🇹🇷 Istanbul, Turkey
Istanbul is one of the largest population centres on Earth. Real-Earth coordinates 41.018°, 28.974°, population 10,061,000. Skyline in every direction and an approach that never quite ends — one of the more demanding places to fly low and fast. Skydex flies the real Earth here — the elevation, coastline and city layout under the aircraft come from the same data the map does, and the sky is shared with everyone else flying it.
Seen on the water near Istanbul last 30 days, AIS via the Skydex feed
152 vessels on 30 days · 268 sightings (one vessel on one day) · type known for 67 of them.
Counted from the AIS positions the Skydex feed received here — sampled once a day in local daytime, plus whenever pilots fly here — not a port register. Ship tracking
Airports near Istanbul within 120 km, heard by the Skydex receiver network
- Atatürk International Airport (ISL) · 14 km · 323 flights in 30 days
- Sabiha Gökçen International Airport (SAW) · 31 km · 4,159 flights in 30 days
- Istanbul Airport (IST) · 35 km · 11,410 flights in 30 days
- Tekirdağ Çorlu Airport (TEQ) · 89 km · 2 flights in 30 days
- Bursa Yenişehir Airport (YEI) · 98 km · 18 flights in 30 days
Flights are airline flight numbers our receivers heard heading to or from the airport, once a day each — not runway movements. All airports
Activity in Istanbul
Visitors came from 6 countries this month.
“Pilots” counts signed-in players; “visits” counts sessions, not unique people.
Flying conditions in Istanbul
Sunrise 07:46 · Sunset 17:49 · 10 h 03 m of daylight (local time)
Verdict weighs gusts, precipitation and cold — the things that actually decide whether a drone or a bird has a good time up there. Sunrise and sunset are computed from the city's coordinates, not forecast. Forecast issued 2026-11-11 00:41 UTC and refreshed live in your browser. Weather by Open-Meteo (CC BY 4.0).
Flying weather in Istanbul through the year
November in Istanbul averages 13.1°C with winds around 16 km/h, and roughly 82% of days are good for flying — about 7 days see rain.
Fewest weather restrictions: June, July, August; February is the most restricted at 48% usable days. (That's about wind and rain, not comfort — check the temperatures below.)
| Month | Avg temp | Wind | Rain days | Good to fly |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| January | 8.2°C | 18 km/h | 12 | 65% |
| February | 6.4°C | 18 km/h | 17 | 48% |
| March | 9.9°C | 17 km/h | 9 | 79% |
| April | 11.5°C | 17 km/h | 9 | 70% |
| May | 17.6°C | 16 km/h | 11 | 74% |
| June | 23.7°C | 18 km/h | 1 | 98% |
| July | 26°C | 19 km/h | 4 | 92% |
| August | 25.2°C | 22 km/h | 3 | 89% |
| September | 21.5°C | 19 km/h | 11 | 80% |
| October | 16.1°C | 17 km/h | 7 | 82% |
| November | 13.1°C | 16 km/h | 7 | 82% |
| December | 9°C | 15 km/h | 14 | 66% |
Based on ERA5 reanalysis. “Good to fly” counts days without strong wind, real rain or hard frost — the conditions that actually ground a drone.
Recent activity in Istanbul
Where to fly a drone near Istanbul
🛩 Where to fly a drone in Turkey →
What you can do here
- Fly Istanbul in an FPV drone or as a gull, from 41.018°, 28.974° — keyboard and mouse, a gamepad, or a real RC transmitter over USB.
- Check the weather first: live wind, gusts and cloud over the city, plus the month-by-month flyable-days table above.
- Watch real traffic — aircraft overhead and ships on the water come from live ADS-B and AIS feeds, not from a script.
- Meet other pilots in the same sky: city chat room, radio, and the walkie-talkie frequency for Istanbul.