St. Nick’s sleigh did a pass over Santa Barbara early this morning, presumably on his way across the Pacific and the International Dateline where it is, of course, already Christmas Day! 

Our ADS-B receiver at the Diablo Peak telecommunications site picked up his transponder with callsign SANTA1 at 15:37 UTC as he transited over the SB Channel and above the SBA class C airspace at 12,675 feet AGL.  He was not talking to SBA Approach Control or LA Center by radio so presumably he was handling his own traffic avoidance. See attached.

For those looking to the skies tonight for the eight tiny reindeer plus Rudoph’s red beacon, consider using EarthSpot.net, the SBARC/SB Wireless Foundation aircraft tracking system. 

Happy plane(sleigh)spotting and Merry Christmas!