amazon.com/FlightAware-FA-PROSTICKPLUS-1-Receiver-Built-Filter/dp/B01M7REJJW

https://discussions.flightaware.com/t/how-to-install-pro-stick-dvb-t-on-windows/25070/2

https://www.liveatc.net/

You can also listen to RSW here

https://www.liveatc.net/hlisten.php?...rsw&mount=krsw

===

Yes, and FMY is he

https://www.liveatc.net/hlisten.php?...kfmy&icao=kfmy

OK, so what's ESW and FMY?
--

Freedom Isn't Free!


Airport codes.

RSW is the new airport, FMY was built for bi planes in the 20s and
upgraded as a training field in WWII. It was out in the country in
those days, Now it is downtown. They were still landing commercial
727s there when I moved here tho. It was pretty exciting when one
rotated and climbed out about 40' over you on US41.

They all moved over to RSW as their gate leases expired but even in
86, you could go out there and only see a handful of flights an hour
in the middle of the day. At night it pretty much closed. The military
used to play there, flying in from all over.

FMY is all private aviation or charter now.

===

FMY is right across the river from us and surprisingly active for a
small airport. A bunch of corporate and charter jets are based there
as well as a substantial fleet of single and twin engine prop planes.
On a busy day when the flight schools are active there are frequently
two or three planes in the landing pattern at the same time. It's fun
watching them on my tracking screen at the same time they're getting
radio instructions from the tower.



We live very near Plymouth Airport (where I got my ticket years ago) and
we are also on the southerly final to Boston's Logan airport.
Sometimes when bored I listen on my scanner to all
the traffic at both. You can easily distinguish who is a student pilot
at Plymouth and the seasoned, commercial pilots landing at Boston.
Some of those conversations get funny sometimes.

The founder of the company I work for was a pilot, and went through a few airplanes. He started with a Cessna 182, then a Bonanza, then a Baron, and somewhere in there a Zlin fully aerobatic airplane. I've been up in all of them except the Baron.

Back when he had the 182, he wanted to fly into Atlanta to visit a prospective customer, Delta Airlines. He filed his flight plan and took off. When he got into the ATL airspace, he radio'd the tower for landing clearance. They were not happy. A 182 landing in between MD80's, L-1011's and various 7xx's? Heh. They told him to keep his speed up to max on approach and fly it down to the runway. He did, had the meeting and flew home. But that was the last time he ever flew into ATL in his private plane.



One of the reasons I sorta lost interest in flying is because I never
found it to be "relaxing" as others do. Flying into a controlled
airport can be nerve wracking for small planes and sometimes flying
at an uncontrolled airport (like Plymouth) can be just as bad.
You really have to keep a keen eye on what's going on around you and
an ear to the radio.

Boating is a lot more relaxing. :-)




I agree. I love airplanes, and like to fly in small, private craft, but I never wanted to get my ticket. Too much responsibility, and I'm a bit of a perfectionist, so it wouldn't be fun for me.


My CFI once told me that technical types are the worst students they teach.

===

At one time medical doctors had that reputation. I have no idea why.

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