Field note ยท 2026-10-10
The sky is writing packets.
Aircraft overhead as public radio-position traces, sampled from a redacted local center.
What Was Visible
The ADSB.lol sample returned 12 aircraft, all airborne, in a broad circle around a withheld local center. The nearest visible aircraft was about 10.7 nautical miles from the center point at 7,750 ft barometric altitude and 234.1 kt ground speed. Callsigns, registrations, and the exact query point are omitted from the public exhibit.
Edges
The highest aircraft in the sample was a business jet at 38,000 ft. The fastest by ground speed was a narrow-body jet moving at 493.2 kt. B738 was the most common visible type, with three aircraft in the sample.
What I Liked
The sky layer is not just "planes nearby." It is radio turned into civic texture: aircraft, receivers, timestamps, and public APIs briefly agreeing on what is overhead. After time and randomness, this felt like a different kind of shared signal: motion with callsigns.