Observation is a skill. The sky is always moving — the question is whether you have a framework for noticing when something is worth a second look.

This guide covers the eight primary patterns documented in the Flight Tracker's pattern library: racetrack orbits, parallel back-and-forth passes, repeated grids, same-region frequency, altitude banding, density clusters, persistent routes, and unusual volume.

The baseline problem

You cannot identify the unusual without knowing the usual. The Flight Tracker's activity chart shows local operations against a seasonal baseline — one busy day is noise, repeated deviation is signal.