nobbi wrote:
You have to click on the aircraft symbol to show the registration on the L/H side of the screen … at least my PC based FR24 does that reliably …e.g.
Not mine
Neil, that seems to be a unique feature if you choose C25A as a/c type. I just tried it with the same result you have – no registration.
Peter wrote:
https://www.autorouter.eu/track/66619eOJ mode s only
The autorouter flight tracking is not Mode S only. OTOH it depends on what each country will send. I discovered last year that Estonia doesn’t send any radar positions.
I was referring to FR24.
This is my FR24 track from today. The FR24 URL is here but that will work for only another week. They delete GA tracks after one week.
My point was that I deffo don’t have ADS-B 
Achim’s router (the EuroGA autorouter) is a totally different thing. That gets it from the Eurocontrol radar network.
Sorry if I mixed them up.
For how FR24 works, we have a thread called How does FR24 work
Can the thread go back on topic?
Peter wrote:
Can the thread go back on topic?
It can have several reasons, e.g.
Ok, to get back on topic.
As europaxs just wrote, many reasons.
I’ve just had a 2 months groundtime (admitedly I did not really force it, as it does put my annual check out of the “deadly” January/February wx) due to a problem with parts. We needed fuel caps, fillers and new aileron rods. It was all of February to organize the parts via a very reputable Mooney shop at a price we were willing to pay. (In case any other Mooney Pilots run into problems, Don Maxwell is the man.) Admittedly, that is the first time we ran into such an unplanned maintenance snag (both filler necks leaked and had to be replaced and while we were at it, we did the aileron rods as well, as they were beginning to show some wear and tear. After 50 years, not a bad track record I’d reckon).
For myself, I found the biggest reason I can not fly as much as I like the combination of a fixed schedule plus weather. In other words, I did my mission determination wrong when I bought the plane, as do many.
Also, I have found my preferred routes to the South to have a much too low dispatch reliability to be of any use, therefore I use the scheduled services for that. For now, I only plan and fly north of the Alps and do crossings only ad-hoc and for day trips. Realistically, that gives me a VFR dispatch reliability of about 70%, whereas Alpine crossings have around 30-40%.
I do think that many people with non-turbocharged-non FIKI planes will find after a while that they can not really do the missions they thought they could, particularly if alpine crossings are involved. Realistically, those need a turbo-twin to be realistically possible with a reliable dispatch rate.
The other bit a lot of people kid themselfs is the time they really have. In today’s world, where work rules your life and the workplace will take precedence over every other activity, people who are in an employee status can not realistically use GA as a means of transport due to fixed schedules and due to time restraints.
I find that for myself, I was massively wrong in all those aspects when I took up flying again and decided I warrant another airplane. However, as the airplane is flying more than enough and does serve me well on the few occasions I can make time to use it myself, I will keep going for now and hope I can stay active till I get retired. That will be a huge game changer.
Peter wrote:
A lot of people just pack it in for 6 months over the winter. God knows what that does to the engine.
It often can’t be helped. We just went 3 months without a single flight because it started doing horizontal rain in October and basically didn’t stop until the end of Feb. Even if the weather’s good, it’s only good on a weekday and with it being functionally dark at 3.30pm in mid-winter, there’s no after hours flying.
alioth I have managed only a few hours over the winter in the Super Cub – despite the drum brakes becoming somewhat more effective (a different engineer tweaked them), with age I self enforce more rigidly my rule of not flying if surface winds are expected to go above 20 knots. Strong winds have kept me under my required dose of tailwheel flying.
I know this is easier said than done, but I wonder if people should sometimes take a day off work (even if it is a holiday day) and go for a flight.
I can fly on weekdays (in general) and I managed to get up once a week, for a quick 1hr local, even during this atrocious 2015/2016 winter. And most of the flights were doable VFR; if I am just doing a local I am not going to take any chance on not getting back in, because all the options range from big hassle (Biggin Hill) to huge hassle (anywhere else).
So it can be done.
I am wondering whether some people set too high a threshold on getting out and getting up there? For example I know pilots who never do little local flights. In that situation you could go for months without flying. It’s likely to trash the engine, via rust…
RobertL18C wrote:
I self enforce more rigidly my rule of not flying if surface winds are expected to go above 20 knots. Strong winds have kept me under my required dose of tailwheel flying.
You’d have to start final at the upwind end of the runway with that much wind wouldn’t you?
