Name:FlyteComm - Real Time Flight Tracking
Brief Description of the Site:
Meeting someone at the airport, or planning to take a flight out for the holidays? Calls to the airline (usually recorded) state that the flight is on time, but it is? Waiting for Uncle Joe and Aunt Mary to arrive and need to allow enough time to drive to meet them? How can you tell when the plane will actually arrive? This site allows you to type in the flight information and track the flight, seeing how much flight time remains, departure time, and the estimated time of arrival (pretty accurate). Perhaps you know the airline, departure city, but not the exact time of departure. Arrival time can still be determined avoiding unnecessary waiting and allowing for accurate planning.
How to use the site:
Enter all or some of the information available to determine flight arrival time or departure. Most accurate information will be available once a plane is in flight. Then any delays will be reflected as the site updates every minute. In order to see that update, hit the Refresh icon on the tool bar. A message will come up that the information has expired which is correct. You no longer want the old information, but the new update. The message asks if the system should "Retry". Click yes, and the update of arrival time (or departure in many cases) comes up.
It's important to realize that planes that are still on the ground may not have the most accurate departure information as delays can more easily occur. Once a plane is airborne tracking is accurate for arrival.
This is just one more example of how online information affects daily life, underscoring the need for students to learn new ways of accessing information.
It can also be an interesting way to determine what airports are experiencing delays by keying in various airlines with arrivals in a particular airport. (Airlines like to boast an "on time" record, and it might be of interest to prospective traveling students to conduct a search to confirm those claims.
Submitted by:
Neme Alperstein
