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Flight Routing Trails
Re: Flight Routing Trails
Possibly not long enough to benefit them, or maybe the routes are too numerous and busy. I suspect the latter.
Re: Flight Routing Trails
Computer screens are flat?
Same problem with paper maps on a table.
Same problem with paper maps on a table.
Re: Flight Routing Trails
I looked into this ages ago.
Maps verses globes and all that.
It’s not that easy to explain but this link might help.
https://www.scienceabc.com/social-scien ... -maps.html
A picture is worth a thousand words as they say.
Some of it is related to distances as well. Europe isn’t really that big. Whereas the US is quite a way away. I seem to recall that transatlantic routes don’t just follow the curve they also ‘hug’ the land masses for diversionary purposes.
Just in case as they say.
Maps verses globes and all that.
It’s not that easy to explain but this link might help.
https://www.scienceabc.com/social-scien ... -maps.html
A picture is worth a thousand words as they say.
Some of it is related to distances as well. Europe isn’t really that big. Whereas the US is quite a way away. I seem to recall that transatlantic routes don’t just follow the curve they also ‘hug’ the land masses for diversionary purposes.
Just in case as they say.
Re: Flight Routing Trails
The aircraft in reality are flying straight lines all the time (shortest distance) whether over land or over the ocean. But the map projections we use to show the world in 2D distorts reality. While north-south routes will accurately show on screen as straight lines, those with a component of east-west will show falsely as curves.
For example, I have just watched RYR96QH (EI-DPH) which passed over me short while ago inbound to Bristol from Bergamo. Following it on ADSB, the initial route out of Bergamo was due north, and hence no curvature was seen on screen. It turned NNW approaching Stuttgart, then WNW just past Brussels, then due west from the Thames Estuary. The legs between VORs (or reporting points) after Stuttgart are each slightly curved as expected, but you may need to do as I did to see it: zoom in on each leg individually and hold a ruler against the screen to see the very slight curvature. They are following great circles, it's just that each leg is too short at 100-200 miles or so to see it easily.
Over the ocean, there are no VORs, so they route via longitude/latitude pairs (e.g. 55N/20W to 55N/30W to 55N/40W ...etc). As a result they follow great circles for long periods (1000 miles plus). Hence the curvature is readily seen even when zoomed out.
For example, I have just watched RYR96QH (EI-DPH) which passed over me short while ago inbound to Bristol from Bergamo. Following it on ADSB, the initial route out of Bergamo was due north, and hence no curvature was seen on screen. It turned NNW approaching Stuttgart, then WNW just past Brussels, then due west from the Thames Estuary. The legs between VORs (or reporting points) after Stuttgart are each slightly curved as expected, but you may need to do as I did to see it: zoom in on each leg individually and hold a ruler against the screen to see the very slight curvature. They are following great circles, it's just that each leg is too short at 100-200 miles or so to see it easily.
Over the ocean, there are no VORs, so they route via longitude/latitude pairs (e.g. 55N/20W to 55N/30W to 55N/40W ...etc). As a result they follow great circles for long periods (1000 miles plus). Hence the curvature is readily seen even when zoomed out.
Re: Flight Routing Trails
Thanks for the nice clear examples.
The dotted lines on ADSB Exchange over the oceans are not true tracks based on ADSB signals from the aircraft, as the aircraft are too far out at sea to be picked up by any receiver on ADSBX's network of enthusiasts sharing their data received at home. Instead the ADSBX software plots an estimate of what the track might have been based on known last position. I have no idea why some of these plot some as straight lines and some as curves, on essentially the same route (pictures 1 and 3). But it has to be a quirk of the software. I presume the same would be seen over large tracts of land without enthusiasts sharing their home ADSB data, like the Sahara and the Oz outback!
Hence I think the best course of action is to assume that more than about 200 miles from any receiver, the plots are at best misleading, and at worst complete fiction.
The dotted lines on ADSB Exchange over the oceans are not true tracks based on ADSB signals from the aircraft, as the aircraft are too far out at sea to be picked up by any receiver on ADSBX's network of enthusiasts sharing their data received at home. Instead the ADSBX software plots an estimate of what the track might have been based on known last position. I have no idea why some of these plot some as straight lines and some as curves, on essentially the same route (pictures 1 and 3). But it has to be a quirk of the software. I presume the same would be seen over large tracts of land without enthusiasts sharing their home ADSB data, like the Sahara and the Oz outback!
Hence I think the best course of action is to assume that more than about 200 miles from any receiver, the plots are at best misleading, and at worst complete fiction.
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