Flight tracker goes online

A new online tool allows users to file noise complaints and track flight movement, air traffic patterns and noise measurements around Bob Hope Airport in near real-time.

The flight information system, called WebTrak, was launched this week on the airfield’s website. It provides details on individual aircraft — such as type, origin and destination airports, altitude and flight identification — for flights on a roughly 20 minute delay, and a recorded history going back up to 90 days in the past. The delay is due to federal rules regarding real-time flight tracking.

WebTrack, which displays the flight paths and aircraft data overtop a Google map, also shows noise-level measurements around the airport at each of the 20 monitor locations around the airport. Map functions allow users to enter their home address and plot their location on the map to see where they are relative to the aircraft overhead.

Users can also zoom in or out on the map view that displays either a street map of the area, a satellite image or a hybrid satellite image with streets overlaid, which should be familiar to users accustomed to viewing maps on Google.

“It works just exactly like the Google maps’ [zoom functions],” said Maggie Martinez, the airfield’s noise and environmental compliance manager.

Area residents do not have to identify an aircraft or flight data in order to file a noise complaint, but they may choose to use WebTrak to gather additional information about the noise event, according to an airport statement.

Once a user clicks on a flight track on the map, “the system has gathered all the information,” said Lucy Burghdorf, a spokeswoman for the airport. They can then click on a box that will allow them to report the noise disturbance in an online form, she said, and, “voila, all the information about that plane is already input for you.”

Martinez said the airport currently gets roughly two or three noise complaints a week, “but we don’t get as many as we used to years ago.”

As of June, the airport had spent more than $110 million to upgrade and install new sound insulation at nearly 2,400 homes and five schools in the areas surrounding the airport.

WebTrak is a product of Denmark-based Brüel & Kjaer, an international firm specializing in sound and vibration, which in July 2010 won a competitive bid to begin replacing the airfield’s noise- and flight-track management system.

WebTrak is “a program that the airport already owns,” said Mark Hardyment, director of the airfield’s transportation, noise and environmental programs. It was included in the airport’s $740,000 contract with Brüel & Kjaer for the new noise management system.

The five-year contract also included installation of the 20 noise monitoring terminals that provide the noise data for the online system. WebTrak replaces AirportMonitor, the Airport’s former online flight information system introduced in 2002, which is no longer supported by its provider. AirportMonitor did not include data from the noise-monitoring terminals.

WebTrack can be found on the airport’s website www.burbankairport.com. Hover over the “Noise & Environment” tab and then hover over the “Noise Issues” tab and click “Flight Tracking.”