Brian's Blog - Or Carlsbad's Missing Villager

[Anmer]

Another constructive post by Brian, Carlsbad's missing villager.

After speaking with Santa, we've confirmed that his sleigh is ADS-B equipped. Look for him tomorrow on Flightradar24.
When the sleigh's transponder is powered on at his workshop he'll be trackable until the last presents have been delivered.

Santa has powered up the sleigh and is loading the presents before setting off.
Track him live as he makes his way around the world later today.

Santa now live on FR24 loading up the sleigh and feeding  his reindeer.

Callsign/FlightID: SANTA
http://www.flightradar24.com/santa

https://www.facebook.com/flightradar24/posts/997730363599720
https://www.facebook.com/flightradar24/posts/997595970279826
https://twitter.com/flightradar24/status/679816460483559424

[Anmer]

Another constructive post by Brian, Carlsbad's missing villager.

Changes to ADS-B aircraft stats starting 18 December

From Dec 18, the way in which ADS-B aircraft are counted by the stats system was changed.
The aircraft counts before the 18th are not comparable to the aircraft counts after the 18th.

If you see a change in your ADS-B aircraft counts starting from the 18th, this is normal. The data that you're feeding to FlightAware has not changed and is still being used in the same way. This is only a change to the stats system, to produce counts that are consistent with multilateration aircraft counts, and to fix the "total" value which was not reliably counting aircraft.

Stats shown for the 19th-21st are, at the time of writing, a mix of the old system and the new system. They are being reprocessed now under the new system. This should be complete within about the next 24 hours. Once that is done, everything since the 18th should be on the new system.

https://discussions.flightaware.com/ads-b-flight-tracking-f21/changes-to-ads-b-aircraft-stats-starting-18-december-t36499.html

[Anmer]

Another constructive post by Brian, Carlsbad's missing villager.

Lookout Australia. Santa is inbound to you! https://planefinder.net/flight/SANTA2015



https://twitter.com/planefinder/status/680013643614973952

Look at who we just spotted. It's almost time for bed kids!



https://twitter.com/VirginAustralia/status/679920707174666241

Wow that was close - Santa just got buzzed by an Antonov An-148.



https://twitter.com/Gi88syk/status/680070835621752834

[Anmer]

Another constructive post by Brian, Carlsbad's missing villager.

Santa is overhead Hawaii



https://twitter.com/usafmonitor/status/680318618190655488

Santa and his "elves" are making good progress over the US. Merry Christmas everyone from the planefinder team!



https://twitter.com/planefinder/status/680271230503665664

[Anmer]

Another constructive post by Brian, Carlsbad's missing villager.

Posted here three hours earlier!

Planes in near-miss at Dublin Airport after air traffic control mix-up

Departing and arriving aircraft came within 800 metres of colliding at Dublin Airport, an air accident investigation report has said.

http://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world/planes-in-near-miss-at-dublin-airport-after-air-traffic-control-mix-up/ar-BBnVIam

[Anmer]

Another constructive post by Brian, Carlsbad's missing villager.

Honda Aircraft Begins HondaJet Deliveries

Honda Aircraft Company today made the first delivery of its recently-certified HondaJet. The delivery to an undisclosed customer was made at the company's Greensboro, N.C., headquarters, where the light jet is manufactured.

http://www.ainonline.com/aviation-news/business-aviation/2015-12-23/honda-aircraft-begins-hondajet-deliveries

http://corporatejetinvestor.com/articles/honda-delivery-first-hondajet-213/

[Anmer]

Another constructive post by Brian, Carlsbad's missing villager.

Unboxing the new KLM Boeing 787 Dreamliner

The biggest unboxing video you've ever seen

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N2MUsayyAgU

https://787dreamliner.klm.com/en_gb/home

On 23 November 2015 we welcomed the newest member of our fleet, the Boeing 787 Dreamliner. One of the most advanced airplanes of its time, which offers by default top-level quality and comfort.

Nonetheless, KLM wanted to take an extra step to offer its passengers an even more exceptional flight experience.

We have therefore added some extra features on top of the already amazing features of the Boeing 787 Dreamliner.

This will allow passengers to be more relaxed and fit when they arrive at their destination.

The Boeing 787 Dreamliner will fly to Abu Dhabi five times a week, with final destination Bahrain.

[Anmer]

Another constructive post by Brian, Carlsbad's missing villager.

The FAA said on Tuesday 45,000 drones were registered in the first day of the online registry

As many as 400,000 drones are expected to be given as Christmas gifts on Friday

http://www.avweb.com/avwebflash/news/FAA-45000-Drones-Now-Registered-225425-1.html

[Anmer]

Another constructive post by Brian, Carlsbad's missing villager.

Malaysia Airlines plane 'flies in the wrong direction' from New Zealand to Kuala Lumpur on Christmas Day
There were no safety issues with MH132's flight path but air traffic controllers are investigating

An investigation has been launched after a Malaysian Airlines plane appeared to fly in the wrong direction after taking off from New Zealand on Christmas Day.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/australasia/malaysia-airlines-plane-flies-in-the-wrong-direction-from-new-zealand-to-kuala-lumpur-on-christmas-a6787201.html

[Anmer]

Another constructive post by Brian, Carlsbad's missing villager.

