Eavesdropping on your airline flight-how?

Artimas

Pre-takeoff checklist
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Artimas
Is there a way to listen to the ATC communications from the cockpit of an airline flight you are on? United used to have a channel on it's in flight audio that tapped into the cockpit radio.

Live ATC only works on the ground as is often of poor quality. I am thinking about a better quality experience for ground and air.

Has anyone figured out a good way to do this?

Thanks.
 
You could use a handheld if you kept up with frequency changes but technically those are prohibited devices because they have the ability to Tx...in theory an airband scanner could work, but again you would need to keep to also keep up with the handoffs.

Once in a blue moon I have been on a flight with good enough wifi to get Live ATC, but it is rare then most random Center frequencies enroute are not captured and broadcasted.

Think that open channel on the in arm audio system went away with 9-11 or there abouts.
 
as soon as you board, turn left, go through the door and find a seat!
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Is there a way to listen to the ATC communications from the cockpit of an airline flight you are on? United used to have a channel on it's in flight audio that tapped into the cockpit radio.

It's still there, just not on all of the fleets.

Very few of the fleet. I haven't seen it (or heard it) in a number of years. Always at the pilot's discretion and that seems to be less and less these days. I'll let you know in September as that is the next time I have plans to ride as self loading cargo.
 
United used to use channel 9 on the inflight audio system. About the only thing I ever listened to. I noticed they began removing that about 10 years ago.
 
You could use a handheld if you kept up with frequency changes but technically those are prohibited devices because they have the ability to Tx...in theory an airband scanner could work, but again you would need to keep to also keep up with the handoffs.
Technically an air band scanner still transmits some intermediate frequencies, IIRC.
 
Radio receivers (even legitimate air band radios or transceivers) are prohibited by every airline that I've seen (and the FAA makes the airline responsible for determining things).

Live ATC will work if there's an internet connection on the plane (more commen these days). The data rates are minimal.

The traditional (pre-Continental) United had many of their planes equipped for what was officially called "From the Cockpit" but almost everybody referred to as "ATC on 9" as the original DC-8s and most of the rest of them had it connected to channel 9 on the audio system. The thing was controlled by the setting of the jumpseat audio panel in the cockpit. Sometimes you'd find it set to something else. A lot of pilots specifically turned it off after the airline didn't back up a pilot when some passenger complained about something she heard on 9 (so I hear).

The problem is that with the merged fleets, if you're on an ex-Continental plane, the capability doesn't exist and not all the UA planes had it either.
 
Radio receivers (even legitimate air band radios or transceivers) are prohibited by every airline that I've seen (and the FAA makes the airline responsible for determining things).

Live ATC will work if there's an internet connection on the plane (more commen these days). The data rates are minimal.

The traditional (pre-Continental) United had many of their planes equipped for what was officially called "From the Cockpit" but almost everybody referred to as "ATC on 9" as the original DC-8s and most of the rest of them had it connected to channel 9 on the audio system. The thing was controlled by the setting of the jumpseat audio panel in the cockpit. Sometimes you'd find it set to something else. A lot of pilots specifically turned it off after the airline didn't back up a pilot when some passenger complained about something she heard on 9 (so I hear).

The problem is that with the merged fleets, if you're on an ex-Continental plane, the capability doesn't exist and not all the UA planes had it either.

Correct. I remember being on a flight from SEA to NRT one time during the Super Bowl. Channel 9 was connected to one of the aircraft's HF receivers that was tuned to the AFRTS broadcast of the game. We listened to that for as long as he could receive the signal. The pilot scored a bunch of points with that one.
 
Very few of the fleet. I haven't seen it (or heard it) in a number of years. Always at the pilot's discretion and that seems to be less and less these days. I'll let you know in September as that is the next time I have plans to ride as self loading cargo.
You'll find it on a lot of the pmUAL widebodies.

The B737s were all pmCAL so didn't have it. The A320/319s were converted to the IFE streaming and lost it at that time. UX never had it. The plan is for it to eventually be added to the IFR streaming but it's been a while since I've heard any updates on that.
 
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