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Tracking the aircraft

Clicking the List icon in upper right corner in Flight Watch will open the Active Aircraft List.

To track an aircraft, click a row from the Active Aircraft list or click an active aircraft (blue icon) on the map.

Once an aircraft has been chosen for tracking the aircraft icon turns white in colour.

Also, if the aircraft is airborne or soon to be airborne, then a blue line is shown displaying the planned route from the Flight Plan.
The actual position and history of movement is depicted with green dots. These green dots are actual position reports that are received from one of the tracking sources.

Connect tracked positions

When the setting for Connect Tracked Positions (within the Layer Controls – Map Controls) is turned ON the green tracking dots will be linked with a green line as shown below.

Tracking Sources

The source of the position report can be found from within the Active Aircraft area, as shown below.

Code Source
ADSB-AS ADSB-Support
ADSB-ASN ADSB-Support V2
ADSB-AX ADSB Exchange
ADSB-AN ADSB AirNav
ADSB-FA ADSB Fly Aerion
EUROCONTROL Eurocontrol Data
SATCOM D SATCOM Direct

Aircraft icons

There are 2 icons representing airplanes or helicopters within the map display.

There are 2 icons representing airplanes or helicopters within the map display.

Gate-to-gate

Flight watch is capable of tracking aircraft from gate-to-gate. This means the user can have a full overview of the aircraft activity from the gate of departure all the way to the arrival gate.

Moving Inactive or Hanging Aircraft

Sometimes, when tracking is lost, an aircraft might ‘freeze’ (hang) in midair part-way along its route or close to landing if coverage is lost and no local ADSB receiver is present.

Additionally, an aircraft might be located at an incorrect airport because of lack of tracking of a flight. If these conditions apply, then the Move aircraft option will appear in the side menu displayed below (any other inactive aircraft will also appear grey).


These inactive incorrectly located aircraft or aircraft ‘frozen’ in midair can be moved to new locations.

The user can move a ‘hung’ aircraft in midair after either of 2 conditions have occurred, these are:

  • The aircraft is hanging in midair and has been there until after the scheduled ETA.
  • An aircraft without a connected FPL in OpsControl is hanging and 30 minutes has passed after the last registered tracking.

NOTE!
Only aircrafts where one of the two conditions stated above can be moved, and only then will the option appear in the menu.

Step 1:

To move the aircraft, click the 3 dots (…) in the far-right column and select Move aircraft.

Step 2:

A window appears prompting the user to enter an airport where the aircraft is to be moved to.

It should be noted that the inactive aircraft icon is shown in transparent grey
Recently landed or recently started tracking aircraft (but not yet airborne) are shown in transparent blue.

Only the grey inactive aircraft can be moved.
As an alternate method to move an inactive or hung aircraft, any grey aircraft icon on the Flight Watch map can be right clicked to open the Move Aircraft box, as shown below.