Greek plane spotters

[KALHAS]

Is anyone from Greece active this period near Araxos airport?

[DanTheMan]

Hi Kalhas,
Is planespotting at civilian airports tolerated in Greece?

[KALHAS]

Yes it is legal if i understood your question
There is not something specific as far as i know for planespotting civilian aircrafts on the contrary i beleive that there is a gup in the law.

[Anmer]

A lot of Greek airports have joint operations with civil and military aircraft and that becomes an issue for "spotters".

[cretanrunner]

If Kalhas is still watching this thread, say hello.

I am in Crete, but would like to make contact with others interested in plane tracking.

Andrew

[KALHAS]

GREEK PLANE SPOTTERS

If Kalhas is still watching this thread, say hello.

I am in Crete, but would like to make contact with others interested in plane tracking.

Andrew

HELLOO Andrew i am far away from the most beautiful mediterannean island Crete i was working there three years ago .Great times!. Now my location is in NE Peloponisos and i think that i am '' the only skywacther '' I am an owner of an ANBOX .Feeding as LGAD1.

[cretanrunner]

Hello Kalhas

Nice to hear from someone else in Greece who is interested in aviation! I have not yet bought a receiver, but plan to do so at some point. I have a question for you. I posted this as a new thread but did not get any sensible answers and my threasd was deleted. Must have upset somebody.

The question is this: Why do planes disappear from FR24 when they approach Athens? I notice this happens all the time. Can be heading in to Athens or overflying. As soon as they get about 50/75 km from Athens they are lost. Then if they are overflying they re-appear on the other side.

The admins all tell me it is because there are no receivers in the Athens area. Can this really be true? In an area of maybe 4 or 5 million inhabitants, not one has a receiver set up?

Can you tell me what is your opinion?

Cheers

Andrew

PS My "patriko" is near Kalavrita in the Peloponnese.

[speedbird1960]

Hi Ron.

I did post a answer to this question but i can't find it.

Athens is surrounded by mountains on all three sides and the remaining side is facing the sea, so unless someone sets up a Receiver near Athens i doubt we will see cover near the Airport.

As you are about 200 miles from Athens your location would help improve coverage if you had a Receiver, provided you have not got any mountains near you in the direction of Athens. (Its possible if you are on high ground that you could see aircraft as low as 20000 ft.)

Mike / Speedbird

[cretanrunner]

Speedbird

Getting a bit confusing, as I cannot see any post from "Ron". But anyway, what you say makes some sense, but the bowl enclosed by the mountains is only a part of the Athens metropolitan area. There is a hell of a lot outside the bowl too. A lot of towns close to Athens too, that are well within range. It just seems funny to me. Have you watched to see the behaviour of the plane icons? Does it make any sense where they appear and disappear based on your knowlwdge of what receivers are in operation?

Kalhas

How close to Athens are you? Would your receiver not cover the Athens area?

Andrew

[Oblivian]

I've not kept an eye on the area since I am on the other side of the world, but you are aware the signal is line of sight right? Not radio and therefore not building penetrating. If there is a large tree in the way in the direction of the antenna, or some shrubs, or a building.. everything behind it will be hidden.

Even if it is 'patchy' or weak, FR24 will only acknowledge data that has a constant stream for more than 4 seconds, so if it is patchy or weak over there it will not upload anything and appear to be 'a dead spot' also.

And of course the receivers are not situated AT the airports, but users homes nearby. So can be up to 200nm away from the actual airport itself and not specifically cover over it.

[cretanrunner]

Oblivian, thanks for that. Yes, I understand the line of sight thing, but I'm not querying an individual receiver, if you see what I mean. It's the fact that with so much air traffic in and out of Athens, and so many inhabitants in a 100 km radius, not a single plane gets tracked. Just seems strange.

Plus, to return to Speedbird's point, even if you had a receiver in the centre of the Athens bowl, the bowl is so wide that the receiver would still "see" over the mountains to quite a long way outside the bowl. The mountains are not that high.

Andrew

[eghhpeter]

Where r u ? I'm also on Crete since 2006 and near Souda

[eghhpeter]

Any spotters on Crete, Greece as miss the chats etc. ?