This thread inspired me to pull out the display and finally tinker with it - and then I realized how expensive the APIs are for this data - especially if trying to do a "constant updating" style approach like you'd want for this idea.
It makes sense you listen for the sound of a plane / wait for a button press before making the call!
Seems like this would be best done with a receiver and monitoring that directly and/or exchanging the radio logging for API access.
This is normal. This is a bragging thread, so you're getting the subset of people who have something to brag about.
For me, most of my mental energy goes into my day job, so I'm often just tired of programming and tech stuff after hours. I tend to have to balance - either put my energy into work work, or work work can suffer while I put my energy into personal projects. I also have family and other hobbies that take up time, and there's only so much of it.
I've also found that if I'm not careful, I'll get too obsessive over this stuff and everything else suffers, so I have to try to keep it in check or I'll end up burned out, more tired, and have half-finished projects - which can be even more mental overhead.
Regular plane noise is a regular thing where I live - I'm right under one of the regular flight-paths for a nearby very busy airport and very close to another busy airport.
One idea I've had for a while is to take my eInk raspberry-pi accessory and poll this data and have a constantly updating "what's overhead" display.
This all reminds me of my friend, who doesn't really have a programming background, but uses Tasker (an Android app programmed through a UI) to automate tons of stuff and is incredibly happy with it. Meanwhile, I've had tons of ideas of things I'd like to automate, but never did, because Tasker is clunky and not "reliable" or "the right way", and a "proper" approach would be "better" or Tasker "might stop working / be unreliable". In the end, he has accomplished a lot more than I have, even though I supposedly have a much better foundation for accomplishing those sorts of things.
That is to say, I admire your approach here. I appreciate that you've just gone with it and did what many people on here would look at and say "that's insane".
There's a lot of power in just doing something, in the environment that's most readily available to you, and not getting hung up on the best way to plan it out and do it and make sure it's reliable and durable. You're exactly where you want to be, and the other person is sitting back at the start still planning.
It makes sense you listen for the sound of a plane / wait for a button press before making the call!
Seems like this would be best done with a receiver and monitoring that directly and/or exchanging the radio logging for API access.