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I recently discovered a Twitter account many fellow AvGeeks will love. And those who are sports fans? Well, down the rabbit hole we go.
Sports + Aviation (@SportsAviation) posts dozens of professional and college sports teams’ charter flights each week (in some cases, a single day).
For example, this is a tweet from a couple of weeks ago — after my Minnesota Vikings scored an upset victory over the rival Green Bay Packers! 😉
🏈 Minnesota Vikings (@Vikings)
🗒️ #Skol with quick, happy trip home from Wisconsin
🆚 W 28-22 @ Green Bay Packers #GoPackGo #MINvsGB
✈️ DAL8866 | N817NW | A333
🛫 GRB – 5:27pm CT
🛬 MSP – 5:58pm CT
Track Here👉🏼: https://t.co/M5ojdx5RHn pic.twitter.com/UFMsFm0uM4— Sports + Aviation (@SportsAviation) November 1, 2020
I’m always intrigued by which sports teams and other charter customers use which airlines and aircraft. (JetTip is a great site for like-minded AvGeeks; Mr. Kroll is a contributor.) I live under a pair of flight paths: one for Burbank and another for LAX. Even though “they’re just planes” flying overhead, I enjoy watching a Delta 757 cruise into BUR with the Los Angeles Dodgers or one of their opponents. Or watching, perhaps, the Seattle Seahawks or Oakland Raiders climb over my house after playing the Rams or Chargers. Even if I don’t like the team, I still get a kick out of it.
(FWIW:) I’ve noticed this year that more NFL teams are using widebodies than in the past. I assume that’s because of social distancing rules.
Sports + Aviation‘s work is done manually. No bots. It’s a passion project created by Doug Kroll, a sports and aviation enthusiast.
“I grew up as a sports freak and happened to have a family very interested in aviation,” Mr. Kroll told me. “Those two started to converge when my dad would bring home timetables, and we’d look to see when our favorite teams would be traveling. That morphed into actual flight tracking on the internet, until I was bored a few years back and decided maybe other nerds cared as much as I did about this stuff. And here we are, with 13,700 followers. That’s 13,699 more than I thought I’d have.”
So which sports teams are are his favorites?
“I’m originally from NY and have the ‘pleasure’ of following the Mets, Islanders, Knicks, and Jets,” he says with more than a trace of sarcasm. “And I received my degree from Miami (Fla.), so I’m a ‘canes fanatic as well.”
Sports+Aviation does have a Patreon. The money raised goes toward some of the monthly costs associated with flight racking alerts — some of Mr. Kroll and company’s time (especially while he explores adding “all sorts of bells and whistles”).
“We’re always amazed at how many people love what we’re doing and find it hard to believe there are actually even more people out there with the same nerdy passions as we have.”
Because there are so many football games each weekend, I’ve found that Thursdays-Sundays are the prime Sports + Aviation days.
Do you enjoy tracking charter flights, too?
Featured image: ©iStock.com/rebius
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