Matt Thurber, editor-in-chief at AIN Media Group, has been flying since 1975 and writing about aviation since 1978 and now has the best job in the world, running editorial operations for Aviation International News, Business Jet Traveler, and FutureFlight.aero. In addition to working as an A&amp;P mechanic on everything from Piper Cubs to turboprops, Matt taught flying at his father’s flight school in Plymouth, Mass., in the early 1980s, flew for an aircraft owner/pilot, and for two summer seasons hunted swordfish near the George’s Banks off the East Coast from a Piper Super Cub. An ATP certificated fixed-wing pilot and CFII and commercial helicopter pilot, Matt is type-rated in the Citation 500 and Gulfstream V/550. Based in the Pacific Northwest, Matt and his team cover the entire aviation scene including business aircraft, helicopters, avionics, safety, manufacturing, charter, fractionals, technology, air transport, advanced air mobility, defense, and other subjects of interest to AIN, BJT, and FutureFlight readers.

Editor-in-Chief

Matt Thurber

As more aircraft equip with ADS-B OUT–which broadcasts position, velocity, altitude and other information in unencrypted formats on easily received frequencies–business aircraft operators are concerned about whether they can continue blocking their aircraft from display on flight-tracking websites. While the FAA offers a way for operators to request blocking of particular aircraft from FAA radar data feeds, there currently is no physical means to block reception of mode-S transponder or ADS-B signals by a simple receiver.


Hobbyists are placing these receivers on roofs all over the world, connecting them to the Internet and sharing the resulting data feed, creating what in effect is an enhanced planespotter system. Flight-tracking providers <a href="http://www.flightradar24.com/free-ads-b-equipment/">FlightRadar24</a> and <a href="https://flightaware.com/adsb/">FlightAware</a> actively solicit this data and also provide free ADS-B receivers to certain users to add this information to their traffic displays. However, both companies said they redact any registration information about blocked aircraft coming from ADS-B receivers or elsewhere.


Though big-player flight trackers are working with the industry and complying with block requests, there are other ways of obtaining this information, such as multilateration, according to FlightAware CEO Daniel Baker. There is also free <a href="http://www.coaa.co.uk/planeplotter.htm">PlanePlotter</a> software that allows users to view information about aircraft movements around the world using data from hobbyists’ ADS-B receivers, multilateration and radar feeds, complicating tail-blocking efforts as more countries install multilateration systems or require aircraft to equip with ADS-B OUT.

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