Version 2.3.0 has been released, adds support for online aircraft detail lookups -
December 28, 2015
http://forum.virtualradarserver.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=927
https://twitter.com/VRadarServer/status/681509713599660032

Main Changes
Fixed - Aircraft list JSON feeds would sometimes set latitude or longitude to zero
Fixed - Spurious "to"s were being inserted into the audio callouts under W8 / W10
Fixed - Could not select the Portuguese (Brazilian) language under Mono
Fixed - Numeric filter fields could not be cleared
Fixed - Performance issues with opening the Options screen
Added - Support for online lookup of aircraft details, courtesy of PlaneBaseNG
Added - Support for updating web site translations via the Language Pack

Bugs in 2.3.0
All of the JavaScript was ported to TypeScript, wouldn't surprise me if there was a problem lurking in there - let me know here if you find anything
http://forum.virtualradarserver.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=926

Download
http://www.virtualradarserver.co.uk/Download.aspx

The full list of changes can be found on the tracker.
https://trello.com/b/bSMJm8I8/virtual-radar-server-releases

Previous versions can be downloaded from the Version History page.
http://www.virtualradarserver.co.uk/VersionHistory.aspx

[Anmer]

Another constructive post by Brian, Carlsbad's missing villager.

The reports that Virtual Radar Server shows you are all coming from your BaseStation.sqb database file. If you do not have a BaseStation.sqb file (by default you won't) then you need to:

1. Make sure you are running version 2.3 or better of Virtual Radar Server.
2. Download and install the Database Writer Plugin.
3. Run VRS and go to Tools | Options.
4. Ensure that Lookup aircraft details online is ticked in the Data Sources screen.
5. Go to Tools | Plugins.
6. Click Options against the entry for Database Writer.
7. Ensure that Enabled is ticked.
8. Select the receiver that you want to be able to report on.
9. Enter a filename (you can click the Use default file name link to generate one for you).
10. Tick the box for Save online lookups in database.
11. If you do not intend to edit the database entries manually then you may also want to tick Overwrite details on existing aircraft so that the aircraft details are kept up to date.
12. Click Create Database to create your BaseStation.sqb file.
13. Click OK.

The plugin should then start writing the details for aircraft and flights picked up by your receiver, and those details should appear on the reports.

Note that the writer won't close a flight session until roughly 25 minutes after the last signal is received from an aircraft. Until then the flight will have minimal details in the report.

http://forum.virtualradarserver.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=928

[Anmer]

Another constructive post by Brian, Carlsbad's missing villager.

Operator Flags and Model Silhouettes

The Virtual Radar Server installer does not install operator flags or model silhouette images. The first step in getting these working for your installation is to download a set of flags and silhouettes and unzip them onto your machine.

You can download silhouettes and operator flags from Kinetic's website here: http://www.kinetic.co.uk/resourcesdownloads.php

The Silhouettes Logos file contains the model silhouettes, there's only one of those. You have a choice of different operator flags, they're the files Operator Logos Version 1 through Version 4. To get things going just pick version 1, you can experiment with the others later and pick one you like.

Unzip the two files into separate folders. Remember where you unzipped them.

In Virtual Radar Server go to Tools | Options.

In the Data Sources section enter the full path to the folder where you unzipped Silhouettes Logos into Silhouettes folder, and the full path to the folder where you unzipped Operator Logos Version 1 into Flags folder.

If you do not have a BaseStation.sqb configured then ensure that you have Lookup aircraft details online ticked.

Click OK. If everything worked then you should start seeing silhouettes and operator flags on the web site.

http://forum.virtualradarserver.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=929

[Anmer]

Another constructive post by Brian, Carlsbad's missing villager.

Private Jets Tagged With Graffiti at LA Airport

Vandals who broke into Van Nuys Airport on Sunday night covered three different multi-million-dollar corporate jets with graffiti -- the second such incident at the Los Angeles area airfield in the past two years.

The jets were tagged on their fuselages, tail wings and wheel flaps with "URA" and a large "872." Other smaller monikers sprayed in blue and black paint on the planes included "URAF," "MarkB" and "GLOK$."

http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/private-jets-tagged-graffiti-la-airport-n486941

[Anmer]

Another constructive post by Brian, Carlsbad's missing villager.

ANA RETURNS TO SYDNEY IN STYLE WITH THE R2-D2 STAR WARS DREAMLINER

All Nippon Airways (ANA) has returned to Sydney after a 16-year hiatus, operating their Boeing 787-9 Dreamliners from Tokyo's Haneda Airport. A stand-out from any other inaugural flight, the ANA Star Wars jet made its debut appearance in Australia's largest city to celebrate this special event, as well as the upcoming film. As an avid Star Wars fan, I was compelled to be present for the arrival of this work of art.
http://www.airlinereporter.com/2015/12/ana-starts-inaugural-sydney-service-star-wars-style/

[Anmer]

Another constructive post by Brian, Carlsbad's missing villager.

Two dead after lying in road to take selfie with plane in background

Tuesday 29 Dec 2015

Two teenagers have been killed after they laid down in the middle of a road to try and get a selfie with a plane in the background.
They were hit by a truck outside an airport in Turkey as the plane came in to land.
Muhammet Bozkurt, 17, and Caglar Savasci, 19, were with three other friends who had hired a car for a road trip from Alanya to Antalya, a coastal route in the south west of the country.

http://metro.co.uk/2015/12/29/two-dead-after-lying-in-road-to-take-selfie-with-plane-in-background-5589124/