Refining your Technique

by making the screen caps searchable

How?

1. Timestamp your caps.

2. Add Callsign and/or Registration (Tail) No. and/or Location tags

Timestamping

I use a tool called Shutter (for Linux) and start it in the Eastern Timezone so my caps' filenames will automatically be tagged with an EST/EDT timestamp.

Anons have to look up or select other tools if they use other operating systems. There are tons of these screencap utilities available.

Tag with Searchable Text

A further refinement is to add the callsign or registration # or location. Whatever you think might help find the cap you're looking for at some future date when the timestamp alone is no longer terribly meaningful. This is where planefagging can get rather tedious.

Some do these extras and some don't.

ALL planefagging is greatly appreciated!

Welcome aboard and thanks for going on duty!!!

• • Example tagged screencap pic related * *

• • Notice the filename: 2 Army Lakotas Leadville CO 2019-07-13-15:01:12-edt.png * *

Types of Aircraft and their Roles

Next, planefag learners will start learning the different types of military aircraft and their typical roles.

Which ones are used for pilot training?

Which ones are bombers, surveillance/reconaissance, command-and-control, cargo, multi-purpose, electronic warfare, rapid personnel movement, brass transport, drones, helicopters, etc.?

You can cut & paste the plane description from ADSB to a search engine and read up to learn moar.

Example: How does the Army typically use the Beech MC-12W Liberty?

Trainers are generally not notable ever.

Fighter and bomber aircraft (F-15E, F-16, F/A-18, A-10, B-1, B-2, etc.),

Reconnaissance aircraft (Predator, Global Hawk, RC-135, U-2)

Electronic warfare aircraft (EC-130s, EA-6Bs and F-16CJs)

Command and Control aircraft (E-3, E-8C, E-2C, etc)

Build your own comfy list as you begin to master the aircraft types, and begin to notice where they typically fly and when.

Strange Flight Paths

Sometimes the flight path does not match the type of aircraft.

• For example a helicopter will usually fly low and slow, and it can turn in tight circles that a fixed-wing aircraft can't. Sometimes an aircraft isn't labelled right on ADSB. I presume this is the fault of the pilot or maintenance or whoever configured/initialized the ADSB transponder.

You can look up the specifications on a helicopter and learn their maximum altitude; it varies by model, but choppers NEVER fly as high as an airplane.

• Other times the flight path appears strangely jagged. I am quite certain the plane did not actually fly a jagged course since that is physically impossible in conventional aviation. Rather, the transponder is transmitting data points that are inaccurate, and ADSBexchange software is connecting the dots. The result is what appears to be a jagged course. I am guessing that sometimes military aircraft deliberately add a random value to their position so they purposely do not report a precise accurate position, for Op Sec reasons.

If they don't want us to see them on ADSB, they can turn off their transponder. Flight controllers' radar will still pick up the plane's location, but civilians like us won't have the added info provided by ADSB digitally-coded replies to radar pings.

• Some of the high-flying aircraft will never give their true altitude. A military anon reported that some often fly far higher than 40,000 - 45,000 feet, but report their altitude as 40,000. So take altitude with a grain of salt. Did you notice that ADSB color-codes the aircraft trail according to altitude? Did you notice that altitude is also reported in the text fields on the right side?