Bay or City departures? Knowing which way they will fly?

[Robbie J]

Aircraft departures change throughout the day - 16L/34R or 16R/34L.

Before I get to the airport, how do I find out which way the aircraft will fly out - over Botany Bay or towards the city?

Is a 'scanner' required?

Thanks in advance.

[Radi K]

I could explain ways to check the Automatic Terminal Information Service which notes which runways are active but the easier way is to just check a free app flight FlightRadar24 (http://www.flightradar24.com/) or other flight tracking tools like https://globe.adsbexchange.com/

If you focus in on Sydney you will see right away which way aircraft are operating. North, South or even East/West sometimes.

[MarkR]

The weather forecast will be the major factor deciding the runways to be used. A “TTF METAR” is the best and most accurate guide and is normally accurate for three hours. So how do you work this out, simple google Metar yssy eg

https://en.allmetsat.com/metar-taf/australia-oceania.php?icao=YSSY

METAR: YSSY 180500Z 15009KT 9999 VCSH FEW012 SCT020 BKN070 20/16 Q1014

That indicates a southerly so it’s likely 16 will be in use. There is also a TAF which has a longer outlook, a TAF is a Terminal Area Forecast and currently that indicates the wind will swing to a west to nor westerly at around 10pm tonight which would see 34 in use.

http://www.bom.gov.au/aviation/data/education/ttf.pdf Has moreinfo

[Robbie J]

I could explain ways to check the Automatic Terminal Information Service which notes which runways are active but the easier way is to just check a free app flight FlightRadar24 (http://www.flightradar24.com/) or other flight tracking tools like https://globe.adsbexchange.com/

If you focus in on Sydney you will see right away which way aircraft are operating. North, South or even East/West sometimes.

Thanks. I have looked at it, but Flight Radar 24 is not a free App, making it hard to justify the cost for an 'occasional' spotter such as myself. Apart from that, it would have been a good service.

Globe.adsb looks okay and gives info in real-time.

Thanks again.

[Kent Broadhead]

Thanks. I have looked at it, but Flight Radar 24 is not a free App, making it hard to justify the cost for an 'occasional' spotter such as myself. Apart from that, it would have been a good service.

Globe.adsb looks okay and gives info in real-time.

Thanks again.

But you can see the type of information you're after without logging in to the website. And for a spotter, the $10 or $12 a year for a silver account is money well spent

[Robbie J]

But you can see the type of information you're after without logging in to the website. And for a spotter, the $10 or $12 a year for a silver account is money well spent

I got quoted $50, so I will double-check on prices. Thanks.

[Radi K]

The basic flightradar24 app should be free, with ads. Where are you seeing you have to pay for it?

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/flightradar24-flight-tracker/id382233851

[Kent Broadhead]

Silver is USD$14.99 a year. Was $9.99 when I first signed up, but I don't begrudge it given how much I've used it here and overseas. https://www.flightradar24.com/premium

[James Smith]

Robbie, the easiest and cheapest way is to get the SYD ATIS by ringing (02) 9556 6566 and listen to the runways in use, wind and other information provided by the automated service.

[MarkR]

It’s also online https://atis.apmarkham.com/

[James Smith]

Also Robbie, another way is to open Grahame Hutchison's excellent 16R ADSB site and under "Contents" click on "Live Status" which gives you a diagram of the SYD runways with the ones in use shown by a moving plane plus other data such as wind speed, direction etc. I use Grahame's Live Map for tracking inbound and outbound airborne aircraft up to 250nm from SYD and also while on the ground.

This link will take you directly to the status page: https://adsb.16right.com/status