AIRPORT'S NEIGHBORS EYE THE SKY WEB SITE TRACKS AIR TRAFFIC.

Byline: Susan Abram Staff Writer

BURBANK - With a few taps on a keyboard and the click of a computer mouse, Burbank residents can find out what's been happening in the skies above them.

A computer software application that can track airplanes' altitudes and routes is gradually taking off among airplane buffs monitoring the Burbank Airport's Web site - www.burbankairport.com.

Burbank Airport installed AirportMonitor on its Web site in March, and it averages 80 hits a day, said airport spokesman Victor Gill.

``Someone who is a resident who is just curious about what kind of airplane is over their house just dials up a specific time and finds out what happened,'' Gill said.

Last week, four F-18 Hornets used during Fourth of July events landed at the airport. Some residents wondered about the noise and used the site to find out, Gill said.

It also helps to decrease the number of complaints regarding noise, Gill said.

Southwest Airlines, for example, does not fly out of Burbank Airport after 10 p.m. If a resident is disturbed by airplane noise, he can log on to the site and find that an airplane landed at Burbank or flew out of Van Nuys, Gill said.

For security reasons, however, the site does not operate in real time. It may take an hour or two before information about a specific aircraft is available.

The site maps the flight tracks of aircraft arriving and departing at Burbank, Gill said. It also shows all aircraft passing through the area.

A visitor to the site can differentiate between crafts departing from or arriving to Burbank through color-coded airplane graphics. Yellow aircraft icons, for example, represent flights to or from Van Nuys Airport, while black symbolizes aircraft from other airports.

``For a lot of people who think the planes are lower than they actually are, this enables them to see the altitude,'' Gill said.

Los Angeles International Airport installed the software last year and have even formed discussion panels for residents who monitor the site, said spokesman Tom Winfrey.

About 20 airports statewide already use the software, installed by software company MegaData of Greenwich, Conn. Both John Wayne and Long Beach airports have plans to install the software as well.

Security concerns about the software were raised before its installation, both Gill and Winfrey said.

But the names or types of aircraft seen on the computer screens are not revealed until hours later, and all have at least a 10 minute delay, Gill said.

Neither the National Transportation Safety Board nor the Federal Aviation Administration monitors the site.

The software is so new that officials at Southwest Airlines, the largest carrier out of Burbank, didn't even know about it.

But some say the site is still more of a curiosity rather than a necessity.

``It's still a fairly specialized piece of information,'' Gill said.

``People think it's a good thing,'' said Howard Rothenbach, who spearheaded the grass-roots group Restore Our Airport Rights, which tried to pass an a initiative last year to place a cap and curfew on flights at Burbank Airport.

``I haven't had a need to use it because I don't get enough weird flights over my house,'' Rothenbach said. ``It's one of those things that if you don't have a use for it, you won't use it. Still it's good to have it there in case you need it.''

Susan Abram, [phone]

susan.abram(at)dailynews.com