Python Flight-Tracker Bot - ADS-B Flight-Tracker – Code Review & Final Debug
Budget: $15 – $25 USD
What the Bot Should Do:
Poll an ADS-B API every 30 min for a fixed list of six tail numbers (aircraft registrations).
Detect take-off (ground→airborne): tweet the departure airport (nearest-airport lookup from the first GPS fix or “Unknown” if no fix), UTC time, and a small static-map of the initial climb.
Detect landing (airborne→ground): tweet the arrival airport, origin airport, UTC touchdown time, flight duration, estimated fuel cost & CO₂ emissions, plus a static-map of the final approach path.
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What I’ve Done So Far:
Written notify.py with full logic for polling, state-machine detection, map rendering, fuel/emissions math, and tweeting via Twitter/X v2.
Configured environment via .env, added a Windows start.bat launcher, and loaded an airports.csv database.
Added debug prints confirming the script sees ADS-B responses—but no actual tweets are ever sent on take-off or landing.
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The Challenge:
Somewhere in the state-machine or API-response handling, the bot isn’t firing its tweet calls when aircraft is active. I need someone to:
Review the existing code end-to-end (notify.py, .env, start.bat).
Identify and fix why take-off/landing tweets never posts.
Validate that once fixed, the bot sends correctly formatted X posts on the next real or test event.
No new features are required—just ensure the core functionality works as intended.
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Skills Needed
Python 3, requests, tweepy, dotenv
REST/JSON debugging
Experience with ADS-B or similar flight-data APIs a plus
Guidance can be used from here: https://github.com/Jxck-S/plane-notify
Poll an ADS-B API every 30 min for a fixed list of six tail numbers (aircraft registrations).
Detect take-off (ground→airborne): tweet the departure airport (nearest-airport lookup from the first GPS fix or “Unknown” if no fix), UTC time, and a small static-map of the initial climb.
Detect landing (airborne→ground): tweet the arrival airport, origin airport, UTC touchdown time, flight duration, estimated fuel cost & CO₂ emissions, plus a static-map of the final approach path.
---
What I’ve Done So Far:
Written notify.py with full logic for polling, state-machine detection, map rendering, fuel/emissions math, and tweeting via Twitter/X v2.
Configured environment via .env, added a Windows start.bat launcher, and loaded an airports.csv database.
Added debug prints confirming the script sees ADS-B responses—but no actual tweets are ever sent on take-off or landing.
---
The Challenge:
Somewhere in the state-machine or API-response handling, the bot isn’t firing its tweet calls when aircraft is active. I need someone to:
Review the existing code end-to-end (notify.py, .env, start.bat).
Identify and fix why take-off/landing tweets never posts.
Validate that once fixed, the bot sends correctly formatted X posts on the next real or test event.
No new features are required—just ensure the core functionality works as intended.
---
Skills Needed
Python 3, requests, tweepy, dotenv
REST/JSON debugging
Experience with ADS-B or similar flight-data APIs a plus
Guidance can be used from here: https://github.com/Jxck-S/plane-notify
Related categories:
PHP
JavaScript
Python
Software Architecture
Debugging
JSON
Twitter API
API Integration
REST API