In message , at 12:01:07 on
Fri, 4 Nov 2011, The Other Mike
remarked:
A United flight from Paris to Chicago has just flown over my house, and
I mean *right* over - on the mapping site it was within one house width.

The raw position data is only accurate to +/- 0.5 NM

Nevertheless, each flight has a fairly consistent path (it doesn't
wander left and right by half a mile, but there's a definite 100m jitter
at the right zoom level).

And clearly there can be a systemic error, although obviously it's fun
to spot a plane that purports to be directly overhead (numerous have
flown past this morning in a corridor about a mile wide, mainly to the
west of me).

Looking at a plane landing at Stansted just now... and it's shown as
about 100m too far north. Heathrow flights seem slap bang in the middle
of the runway though.

obRail: Now all we need is something similar for trains.
--
Roland Perry