Most aircraft nowadays are also equipped with ADS-B: an extension also transmitting the position, speed, track etc.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transponder_(aeronautics)#Mode_S
https://www.skybrary.aero/index.php/Mode_S
The files on this site are compiled from data picked up just west of Schiphol airport using the Kinetic SBS receiver. In 2019 a small network was created combining a handful of receivers within 100km around Schiphol.
Two types of files are available here: One set of dayly files with all flights picked up, sorted by registration, and one set of movement files (from jun 2014) filtered for AMS and RTM-traffic sorted by take-off and landing-time.
Position, altitude, direction and speed are logged for the first and the last time a flight was recorded, and for a position more or less halfway. The position is in a format that can easily be copy-pasted into Google Earth/Maps. Lattitude/longitude limited to two decimals can be about 600m off.
Take-offs, landings and go-arounds are logged, and which airport & runway were used if possible to determine.
An aircraft recognized as going around for runway 22.
For aircraft picked up at higher altitudes only, a rough estimate is given for their take-off/landing time and their origin/destination, followed by ?!?. This can be quite far off, e.g. a departure from LGW might show STN, but not CDG or FRA.
Remarks are included about aircraft transmitting an emergency squawk code, or e.g. aircraft that seemed to have returned to their point of departure.
A return after departure from AMS.
Times are dutch local times. (UTC+1, +2 in summer)
As of june 2015 the logs also include reception of ACARS and VDL Mode 2 (new generation ACARS) datalink messages. These SMS-like messages are used to communicate with ATC or e.g. the airline's operations office. ACARS is decoded directly by the SBS-3, and VDL-2 using the same SBS-3 receiver and MultiPSK software.
Warning:
ACARS messages contain the registration of the transmitting aircraft. Mode-S and VDL-2 messages however do not contain registration and type-data. Only the FlightID(callsign) and the 24-bit ICAO Transponder ID (unofficially called hexcode, eg 4840D3) are transmitted by the aircraft. The hexcode is a unique code, like a digital registration number, assigned by the county's FAA. A database is used to match this code to a registration number and an aircraft type. A lot of work goes into keeping this database up to date, thanks to updates from "T7", PlaneBase and comparisons with other online sources. Due to inaccuracies in the database, or because some aircraft send a wrong, or old hexcode, this info might not be 100% correct. A ? behind the registration means that there is known doubt about this hexcode, and a !-symbol means that this code is known to be incorrectly transmitted by this registration.
Flight ID's are entered by the crew can sometimes be wrong. Route info (and for alphanumeric Flight IDs also the commercial flight number if known) is sourced from another database which might contain outdated info.
Some examples:
344158 EC-LOP A320 VLG83MA/8319,BCN-AMS 1249:G/A AMS 27 1301:\AMS 36C 1222:n51.27e003.68 F221\026°396k 1242:n52.28e005.28 F041\048°217k 1300:n52.30e004.73 F001 004°131k
This aircraft transmitted hexcode 344158 (which must be A320 EC-LOP) and FlightID VLG83MA. According to the flights database this concerns flightno VY8319 from BCN to AMS. It was first picked up at 12:22 local time, made a go-around on runway 27 at 12:49, was last picked up 13:00 and must have touched down at 13:01 on runway 06.
484F2E PH-CDE B738 CND1919 2207:/AMS 09 2221:Return(Pth) 2243:\AMS 06 2209:n52.31e004.80 F023/091°116k 2224:n52.96e004.75 F100 271°308k 2244:n52.28e004.73 F002 --- ---This aircraft returned to AMS after take-off at 22:07. The return was recognised at 22:21 and it landed 22:43.
8961A2 A6-EYM A332 ETD23N/42;DUB-AUH 1222:»Uitgeest F390 102° 1222+1224 1213:n52.81e002.61 F390 102°469k 1222:n52.56e004.61 F390 102°481k 1234:n52.18e007.11 F390 104°468k
Besided mode-S data between 12:13 and 12:34, datalink messages were received between 12:22 and 12:24. 1222-1224 means ACARS data, 1222+1224 means VDL2- data and 1222=1224 means both types of datalinks were received.
