Getting Started with Planefagging

Hints and tips all about planefagging to be put here.

Planefagging Tools

Useful Websites:

ADS-B Exchange - Flight Tracking, learn how to use the filters: adsbexchange.com

Tracking Military Aircraft: ads-b.nl

Radarbox - flight scanning: radarbox24.com

Flightaware - Very useful for flight histories and arrivals lists: flightaware.com

Set up Your Own Tracking for less than $100: flightaware.com/adsb/piaware/

Flightradar24 - Flight scanning: flightradar24.com

Global Incident Map - General: globalincidentmap.customs

Liveuamap: liveuamap.com

Military Maps: militarymaps.info

Global Incident Map - Aircraft incidents: aviation.globalincidentmap.com

FAA N-Number Inquiry - Can also search by serial, name, make/model, etc.: registry.faa.gov/aircraftinquiry/nnum_inquiry.aspx

Military CallSign List - Updated as of 30 September 2019: udxf.nl/MCL.pdf

Unusual Activity - info about military equipment, air displays, and general: shape.nato.int/nato-exercises, milavia.net/, deagel.com

Aircraft registrations: skytamer.com/5.4.htm

UK aircraft registrations: caa.co.uk/aircraft-registration-commercial/

Milair callsign to base listing: monitoringtimes.com/MilitaryCallsignList-APR09.pdf

USN squadrons list: seaforces.org/usnair/current-units.htm

Planefagging 101 Thread Archive: https://archive.is/KsV0K

You also need to be able to spot unusual patterns, things that 'don't look right' against the backdrop.

It's a skill you can develop and eventually you develop a 'usual suspects list' that KAF R1 has that we watch.

German Air Force (Luftwaffe), Swiss Air Force and French Air Farce aren't to be trusted. 2-reg planes are 'wheelmen' for the wealthy,

such as Soros as they can't travel via normal routes. 2-reg planes are 'military' and can bypass some customs checks (hint).

ATC Live can be useful if you know a happening is going on around an airport. Listening to the Tower can provide insight.

Anything else, just ask. Kekistan Recon 1 can always use new recruits.

More Planefagging Stuff

Helicopters (helos) - groups of helos, particularly Medevac or Mercy Flight ones, should attract attention. This may indicate arrests or renditions,

as Q etc. won't use military helos for that as a Black Hawk gets the wrong sort of attention and freaks the straights. Someone from a Medevac helo

that "Wants to take you to a place of safety" doesn't attract so much suspicion.

Tankers, Poseidons, Nightwatches and Mercurys all mean something military is going on. Fighters don't usually squawk on ADS-B,

they only have IFF (although an F-15 called DARK21 did squawk in the UK a few times around Christmas). Remember, you only get to see what

they want you to see.

It's all in the patterns and follow your instincts. If you think it's post-worthy, put it up and your squadron colleagues will assist and guide you.

Tracking Planes

I use Flightaware to track aircraft that are obviously of interest or are on long-haul flights, as it provides better tracking of

flights when the ADS-B ping drops off over the coast, or over remote areas where there are no ADS-B transponders..

ADS-B Exchange will just show the end of the trail, whereas Fkightaware will attempt to give you an estimated track until a new ping is heard.

Leaving the window open will also allow you to monitor Flightaware for when the ping returns.

Flightradar allows you to select a 'species' of plane (such as helicopter), or a specific type of plane. Executive jets of interest are Cessna Citations,

Learjets, Dassault Falcons and similar, particularly if they aren't showing a call sign or may show 'Blocked' on Flightradar.

The FBI and other law enforcement agencies may charter these types of planes and if you see two in formation with 'Blocked' call signs,

this may be an escorted flight. It's worth comparing Radarbox to Flightradar to ensure that you aren't just picking up an ADS-B echo though,

we've seen this happen.

Executive jets associated with big money (e.g. banks and trustees) are also of interest, particularly since the Wells Fargo exec was sucked out

of that plane and killed. Planes are leased and mortgaged and banks/trustees have an interest in this market.

Flight History

For some aircraft of interest, It's worth downloading the flight log. Flightaware and ADS-B Exchange, along with ADS-B.nl for military planes,

are invaluable for this. Retaining the history allows us to go back in the future and compare what we saw with actual events.

Screenshots

Any aircraft of interest should be 'tagged and bagged' with a screenshot. I use Paint, but any simple graphics that you can cut and paste into is good enough.

Please mark any targets or destinations of interest on your screenshot and provide some context as to why this was interesting to you.

