While flight tracking systems (FTS) have historically been integral to air carrier and corporate flight ops, New Zealand-based Spidertracks gained traction in the GA market in 2010 with its model S3 portable satellite tracking unit. The Spidertracks is a simple concept. Utilizing aviation-grade hardware, combined with low bandwidth data connections and data delivered over satellite, the trackers lay a moving detailed (and customizable) digital footprint for those on the ground to follow.
The latest Spidertracks device is the $1995 Spider X, which has some radical upgrades from the discontinued Spider 8 product. Herewith is a field report.