Mystery flight south of Tasmania

[Kolo]

We've recently noticed for the first time a plane flying high over southern Tasmania, both east-west and west-east, late in the day. It is not using HBA. We speculate that it could be a PER or ADL to the south island of NZ. Does anyone know what it is and its route?

 

[mannej]

There are websites such as plane finder (?) which may help you find out the information you are after.

 

[Mwenenzi]

Air NZ [NZ175 / NZ176] AKL-PER ?
Great Circle Mapper
May going southern route for the winds

 

[markis10]

Air NZ [NZ175 / NZ176] AKL-PER ?
Great Circle Mapper
May going southern route for the winds

And we have a winner!
Air New Zealand (NZ) #175 Flight Tracker

 

[Kolo]

Thanks sleuths. Long way round to AKL! Strong winds must make it worth it.

 

[mannej]

Thanks sleuths. Long way round to AKL! Strong winds must make it worth it.

I am sure others will be able to elaborate but straight line distances aren't always the quickest.

 

[v8Statesman]

Straight lines work on a 2-D map not so well on a 3-D globe =

 

[Boris spatsky]

The Great Circle route (shortest distance point to point) AKL-PER goes over Bass Strait. So i dare say the jetstream must have been strong that day, pushing them further south to get out of it (as it is a Westerly). You can look on gcmap dot com to determine the great circle route between two airports.

 

[opusman]

There's an iPhone app that lets you point the camera at a plane overhead and it shows you in real time which flight it is, not sure how well it works though (or if it works outside US).

 

[albatross710]

Flight Tracker Pro is the app I believe. There is a free Lite version.