Giddierone
Senior Member.
Can you remind me of the explainer video that explains how to grab flight tracking data to put into Sitrec?
Feature Request Sitrec: Need Explainer for How to get ADS-B Flight Data into Sitrec
- Thread starter Giddierone
- Start date
Hmm, I don't think there is a good one that I can recall. I need to make one.
jarlrmai
Senior Member.
The easiest way to use Sitrec for ADSB is to start with the chatbot
https://www.chatbase.co/chatbot-iframe/jm08ypN4zneL5S7wU2QOD
Enter the date/time/location in there and it does time-zone conversion to UTC (air travel industry works in UTC) for you (it's AI so double check the conversion if it seems off, usually it's bang on though)
You'll get some links, one for ADSB Exchange and one for Sitrec (as well as FR24 and Google Maps)
Click on the ADSB Exchange link and it will take you to the place/time you entered in the chatbot, find the plane you want (sometimes harder than you might think given the amount of air traffic etc)
There is filtering on the right if you know say the flight number, or even the airline (and the associated flight number code) or by altitude and know it was a low aircraft like a helicopter, you get to learn the ways to find the aircraft you are after.
Then select the plane by clicking on it's icon, you'll see the plane information panel come up on the left, scroll to the bottom of that pane by hovering over the pane and using your mouse wheel (or equivalent on your touch pad)
Then play forward a bit past the end of the video/sighting time to give some head room (so you don't have to re-download it if a longer video comes out etc) playing the data forward also allows better loading of plane data and headings etc so it's worth doing.
On the plane panel down the bottom you'll see the Export KML buttons
Click the top one, your browser will download the KML file
Then open the Sitrec link in a new tab and drag in the KML file you downloaded, because the Sitrec link and the ADBS link are from the same location and time you should see the plane pretty much straight away, but turning on the labels helps as does setting the plane as the camera target and switching the camera to point at the target.
Hope this helps
(It gets more complicated with multiple plane extraction and especially if it's a long video like a time-lapse where multiple planes might come and go in the period filmed)
https://www.chatbase.co/chatbot-iframe/jm08ypN4zneL5S7wU2QOD
Enter the date/time/location in there and it does time-zone conversion to UTC (air travel industry works in UTC) for you (it's AI so double check the conversion if it seems off, usually it's bang on though)
You'll get some links, one for ADSB Exchange and one for Sitrec (as well as FR24 and Google Maps)
Click on the ADSB Exchange link and it will take you to the place/time you entered in the chatbot, find the plane you want (sometimes harder than you might think given the amount of air traffic etc)
There is filtering on the right if you know say the flight number, or even the airline (and the associated flight number code) or by altitude and know it was a low aircraft like a helicopter, you get to learn the ways to find the aircraft you are after.
Then select the plane by clicking on it's icon, you'll see the plane information panel come up on the left, scroll to the bottom of that pane by hovering over the pane and using your mouse wheel (or equivalent on your touch pad)
Then play forward a bit past the end of the video/sighting time to give some head room (so you don't have to re-download it if a longer video comes out etc) playing the data forward also allows better loading of plane data and headings etc so it's worth doing.
On the plane panel down the bottom you'll see the Export KML buttons
Click the top one, your browser will download the KML file
Then open the Sitrec link in a new tab and drag in the KML file you downloaded, because the Sitrec link and the ADBS link are from the same location and time you should see the plane pretty much straight away, but turning on the labels helps as does setting the plane as the camera target and switching the camera to point at the target.
Hope this helps
(It gets more complicated with multiple plane extraction and especially if it's a long video like a time-lapse where multiple planes might come and go in the period filmed)
Minor point, the first link is the most accurate (GPS altitude), but sometimes not available, and you just get an empty file. The second one attempts to calculate the first one using magic and is generally the best bet. The third link (altitude derived from air pressure) is always available, but is often about 100 feet off, sometimes much more.
EGM 96 is the name of the geoid used, i.e. the shape of the Earth's sea level reference point, a bumpy ellipsoid. (Or, more simply, it's what tells you where the local "sea level" actually is in 3D space) Sitrec uses this now. All three altitudes are relative to this
tl/dr - Use the middle one, which I now designate "baro+" for future conversations.
Giddierone
Senior Member.
Thanks @jarlrmai that all seems to work. However, i'm having difficulty with which two planes made this X shape above Venus. #804
I'd thought 400896 and 4CA76A looked right from the overhead in ADSB exchange, but when looking 280 degrees they don't line up with Venus...
Not quite sure what I'm doing wrong. [Edit the plane travelling bottom left of top right was visible].
https://www.metabunk.org/sitrec/?si...26-04-06T20:42:00Z&latlon=53.467792,-2.048404
I'd thought 400896 and 4CA76A looked right from the overhead in ADSB exchange, but when looking 280 degrees they don't line up with Venus...
Not quite sure what I'm doing wrong. [Edit the plane travelling bottom left of top right was visible].
https://www.metabunk.org/sitrec/?si...26-04-06T20:42:00Z&latlon=53.467792,-2.048404
Last edited:
https://www.metabunk.org/sitrec/?custom=1/Gidd Cross with Wind/20260412_175020.js
The time was displayed as 20:42 GMT, but it's actually BST (based on where Venus is), Then there are two planes that you can get the contrails (white) to line up with the wind, even though the tracks themselves (green and blue) do not line up with venus.
Attachments
To the subject ot this thread, I used Help/ADSB Replay for this time and Location. But this is particularly challenging, as we have contrails, but not planes. The contrails are only forming in particular region/altitude of the sky. So basically I picked all the planes that were flying away from the contrail region. (Click "M" in ADSBx to select multiple planes). Then exported them (all one file), and dragged them into sitrec. The two that crossed seemed obvious, but did not line up. I turned on their contrails and fiddled a bit with the wind.
This is not 100% as we dont' know exactly what the wind was. But it seems likely.
This is not 100% as we dont' know exactly what the wind was. But it seems likely.
Giddierone
Senior Member.
Thanks!
Also, wish i'd known this earlier instead of toggling between two planes and trying to remember where their paths crossed.
Also, wish i'd known this earlier instead of toggling between two planes and trying to remember where their paths crossed.