Why aren't some Air Forces trustworthy?

This is a bugbear of mine. I've seen too much of the French Air Farce, the Swiss and the Germans sneaking off to unusual places such as Argentina,

Kazakhstan and the like. ASsk yourself why do the Swiss need an air force? SImple answer is that they don't, as they remain neutral in wars,

but they do need the military facility to bypass Customs and Immigration, in a way similar to the 2-reg planes.

Routine Flights

As you watch the skies, you'll start to see regular patterns. The British, Qataris, German, Belgian and French Air Forces regularly fly to the US and

they participate in training exercises.

Very Unusual Planes

From time to time, you'll see Israeli Kafirs, Hawker Hunters and even MiG-21s over the US. These are used by ATAC and are also used by Top Gun

exercises to allow fighter pilots to gain experience in jets with different abilities. Don't panic if you see them!

Spoopy Activity

Any planes that have to 'Go Around' or that may have been diverted/refused landing permission are very interesting, as these may indicate a happening.

Tag and bag these for future reference.

Some planes may also try to keep flying below 4000ft as this may cause ASDS-B to fall off. I have personal experience of seeing 2-reg planes do this and

it sticks out a mile. Always tag and bag these.

Squawks

On ADS-B exchange, you may see a plane squawk 7500, 7600, 7770 or similar. These indicate an emergency and should be monitored,

although some pilots manage to squawk 7700 while they are still setting the plane up on the tarmac.

Don't panic & over react when you see one usually it is operator error or the controller has requested that they use one of these codes to

more easily identify the aircraft on a cluttered radar screen.

Sometimes the codes are used to give the controllers some practice of handling an emergency - I have seen single/two seat fighter or

trainer aircraft using the 7500-hijack code.

The most common code is 7600 as aircraft are handed off from one control area to another they change to the wrong frequency & can't talk to

who they need to talk to so to alert the local controller they use the 7600 code & listen out on the emergency frequency until the

controller establishes contact.

The 7700 code is for genuine emergencies such as engine failure or bird strike etc. Sometimes airliners use this when they have miscalculated

their fuel consumption, needed to divert to another airport & need priority for landing.

The codes have specific meanings -

7500 – Hijack

7600 – Lost Comms (radio failure)

7700 – Emergency

Drones and UAVs

Drones and UAVs always indicate military activity. PIZZA13 was one drone that captured our attention at the time certain other events related to

pizza were going on. If you see a UAV, screenshot it as it indicates that events are being monitored by the military. You may also see P-8 Poseidons,

P-3 Orions, along with other surveillance and intel gathering planes such as Sentrys, Nightwatches, Sentinels, Joint Rivets, AWACS, Hawkeyes and Mercurys.

Always worth screenshotting these.

OPSEC

When you spot a cluster of unusual activity, such as a bunch of helos or recon aircraft orbiting an area consider the operational security aspect.

These aircraft might be engaged on an active operation with boots on the ground and we don't want to put special operators at risk.

It is better to bag and tag what you find and post it later to allow the special operators time to complete their mission.

Clarity

Try not to post screen captures with half a gazillion overlapping tracks.

Just show the tracks of the relevant aircraft.

Adjust the zoom/cropping of the capture so that it is evident where the aircraft is and what it is doing.

On ADS-B scroll through the data list select & highlight the relevant aircraft so that its details are visible on the capture.

If necessary post two or more captures with one zoomed in close and the other zoomed out.

If you have an interesting group of aircraft or cluster of activity zoom in or out to capture the whole cluster highlighting aircraft & tracks as

well as posting the individual aircraft.

Add a simple short explanation of what you have captured.

Try not to fill the post with a rambling wall of words.

Keep Calm Don't Panic

Sometimes events happen & other non-planefag anons start freaking out but don't let this panic you.

Usually this is an event such as a shooting, air attack, or air crash or something similar.

Try to ascertain what is happening and where to focus your search & then try to capture anything relevant.

Do try to keep those that tend towards panic reassured & informed about what you find & what is happening.

Sometimes you will find that you are trying to track multiple aircraft widely dispersed around the world.

Sometimes the aircraft you are trying to track plays hard to get or the trackers start acting up making thing difficult for you.

If this happens don't be afraid to put a call out to the other planefags for assistance tracking.

Beware of random aircraft shills

Sometimes shills try to deflect your attention by asking you about some random aircraft and ask if you know anything about it.

