Online Tools to help us with researching aircraft observations, UFO reports, military movement...etc

So I was reading "chrismicha77's" post about his "event" on the 18th, and when the conversation (thread) turned to some of the possible aircraft observations, and I got to wondering if FAA sectional maps are available online, and indeed I found this site.


skyvector.com...

There maybe more like this as well, but this does the job.

The reason I started looking was we have so many members asking, "are their airports nearby?", "military bases" etc. This info would help research these. Just as many use Google Earth to look at the physical landscape, this site will help us look at the airspace.

If you are not aware, a "sectional" chart is a map pilots use that shows aviation related material. In particular, the map shows (among other things) airspace (including restricted airspace) enroute paths, airport and airport info, radio frequencies (great if you have an aviation scanner) etc. While it looks intimidating, they are fairly easier to read. I haven't looked yet, but there are probably some resources online to learn how to read them. If you know a pilot they could show you the basics. A local Civil Air Patrol squadron could probably teach you how to read it as well.

You also have at the site airport infomation pages, and other aviation charts such as Enroute Charts, Helicopter charts, Terminal Area charts, etc.

A few other sites to also look at if you have time or want to seriously do your research:

flightaware.com...

Track flights live by flight number or other information.

www.liveatc.net...

Listen to Air Traffic Control....I haven't dug through this, there might be a cost, but you can listen to ATC ctran. transmitssions, there are even apps for phones.

All right, just some stuff to help you look for airspace (esecially those restricted areas where the military likes to play). Or whatever else your researching. The Enroute and Jet charts would show you were the airliners are supposed to normally be, anything else could be the elusive "chemtrails"....which I think is BS, but I know some of you are into it!.

Wow, a star, 2 flags and no commnets....weird...

These are some good resources, sorry it hasn't gotten more attention.
I'll give you a star and flag for your work.
Thanks!

Thanks! Not looking for stars and flags, just figured you know, "deny ignorance" by giving the peeps something to do a little solid aviation info search when it comes to all the UFO and aircraft posts people saying, "is there an airport there" or "is there restricted space or a military base"....that would help.


Another good one is the wikipedia page on the US army. It shows the home station of every active army manouever brigade, a link to the page and homesites of each, and the shoulder patch designator. Good info, if you go to the individual divisions it shows there organization as well. You might need to scroll down.

en.wikipedia.org...

And for Army National Guard Combat Units

en.wikipedia.org...

The other services have similar pages on wiki, and from my knowledge and research they are all reasonably correct.