05 July 2019

Corporate Jet-Spotting: Early Signs of Next Big Mega-Deal : Planes Leave Data Trails

Here in Mesa now that we know exactly how city officials kept the real big Google Data Center proposed deal 'quiet' using the 'Code Name Red Hawk', there's a new open-source air traffic information alternative source called Automatic Dependent Surveillance–Broadcast (ADS-B) to monitor corporate jet traffic at airports.
The closest airport to the 184 acres that Google has its eye on is Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport.
Back when J. Brian O'Neill appeared in an early morning segment of Mesa Morning Live [and again last month with guest host Mayor John Giles] bragging about arrivals of more executive/corporate jets and the need to build more hangars for general aviation services - and the record sales of jet fuel -
was an eye-opener for those might have showed up live or for the 66 people who have viewed the streaming YouTube upload.
According to the infographic to the left, Jet Fuel Sales are by far the biggest source of revenues for PMGA.

For readers of this blog who want to watch the MML segment with Mesa Mayor John Giles, please scroll down below

There's a map of existing Hangar sites farther down...and more new proposed plans have been announced



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Where there’s a jet, there’s a data trail, and several “alternative data” firms are keeping tabs on private aircraft for hedge funds and other investors
Words to the wise:
"If you have a meeting with Warren Buffett in Omaha and you want to keep it a secret, consider driving. The airports are being watched. . ."
From this report published on Bloomberg:
Hedge Funds Are Tracking Private Jets to Find the Next Megadeal
Where there’s a plane, there’s a data trail
By Justin Bachman ‎July‎ ‎2‎, ‎2019‎ ‎2‎:‎00‎ ‎AM
The circumstances noted in the article:
In April, a stock research firm told clients that a Gulfstream V owned by Houston-based Occidental Petroleum Corp. had been spotted at an Omaha airport. The immediate speculation was that Occidental executives were negotiating with Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. to get financial help in their $38 billion offer for rival Anadarko Petroleum Corp. Two days later, Buffett announced a $10 billion investment in Occidental."
Some background privided:
Online aviation trackers that focus on commercial traffic, including FlightAware, allow anyone to see the position of thousands of airborne planes, based on in part a raw data feed provided by the Federal Aviation Administration. What’s not visible are 28,000 private craft, from small, single-engine turboprops to large, intercontinental business jets. An FAA policy lets these owners request that their plane’s identities be blocked from public display.
But the FAA isn’t the only data source. Many planes are equipped with a technology called Automatic Dependent Surveillance–Broadcast (ADS-B), which transmits an aircraft’s transponder code, call sign, model type, position, and airspeed. As of Jan. 1, 2020, the FAA will mandate that any aircraft flying in most U.S.-controlled airspace be equipped with ADS-B. Anyone with the right antennas can pick up ADS-B data and observe virtually all passing air traffic. A co-op called ADS-B Exchange takes information from a network of antennas around the world and makes it freely available.
Such information isn’t useful for only hedge funds.
Dictator Alert tracks airplanes registered to or owned by authoritarian leaders—mostly in the Middle East and Africa—into and out of Geneva Airport in Switzerland, and posts the information using a Twitter bot.
. . . It seems unlikely that flying will ever be completely private again.
“The technology to track these aircraft is cheap and widely available,” says David White, vice president of business development at Cirium, an aviation data and analytics firm.
Even if public data sources mask more data about flights, companies with hedge fund clients could “pick and choose the business hubs” where private aircraft movements would most likely yield cues about corporate activity, White says. “It’s not rocket science, that’s for sure.”
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5 active Superfund sites in the Valley
Maricopa County has five federal Superfund sites still going through cleanup and monitoring. The EPA ranks Superfund sites on the type of waste present, the likelihood that the site will release toxicants into the environment and the presence of people who may be affected.
, The Republic | azcentral.com | Updated 4:05 p.m. MT Nov. 14, 2014
Reference: click or tap here
Williams Air Force Base
Listed: 1989
Location: Mesa, now Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport
Problem: Contaminants from base activities including organic solvents and paint strippers, petroleum spills, metal plating wastes, hydraulic fluids, pesticides and radiological wastes seeped into the groundwater and soil.
Impact: About 2 million gallons of jet fuel ended up in an aquifer, but the groundwater is not used for drinking. Some 90 to 95 percent of that is expected to be removed by the end of next year.
Source: EPA
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EXISTING HANGAR SPACE
Listing ID: 1189
CBRE
Listing Details
Date Posted: 05-02-2018
Location: 5835 S. Sossaman
Listing Description:CBRE was recently selected as Phoenix Mesa-Gateway's exclusive real estate firm to assist the Airport in marketing its land and facilities. Situated on more than 3,000 acres, Mesa-Gateway has three 10,000-foot runways and over 350 acres of land for development. It is a cost-effective, global business location for maintenance, repair, and aircraft overhaul companies, air cargo aerospace companies, aircraft manufacturing, and other aeronautical operations. Additional marketing brochures will be available soon.
 
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Trying harder every day to stay "mellow"