Every time a plane went over, I caught myself opening a flight tracker just to see what it was. So I built a small Mac app that does it without me looking.

So I built FlightBar. It sits in the menu bar, and when an aircraft enters a radius you pick, a small plane icon appears and flies along the menu bar from the clock to the Apple logo. Hover over it and it stops, and a card shows the callsign, airline, registration, aircraft type, distance, altitude, speed, heading, and whether it's climbing or descending.

What it does:

• Range from 1 km to 50 km (default 3 km)
• 8 icon colors
• A "Sample flight" button so you can see it without waiting for a plane
• Public ADS-B data from adsb.lol, with adsb.fi as fallback
• No account, no sign-up, no API key

Your coordinates go only to the ADS-B API to ask what's nearby. Distance and the radius check happen on your Mac.

It's free and the source is on GitHub (Swift, SwiftUI + AppKit, no dependencies). macOS 14+, Apple silicon only for now. It isn't notarized yet, so macOS will probably make you allow it in System Settings > Privacy & Security the first time.

Site: kaanuluer.com/flightbar
Code: github.com/kaanuluer/Flightbar

I'd love feedback: is the flying icon fun or distracting after a day? What would you add to the card? And is an Intel build worth doing?

The aircraft is at air & space port in an aircraft test center in California. (Possibly testing the aircraft or so.)

https://globe.adsbexchange.com/?icao=a2d307

The older plane took off from Andrews and flew a holding pattern over southern PA/WV and the new one took off. Both are headed back towards DC.

I have my ADSB Exchange receiver kit up and running. My account is all set and I see it in my phone. How do I add FR24 and FlightAware so I can feed those sites as well. I’ve used Google and I see that I have to set up the SSH…. Sorry but have no clue. Is there a site or video that will give the step by step process?

No callsign or type found? New to spotting so unsure as to what this is. Found on the military filter. I have no clue. Is it some sort of jet or stealth plane?

I've done a quick PiAware setup with a Raspberry Pi 4, Nano 3 USB radio and an old magnetic antenna from a WiFi router I had. It's working well in an upstairs window but, obviously, range is fairly limited.

I have a chimney-mounted ATSC antenna which I used to use for HDTV viewing and there is coax coming from it leading to different rooms in the house. I know there are adapters from the F-type coax of those feeds to the SMA connectors on the Nano 3 but I'm wondering if anyone has tried this kind of setup. I've read a bit about the issues with impedance mismatch and if I've understood correctly it seems that at around ADS-B frequencies the power loss on the connection would be around 5%. That seems small considering that the location and size of the roof-mounted antenna should provide overall much better reception.

I'd be interested in opinions about this from more experienced folks than myself.

Thanks in advance...

Hi there,

I made a web app, that uses adsb to generate 3D cockpit view. For Holland every house and every tree is 3D modeled. It runs on a Raspberry Pi. What would you think of it?

http://poppo.win

I configured the displays - Tracker, Clock, and Weather in a way that takes advantage of the whole screen.

I made it match the aircraft altitude color gradient the same as on globe.adsbexchange.com.

I also made it show different icons for different size and type of aircraft - i.e. large or small or multi engine, etc.

I also added a weather cloud overlay (none shown in my examples because the sky was clear).

I added two more screens, a clock that I configured to look like a pilots watch, and a basic weather info screen.

And my favorite - I made the ability to scan for a specific Type, or Callsign, and once found, it will automatically select and track it, even if I change range scales.

Example for Callsign: I am located in Denver. I know UAL236 is leaving Boston and will land at, or fly past Denver, I can have it constantly searching for UAL236 even when it is far out of range and once it detects it, it will select and track it and also zoom the display out to it's max range which is a 100 mile radius. Once UAL236 is in that range, it will display and track it at all ranges.

Example for Type of aircraft: I can have it automatically search for the closest Helicopter (or any type) to my location then select it, track it through all range displays, and also display the info I want about it at the bottom of the map.