I sighed, a little relieved.

I took a sip of cold coffee, said a quick prayer of thanks and looked at the clock.

It was 11:30 a.m. and my daughter Julie’s connecting flight that originated in West Palm Beach had finally taken off from Newark after being delayed for about 50 minutes.

Meanwhile, her sister Katy’s flight out of Miami was on schedule. It had just crossed over the Georgia state line. And it was heading northwest across the Alabama-Georgia border.

My wife walked into the kitchen.

“Has Julie’s plane left yet?”

“It’s in the air,” I said, looking at the right-hand browser window on my laptop.

“I’m going to go get your gas,” my wife said, heading out to fill up my tank for the trip to Kansas City International airport.

I continued watching the progress of the two flights bringing back two of my teen daughters from their spring break trips.

The small plane on the right-hand screen showed Julie’s flight, Continental 1667. The plane scooted along slowly across a map, showing she was heading over Lancaster, Pa. According to the flight instruments, she was at 29,000 feet, going just under 500 mph.

Meanwhile, the left-hand browser window showed me Katy’s flight, American Airlines 2711. The small plane on the screen showed Katy was 34 miles northeast of Montgomery, Ala., traveling northeast at 483 mph at 31,000 feet.

Somehow, all this information coming into my kitchen was comforting.

Thanks to the flight-tracking information from Trip.com, I could easily find out where the girls were in real time and how soon they would be home.

And I could decide how soon I should leave for the airport to pick them up.

Peace of mind

Flight-tracking Web sites have been around since the late 1990s. But after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, they seem less of a gimmick and more of a useful tool for peace of mind.

They provide friends and family information usually attainable only if you’re in the airport and are monitoring the flight arrival or departure screens or if you’re willing to pester the airline staff.

You can find several online links to flight-tracking services.

At FlyteComm (www.flytecomm.com), you can easily find where a flight is in the air if you know the airline and the flight number.

You also can search for flights by choosing an arrival airport and a departure airport in the United States or Canada.

The information comes displayed on a map or in text format. And it’s updated every five minutes.

Another place to go is Flight Explorer (www.flightexplorer.com). Its free FastTrack site also gives you the basics, such as the altitude and speed and how many miles are left to go.

My favorite flight-tracking site is Trip.com (www.trip.com). I like it because the planes look a little more like planes. And you can see them moving on the screen every five seconds.

In the graphical version, they also use what looks like analog flight instruments that show speed, heading and direction.

Phone tracking

When I arrived at the airport, I started to call home to ask my wife where my daughters’ flights were on the screens, then I stopped. Could I access a flight tracker on my phone?

I scrolled through the Web interface on my Nextel phone and found it Trip.com’s FlightTracker.

I punched in the flight numbers.

Julie’s plane was just over Columbia, Mo., and due to arrive in about 15 minutes. I kept checking until it landed.

After a big hug and luggage pickup, Julie and I went over to the other terminal to wait on Katy’s plane.

While Julie had some pizza at an airport snack area, I punched Katy’s flight number into the phone again.

Katy’s plane was 13 miles northeast of the airport. That left plenty of time to walk over to greet her at Gate 36.

I was surprised how tall she looked and choked up a little when I hugged her.

“I can’t believe you’re tanner than I am,” Julie told Katy.

On the way home, the girls and I talked about their trips. And they were already making plans to go out that evening.

That raised a question: Are there any Web sites to help you track your daughters when they’re out on a Friday night?