Creator here. I posted Flight-Viz a few days ago (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47603966) and the feedback was great. Since then I added a cockpit mode that follows any liveflight with real 3D terrain.
How to try it: go to flight-viz.com, click any plane, then click "Cockpit" in the action buttons. You'll get a first-person view wit h real buildings, terrain, atmosphere, and a HUD showing altitude/speed/heading — all driven by live ADS-B data.
Can you make it so "exit cockpit" navigates to a route rather than execute a back on the browser, as it takes me back to the hacker news page when I push it.
Also took me about 5 minutes to find the cockpit view button after I'd selected a flight but that might be a me problem :)
This is so cool. But on iOS, clicking the plane flashes the mini modal/popup but the it immediately disappears. There no way, on touch, to keep it open long enough to click a cockpit view button, assuming there is one.
I was able to do it on my iPhone. 1) Click on a plane on the map. 2) Click on "menu" at the bottom. 3) Scroll down to the bottom of info window and click on "cockpit."
It's really cool. I'm a little unsure if the website is overloaded or my browser is not rendering it properly. If I zoom in on an area and try to click on a plane in flight, sometimes I can select a plane, but sometimes I can't. Even for a plane that I was able to select a few seconds before, if I click away and try to click again, it won't select.
I just added smaller airport. (for now I turned off airport overlay as default since it get a little clutterd but you can turn it on. or you can search the airport code in search bar)
Before browsers were up to this, I implemented something related, using Google Earth Plugin.
You could load up the flight data recorder data (which contains more parameters than ADS-B), and watch 3rd-person view animation of a 3D model of that aircraft's movements as it flies over terrain. With instruments, plus visual annotations of flight path over terrain.
One kludge I was proud/relieved to find: At the start of the flight, there's a zoom in to the aircraft on the ground, from the Earth view, and then a particular dance of the camera around the aircraft itself. The purpose wasn't to try to look cool at the time, but to make sure that the plugin would render the aircraft model at all, before we started to change the position or orientation of the model. (The plugin was overly aggressive about deciding some annotations weren't in the scene. Once this camera dance ritual forced the plane into the scene, it stayed in the scene, even as it moved and twisted, and as the camera moved with it.)
I saw Balint Seeber demo this at Dorkbot in Sydney, which must have been in the early 2000s, definitely before he left Sydney in about 2010.
He was using live ADS-B data from an SDR, because this was way before global ADS-B websites and APIs existed.
(I wonder what he's up to these day, he was a fascinating person and presenter, and used to be a prolific blogger on interesting subjects. I also wonder what Pia van Gelder who used to run Dorkbot Sydney is up to?)
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Pretty cool. IDK if it's international connectivity issue or rendering, but I'm looking at this from Auckland and cities are just so slow to render - there's so much aliasing(?) artifacts.
Also we overshot runway, then went back albeit lower and then overshot again - I suspect there's connectivity issue (or HN hug). Also data really well delayed compared to adsbexchange.
Also - maybe add a button to take you to a Random Cockpit view (perhaps one with most live viewers (and add a chat there)).
Also cockpit noise would make me feel like I'm in xplane again lol. Also wonder if macOS PIP can be implemented for now video feeds.
I remember Flight Radar 64 seems to have a 3D model feature.
Technically it doesn't seem difficult: you just need the corresponding aircraft model, a 3D map with satellite imagery like Google Earth as the base, and then feed in the transponder data. It's a bit like an online game.
This is super cool! The cockpit view is the best feature. But I had trouble finding it again after picking a different plane. Maybe a dedicated button for that on the map?
I'd love if it could tell when a plane is ascending or descending and then add the last known rate of change to the simulation. Then you could watch a plane land.
If you click on a city's name, you can see a list of all flights arriving and departing. Some of the arriving ones will be in flight, and you can click on the flight number to view it, then "Cockpit" view to see (roughly) what the pilots are seeing.
https://flight-viz.com/cockpit.html?lat=40.64&lon=-73.78&alt...
[1] https://www.thesr71blackbird.com/Aircraft/Stories/sr-71-blac...
How to try it: go to flight-viz.com, click any plane, then click "Cockpit" in the action buttons. You'll get a first-person view wit h real buildings, terrain, atmosphere, and a HUD showing altitude/speed/heading — all driven by live ADS-B data.
Hao
Also took me about 5 minutes to find the cockpit view button after I'd selected a flight but that might be a me problem :)
Same here. Should be more prominent for a brand new feature!
and i'd like metric measurement too
Also, is there by chance a way to do historical flights?
You could load up the flight data recorder data (which contains more parameters than ADS-B), and watch 3rd-person view animation of a 3D model of that aircraft's movements as it flies over terrain. With instruments, plus visual annotations of flight path over terrain.
One kludge I was proud/relieved to find: At the start of the flight, there's a zoom in to the aircraft on the ground, from the Earth view, and then a particular dance of the camera around the aircraft itself. The purpose wasn't to try to look cool at the time, but to make sure that the plugin would render the aircraft model at all, before we started to change the position or orientation of the model. (The plugin was overly aggressive about deciding some annotations weren't in the scene. Once this camera dance ritual forced the plane into the scene, it stayed in the scene, even as it moved and twisted, and as the camera moved with it.)
He was using live ADS-B data from an SDR, because this was way before global ADS-B websites and APIs existed.
(I wonder what he's up to these day, he was a fascinating person and presenter, and used to be a prolific blogger on interesting subjects. I also wonder what Pia van Gelder who used to run Dorkbot Sydney is up to?)
A bit of feedback: Clicking exit cockpit goes back to the previous page (in this case this HN thread).
Not sure if just me, but I really had to search hard for the actions under menu and the cockpit button.
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Also we overshot runway, then went back albeit lower and then overshot again - I suspect there's connectivity issue (or HN hug). Also data really well delayed compared to adsbexchange.
Also - maybe add a button to take you to a Random Cockpit view (perhaps one with most live viewers (and add a chat there)).
Also cockpit noise would make me feel like I'm in xplane again lol. Also wonder if macOS PIP can be implemented for now video feeds.
Love it.
Current post is by someone else
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47694065
I mean, it's cool, it's just not quite what I expected from "cockpit mode".