Generally they don't know what the aircraft was or when they saw it.

They will say something like 'I saw a strange plane acting in a strange way in some obscure location on an unspecified date' and then expect you to know what it was all about.

It can be an interesting way to waste half a day if you are bored but generally it leads nowher

ATAC

ATAC the Airborne Tactical Advantage Company - is a company owned by Textron that provides training solutions for the military.

Basically they provide targets for the various branches of the military to practise there tactics on in a safe way.

These aircraft operate out of and around the following areas primarily (see map highlighted orange) although they can be found almost anywhere if

they are needed by the military -

Point Mugu California, the training bases/areas around Las Vegas Nevada, the Gulf of Mexico from Texas to Florida, the East coast of Florida up

to the Norfolk Virginia area.

The operate a variety of aircraft the F-21 Kfir, Hawker Hunter, & L39 Albatross.

Whilst they can be fun to watch when things are quiet they are not of any importance to our task.

OMEGA

Omega is a company that provides aerial refuelling tankers for the military on a contract basis.

Most of their work is to do with training & supporting military exercises.

Mostly they are to be found around Southern California & just off the coast.

These aircraft have nothing to do with chemtrails or weather modification.

They use Boeing 707 and DC-10 aircraft roughly equivalent to the KC-135 & KC-10 used by the USAF.

As with ATAC the Omega aircraft can be found almost anywhere they are needed by the military.

As with ATAC Omega has nothing to do with our task.

For more info -

ATAC - atacusa.com

Omega - omegaairrefueling.com

Posting Captures

When posting captures try to keep them clean and easily read.

Highlight just the aircraft of interest preferably with a track trail so that its activity can be discerned.

Capture the details of the flight data - showing aircraft type, callsign, registration etc.

If need be edit with arrows or markers to highlight the details of the flight or other info.

Avoid heavily cluttered screens and multiple tracks where possible.

If necessary post two or more captures one showing the complete flight and others zoomed in to show more detail.

Add a short description about the flight avoiding a large wall of words.

All that is really necessary is the identity of the flight, its start finish locations, whether it is relevant to global events, stuff in the breads,

or in the news etc.

Digging for info

If the skies are quiet dig around for info about some of the spoopy planes in the notables these are mainly the 2-#### aircraft.

Digging is as important as the tracking.

We need to find if they are connected to the deep state etc.

If you find relevant info linking the planes to what is happening post it in the research bread.

If the info is not apparently relevant save it on your computer rather than post it in the bread because it might become relevant later.

Recently someone requested for planefags to dig for info into a flight into Bushehr Iran last year that subsequently to a 'Q' post and details about

the Uranium 1 deal. Use lateral thinking when digging not just flight tracking stuff.

TRACKING DIFFICULT TARGETS

Sometimes a plane can be difficult and very uncooperative to track.

This is particularly so with the spoopy 2-#### planes, JSOC planes, and some other mainly military stuff.

In certain regions around the world such as Africa, Middle East, Caspian Sea, Oceanic areas & other remote areas/places tracking coverage can be non-existent,

patchy, or unreliable.

To mitigate the problem slightly what you can do when tracking a problem plane is to watch and monitor other nearby aircraft travelling in the same

speed/direction.

By following these other aircraft you can estimate the position of the 'missing' or 'uncooperative' aircraft.

If a flight plan is listed for the aircraft you can use this to plot the course & position & estimate where it might pop up again.

Often an aircraft will drop off one tracker system but will still show on another so try using an alternative tracker or two trackers at once.

NEW SPOOPY PLANE REGISTRY

AIR SERVICE LIEGE, BELGIUM/NETHERLANDS

These are the fleet markings that I've discovered so far.

OO-GEE, OO-STE, PH-PKX, OO-ASL, OO-CEJ, PH-VBG, OO-PRM, OO-ACC, PH-HWM, PH-FJK, OO-XLS, PH-DWS, OO-VMF, PH-MYX, OO-AMR, PH-MFX, OO-NEY, OO-IDE, OO-LET,

OO-ACO, OO-PXK, OO-ARO, OO-GMJ and OO-ACC.

I don't know at this stage if these have 'Military' rating or not, this needs to be confirmed one way or the other.

Website:- aslgroup.eu/

Planefagging 101 Dough

https://pastebin.com/GyFXZvVU

USAF fact sheet website is useful as well.

https://www.af.mil/About-Us/Fact-Sheets/

>>7666895

USN:

https://www.navy.mil/navydata/fact.asp