FAQs

As much as I’d LOVE to be able to provide this service totally free, I have spent a vast amount of personal money to set this whole thing up for your benefit. The costs will be:

• 50p for 24 hours
• £3 for 1 month
• £30 for 1 year

payable via paypal.

We will go live on the 6th June and you can sign up as soon as we go live on that day!

Nope! She’ll be running 24 hours a day 7 days a week 365 days a year (Unless we have technical difficulties which we hope we don’t!)

The camera overlooks the entire ILS approach to runway 23R at EGCC/Manchester Airport. This runway is used 95% of the year unless the winds are from the East. It will have a static view most of the time which will give the best balance of screen time and view of the aircraft on final, however when something special is arriving, then manual control will be taken of the camera and we will follow the aircraft from as far out to as close as possible.

This is our biggest downfall. The position of the camera is to the East of the airport with no visibility to the West side of the airport where 05 R & L are. Departing aircraft are already around 1000ft up and climbing overhead which is an issue with the angle our camera can get. When 05’s are in use, the camera will be tilted upwards as much as possible and will attempt to be able to see the aircraft as they continue their climb until they turn left or right onto their planned route. Luckily, as I mentioned earlier, this is only 5% of the year and often coincides with nice, clear weather – A great excuse to get down to the airport in person!

To be allowed to set up the video we had to ensure privacy to any of the surrounding neighbours. We have whited out any positions that could affect this privacy agreement whilst ensuring a clear view of the planes.

To be able to install the camera at all, we have had to gain permission from Greater Manchester Police who have strictly enforced that the camera is not allowed to look at the airport itself due to security reasons with the visibility of the perimeter road. We have totally understood this and agreed since the safety of all passengers and everyone around the airport is paramount and the last thing I want is to have my service used in a malicious manner. The GMP will have access to the feed at any time to confirm that the airport is not in view. We hope you understand.

As much as this would be a fantastic feature and is available on other webcams in other countries, United Kingdom law prevents ATC being transmitted to anyone other than the intended listener (Pilot & controller). Although it is technically illegal to listen via a handheld receiver it is much more common and often goes ignored, even around the airport with the presence of the police, but transmitting online to thousands of people could land us with an enormous fine. The law is very outdated (1942) but OfCom still holds it firm. Lets just hope the law is changed soon so we can add this great feature at a later date!

We will be using an Axis Q6115-E PTZ camera capable of 1080p video at 60fps (if the internet connection permits), 30x optical zoom, 360 continuous spinning and 20* above the horizon viewing.
It will be coated in a layer of Rain-X rain repellent to prevent water build up on the lens distorting the image on days when you’d rather not be stood outside watching the aircraft. There will also be a microphone mounted beneath the camera itself which will allow you to hear the sound of those beautiful engines as they pass very close by.

We wouldn’t be a 21st century website if we didn’t work on smartphones now would we?! HOWEVER the video feed service we are using are currently developing the responsive functionality so for now it is a much better experience to view on a large screen.
Secondly – There is no audio currently on mobile and we are looking into why.
Both of these issues are being worked on as quickly as possible so please bear with us and view on a laptop or PC when you can!

We have found that after the video and audio time out, the video can be restarted but there is no audio. This is resolved by simply refreshing the page so the audio and video start at the same time. Again this is being looked into by the people who provide the streaming and so will hopefully be resolved soon.