Spidertracks is a privately held

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

based company specialising in the development of hardware and software for the

general aviation General aviation (GA) is defined by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) as all civil aviation aircraft operations with the exception of commercial air transport or aerial work, which is defined as specialized aviation services ...

industry. The company specialises in

flight tracking Flight tracking is a service that involves the tracking of flights, aircraft and airport activity, often using software. Overview Flight tracking enables travellers as well as those picking up travellers after a flight to know whether a flight h ...

, aviation communication, and flight data acquisition.

History

Spidertracks was founded by James McCarthy in 2007 in the small rural town of Pohangina, just outside

Palmerston North, New Zealand Palmerston North (; mi, Te Papa-i-Oea, known colloquially as Palmy) is a city in the North Island of New Zealand and the seat of the Manawatū-Whanganui region. Located in the eastern Manawatu Plains, the city is near the north bank of the ...

. Following the death of high-profile businessman

Michael Erceg Michael Anthony Erceg (26 March 1956 – 4 November 2005) was an Auckland, New Zealand businessman who founded Independent Liquor. Independent Liquor was New Zealand’s largest independently owned liquor distributor, known for its Ready to Drink ...

in a helicopter crash in 2005, Erceg's downed aircraft was not located for two-weeks due to the failure of an Emergency Locator Transmitter (ELT). McCarthy and some associates saw the opportunity to develop a lightweight, portable, 'real-time' GPS tracking device for the aviation industry. The team developed a device known as a 'Spider' – a small device that plugs into an aircraft's auxiliary power outlet and is mounted in the cockpit. Information such the aircraft's location, altitude, speed, and direction were transmitted via the

Iridium Iridium is a chemical element with the symbol Ir and atomic number 77. A very hard, brittle, silvery-white transition metal of the platinum group, it is considered the second-densest naturally occurring metal (after osmium) with a density of ...

satellite network every two minutes to the Spidertracks software platform. The founders claimed this offered a much more reliable way to locate an aircraft in an emergency situation. Spider Tracks Limited was registered with the New Zealand Companies Office on 20 February 2007. In 2020, Spidertracks launched their latest hardware device – 'Spider X'. According the Spidertracks, in addition to the real-time tracking and communication functions of previous models, the device is able to record and wirelessly transmit AHRS data to the Spidertracks cloud-based platform. The flight data is then processed post-flight to enable a 3D virtual flight replay and reporting on specific events or safety violations. Spidertracks claim this provides a low-cost, simple solution for Flight Data Monitoring and

Flight Operations Quality Assurance Flight operational quality assurance (FOQA, ) also known as flight data monitoring (FDM) or flight data analysis, is a method of capturing, analyzing and/or visualizing the data generated by an aircraft moving through the air from one point to anot ...

for the

General Aviation General aviation (GA) is defined by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) as all civil aviation aircraft operations with the exception of commercial air transport or aerial work, which is defined as specialized aviation services ...

industry. In March 2022, investment firm Arcadea Group acquired a 95% shareholding of Spidertracks for an undisclosed sum.

Locations

Spidertracks' head office is in

Auckland, New Zealand Auckland (pronounced ) ( mi, Tāmaki Makaurau) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. The most populous urban area in the country and the fifth largest city in Oceania, Auckland has an urban population of about I ...

, with a secondary office in

Parker, Colorado Parker is a home rule municipality in Douglas County, Colorado, United States. As a self-declared "town" under the home rule statutes, Parker is the second most populous town in the county; Castle Rock is the most populous (the community of Hi ...

. The company also claims to employ staff across the world.

References

{{reflist Aviation companies Companies of New Zealand New Zealand companies established in 2017 Software companies established in 2017 Software companies of New Zealand