Wed May 05, 2021 8:18 pm
#1845178
A week or so ago, I was sat in my office when I heard the local air ambulance fly over. It was decelerating. So I had a quick look on FlightRadar24 to see where he was landing.
After a minute or two I'd worked out where he was and then went for a quick scroll about to see who else was flying. I spotted someone clearly just having a "fly-about", clicked on it and thought "cor, I like them!" Checked where he departed from and looked on g-info to see if it was locally owned. It was. "Hmm, 912iS under the cowl, nice!."
So I left FR24 on one screen while I continued working on the others, just watching him goofing about at around 7-800ft going nowhere and sure enough he returned to his departure airfield, with its remote hangars and nobody living on site.
Whilst all I was, was a jealous voyeur, somebody else planning their next round of Rotax thefts would know precisely where that one was.
Whilst I'm fully aware of the potential air-to-air benefits, we really must resolve the privacy issues and ensure our data remains air-to-air, air-to-traffic control only. The day it is announced that EC is to become mandatory, will be the same day I petition OfCom to go after every single FR24 et al, receiver station under Section 48 of the Wireless Telegraphy Act.
The quickest way to fall out with people is, discuss politics.