As a kid I used to look up to the sky and watch jets passing and wondering where they were going. For some time now, technology has provided that answer in the palm of our hand: Flightradar24.
It's available on the web and also as cell phone apps. I use the Android version.
This morning I saw a very high jet coming towards me from the east and I could see that it was passing south of me. It was just a dot in the distance but I pulled up the app and found that it was flying at nearly 34,000 feet. It was an American Airlines Airbus traveling from Philadelphia to Phoenix. How I'd have loved the kind of information when I was a kid.
And who would have thought it would ever be available to the man on the street?
This is a zoomed shot as the plane just passed me to the south. It was so high I could barely see it and I couldn't hear it at all.
Flying 530 mph, it was soon disappearing to my west.
I thought: here I am walking among farmer's field, part of the dark shadows passengers would see if they looked in my direction. The sun was barely risen (and behind a cloud). And yet I could see them heading to the warm Southwest while I exercised amid nearly freezing temperatures.
It's nice that I can be a virtual part of the travels ... and they mine.
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