curiouspilot.com

What It Is

Curious Pilot is a nighttime sky simulation tool designed for UAP investigations. Its core purpose is to help pilots or investigators determine whether the point of light they saw at the time could have been a satellite, a Starlink train, or a flare. It can replay historical flight tracks in sync with satellite positions, brightness, and Earth-shadow status, either from an aircraft perspective or a fixed observation point.

Core Features and Integrations

The product supports importing KML/KMZ flight tracks: files with timestamps are opened in Aircraft Mode for playback, while files without timestamps are opened in Fixed Mode to show a static route. Flight data can be queried through FlightAware AeroAPI or OpenSky Network, with support for identifiers such as callsign, flight number, ICAO hex, and U.S. tail number. Its satellite-side features are fairly advanced, including visible satellite rendering, azimuth/elevation, playback speed control, Starlink flare prediction, combined brightness, flare-path highlighting, and diagnostic display for satellites in Earth’s shadow. The documentation also explains the assumptions behind its brightness calculations and flare predictions, giving it a good level of professional transparency.

Pricing and Data Source Costs

Curious Pilot itself does not disclose commercial pricing. In practice, the main costs come from third-party flight-track data sources: OpenSky’s free tier offers 4000 credits per day and a 30-day historical window; FlightAware Personal includes a $5 monthly free allowance and a 10-day historical window, with an estimated cost of about $0.062 per query, after which overage charges apply. Longer historical access requires FlightAware Standard or an OpenSky institutional plan.

Pros and Cons

Its strengths are a focused use case and strong explainability. It combines cockpit perspective, ADS-B flight tracks, TLE satellite data, and Starlink brightness models, making it well suited to serious post-event analysis. Its weaknesses are that common enterprise SaaS capabilities are missing or not disclosed, such as team collaboration, permissions, audit logs, SLA, compliance certifications, and self-hosting. In addition, flight-track coverage depends on third parties: OpenSky may miss small, regional, or general aviation flights, and flare brightness remains only an approximation.

Who It’s For and Access from China

It is best suited to pilots, UAP investigators, aviation astronomy enthusiasts, and researchers, rather than general enterprise management software users. The documentation does not state how well it works from China. Because it depends on overseas services such as FlightAware and OpenSky, network connectivity, USD payments, and third-party account registration may be uncertain. Comparable alternatives or complementary tools include FlightAware, OpenSky, Heavens-Above, and Stellarium.