A ; symbol behind the FlightID means that that FlightID was also reveived via datalink. ETD23N,EY42. Would mean the ETD23N comes from Mode-S, EY42 from datalink.
Position, altitude, direction and speed are logged for the first and the last time a flight was recorded, and for a position more or less halfway. The position is in a format that can easily be copy-pasted into Google Earth/Maps. Lattitude/longitude limited to two decimals can be about 600m off.
Take-offs, landings and go-arounds are logged, and which airport & runway were used if possible to determine.
An aircraft recognized as going around for runway 22.
For aircraft picked up at higher altitudes only, a rough estimate is given for their take-off/landing time and their origin/destination, followed by ?!?. This can be quite far off, e.g. a departure from LGW might show STN, but not CDG or FRA.
Remarks are included about aircraft transmitting an emergency squawk code, or e.g. aircraft that seemed to have returned to their point of departure.
A return after departure from AMS.
Times are dutch local times. (UTC+1, +2 in summer)
As of june 2015 the logs also include reception of ACARS and VDL Mode 2 (new generation ACARS) datalink messages. These SMS-like messages are used to communicate with ATC or e.g. the airline's operations office. ACARS is decoded directly by the SBS-3, and VDL-2 using the same SBS-3 receiver and MultiPSK software.
Warning:
ACARS messages contain the registration of the transmitting aircraft. Mode-S and VDL-2 messages however do not contain registration and type-data. Only the FlightID(callsign) and the 24-bit ICAO Transponder ID (unofficially called hexcode, eg 4840D3) are transmitted by the aircraft. The hexcode is a unique code, like a digital registration number, assigned by the county's FAA. A database is used to match this code to a registration number and an aircraft type. A lot of work goes into keeping this database up to date, thanks to updates from "T7", PlaneBase and comparisons with other online sources. Due to inaccuracies in the database, or because some aircraft send a wrong, or old hexcode, this info might not be 100% correct. A ? behind the registration means that there is known doubt about this hexcode, and a !-symbol means that this code is known to be incorrectly transmitted by this registration.
Flight ID's are entered by the crew can sometimes be wrong. Route info (and for alphanumeric Flight IDs also the commercial flight number if known) is sourced from another database which might contain outdated info.
Some examples:
344158 EC-LOP A320 VLG83MA/8319,BCN-AMS 1249:G/A AMS 27 1301:\AMS 36C 1222:n51.27e003.68 F221\026°396k 1242:n52.28e005.28 F041\048°217k 1300:n52.30e004.73 F001 004°131k
This aircraft transmitted hexcode 344158 (which must be A320 EC-LOP) and FlightID VLG83MA. According to the flights database this concerns flightno VY8319 from BCN to AMS. It was first picked up at 12:22 local time, made a go-around on runway 27 at 12:49, was last picked up 13:00 and must have touched down at 13:01 on runway 06.
484F2E PH-CDE B738 CND1919 2207:/AMS 09 2221:Return(Pth) 2243:\AMS 06 2209:n52.31e004.80 F023/091°116k 2224:n52.96e004.75 F100 271°308k 2244:n52.28e004.73 F002 --- ---This aircraft returned to AMS after take-off at 22:07. The return was recognised at 22:21 and it landed 22:43.
8961A2 A6-EYM A332 ETD23N/42;DUB-AUH 1222:»Uitgeest F390 102° 1222+1224 1213:n52.81e002.61 F390 102°469k 1222:n52.56e004.61 F390 102°481k 1234:n52.18e007.11 F390 104°468k
Besided mode-S data between 12:13 and 12:34, datalink messages were received between 12:22 and 12:24. 1222-1224 means ACARS data, 1222+1224 means VDL2- data and 1222=1224 means both types of datalinks were received.
A ; symbol behind the FlightID means that that FlightID was also reveived via datalink. ETD23N,EY42. Would mean the ETD23N comes from Mode-S, EY42 from datalink.
