Strange Air Track - Any Ideas?

[blantonl]

Can someone advise regarding this air track?

I caught this Continental 757 on approach to Houston on my Airnav Radar box, and out of no where he just dived from 37,000 feet and disappeared from range.

I went ahead and pulled his track from Flightaware, and this was it... is this some kind of holding pattern or slowing process to get this aircraft lined up in the pattern properly? It seems like this would have been quite a wild ride on this flight.

Any ideas on what actually took place here?

 

[trumpetboy50]

I can definitely say that a 757 is NOT capable of flying a flight path of that. Not quite sure what happened, maybe something wrong with the way Flight Aware and yourself was picking up the path?

 

[SteveEJ]

Looks like a consistant wavering in the GPS lock within their avionics. Very strange to look at. I am pretty sure that it did not fly that track. If they did there are a lot of sick pax.

 

[blantonl]

...or, it might be a correlation between two different data sources on Flightaware's platform. (They report data points from the center, and "their platform" - what the difference is I dunno)

What initially caught my attention regarding this flight was on ADS-B when the aircraft made a pretty hefty decent. I think I saw 6000+ Ft a min rate of decent and then they disappeared. Now, they were on my extended monitoring range, so dropping through 15,000 feet resulted in a loss of signal. But, it was still enough to catch my eye.

I'm not nearly versed enough in flight procedures, but it did seem odd and checking on the flight aware site only furthered my curiosity regarding this flight.

 

[blantonl]

Looks like a consistant wavering in the GPS lock within their avionics. Very strange to look at. I am pretty sure that it did not fly that track. If they did there are a lot of sick pax.

I agree.

I've flown over 750,000 miles just on American Airlines alone, and I've never, ever been on a flight that followed something like this. And believe me, I've seen some crazy things on flights in my time. I thought it might be another aircrew that fell asleep and needed some manuvers that proved they were actually the crew.

Luckily, I don't do nearly as much business travel anymore, but with over a million miles under my belts with the airlines, I've about seen it all. Oh the stories I could tell.. I've seen everything from the drunk passenger getting removed in the non-destination city, to the heart attack (flight from San Juan to DFW), to fights (with Police coming aboard), to turbulence that makes the cabin scream, to the flight crew allowing me to sit on the jump seat during de-icing at DFW as we taxied up the 2 hr wait line of 30 MD-80's looking to depart (before 9/11 of course).

Ahhh, I miss the days of Executive Platinum status. At least I get "Gold" for life on AA. :lol:

 

[Jay911]

I see aircraft in my area on long haul flights from time to time doing similar paths. I'd suggest it's a FlightAware related bug.

The only time I've legitimately seen planes in any kind of zigzag path is either to provide spacing or in cases like the plane that overshot Minneapolis (I think) where the controllers were giving specific turn instructions to ensure the pilots still had control of the aircraft.

 

[rmiller818]

Yep, just an error with the data. Keep in mind flight aware is receiving the information usually from several sites (say a TRACON radar and some of the center's radar sites so there can be some variance).

Some of the long flights really get messed up (guess a digit in the longitude gets transposed or something) such as this:

http://i17.tinypic.com/6cs13l5.jpg

and then this is one of my favorites:

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/161/383843126_b82c85a127.jpg

 

[DaveNF2G]

That second jpeg looks like a test flight of a high performance aircraft.

I've seen a lot of errors in FlightAware's tracking, and a lot of missing flights.

[OT]
In another reality, it would be hilarious that a flight was diverted and evacuated because of someone praying, which happened yesterday. I guess being afraid to fly and appealing to your God for comfort are now among the Things That May Not Be Done on a commercial flight. I wonder if a First Amendment lawsuit will emerge from this one...
[/OT]

 

[blantonl]

I'll tell you what Dave, if some guy pulled out two black boxes and strapped them to himself and started praying on the airplane, I'd freak out and probably begin the process to kick his ass.

I think it is safe to say that 99% of Americans don't have any clue what a tefillin is - so, probably a little common sense is in order when you want to execute your "higher level" duties on an airplane.

 

[rmiller818]

That second jpeg looks like a test flight of a high performance aircraft.

It was a Gulfstream V test flight, thought it was creative.

The Cessna guys did the same thing:

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2332/2319641761_ed6c3969c5.jpg

 

[DaveNF2G]

Here's a beauty from yesterday:

View attachment 26943

 

[Jay911]

Here's a beauty from yesterday:

View attachment 26943

Someone on the plane must have said "Pardon me boys.. is that the Chattanooga Choo-Choo?" and they quickly went to check!

 

[crayon]

Here's a beauty from yesterday:

Adds new meaning to 'great circle navigation'.

 

[freqhopping]

This one always making interesting tracks.

 

[DaveIN]

NASA test flight. NASA - B-57 Still Going Strong at 59

 

[DaveIN]

Yep, just an error with the data. Keep in mind flight aware is receiving the information usually from several sites (say a TRACON radar and some of the center's radar sites so there can be some variance).

and then this is one of my favorites:

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/161/383843126_b82c85a127.jpg

I don't believe that was an error. If you look at the take off and land destination, it appears to be someone with lot's of money trying to monogram the mid-west airspace in their private jet with the initials "GJV".

 

[DaveIN]

Can someone advise regarding this air track?

I caught this Continental 757 on approach to Houston on my Airnav Radar box, and out of no where he just dived from 37,000 feet and disappeared from range.

I went ahead and pulled his track from Flightaware, and this was it... is this some kind of holding pattern or slowing process to get this aircraft lined up in the pattern properly? It seems like this would have been quite a wild ride on this flight.

Any ideas on what actually took place here?

Sill looking for WMD's perhaps? AirNav: KIAH - George Bush Intercontinental/Houston Airport :twisted:

 

[MtnBiker2005]

Here is the GV Test Flight threads.
http://discussions.flightaware.com/viewtopic.php?t=2939
http://discussions.flightaware.com/viewtopic.php?t=9669
http://www.airliners.net/aviation-forums/general_aviation/read.main/3244359/

The "GV" flight info.
http://flightaware.com/live/flight/GLF17/history/20070206/1538Z/KATW/KATW

This flight did a "Airplane Outline Drawing".
http://flightaware.com/live/flight/N750CX/history/20080307/1745Z/KICT/KICT

This flight covered much of the United States from 1 airport!
http://flightaware.com/live/flight/GLF32/history/20091021/1300Z/KATW/KATW

 

[blantonl]

Nice, those look like the bend-a-roos my daughter got for Christmas

 

[rmiller818]

I don't believe that was an error. If you look at the take off and land destination, it appears to be someone with lot's of money trying to monogram the mid-west airspace in their private jet with the initials "GJV".

I didn't say it was an error, as I stated in my other reply it was a Gulfstream V on a test flight. Same with the second one I posted, it is not just an airplane outline it is Cessna's logo.

Just thought it creative to see.