Comment on page
Aircraft Information Window
Getting detailed information about aircrafts
LiveTraffic can show aircraft information and updated flight data. Note that the current flight data (like position, speed, altitude and so on) represent the aircraft as shown in X-Plane. This is supposingly very close to reality, but LiveTraffic certainly needs to interpolate between available data points, so there is some degree of freedom. And it lacks the buffering time (see config) behind real time anyway.

Aircraft Info Window, showing N920DU flying DL822
Data and Settings are explained below.
The
link symbol in the Tracking Data line opens a browser page on the channel's tracking site focusing on the aircraft.
The
Camera button starts the External Camera View.
The
Visible and
Auto Visible buttons hide/show the aircraft.




All menu items mentioned here can be bound to keyboard shortcuts or joystick buttons. There are two relevant menu items:
Plugin > LiveTraffic > Aircraft Info...
for a window inside X-PlanePlugin > LiveTraffic > Aircraft Info... (Popped out)
for creating a popped out window in a native operating system window, which could be moved anywhere. It makes most sense if you have and use for this purpose a monitor, which is not filled by X-Plane, e.g. if you keep one monitor for flight planner, moving map or the like. Otherwise the popped out window would become hidden behind X-Plane once X-Planes gets the focus - just like any other window as well. The initial position of any new window might not be optimal and you might need to drag it out of a corner to see it completely.
Several aircraft information windows can be opened in parallel, just select the above menu items as often as you like.
Icon | Action | Icon | Action |
---|---|---|---|
<Title Bar> | To move the window around drag it by the title bar. | ![]() | Pop out into separate OS window |
![]() | Close this window | ![]() | Pop back in to X-Plane |
![]() | Open this page | ![]() | Move into VR |
You can also hide/show all windows at once with the
Aircraft Info Shown
menu item and close all of them with Close All Windows
.The "AUTO" checkbox in the first row switches between AUTO and Locked mode:
A/C Info Windows always open in AUTO mode, i.e. they display information on the nearest aircraft roughly in the direction of the camera (even if it might not currently be visible on the screen because it is way below/above the camera).
In locked mode the currently shown aircraft will be retained no matter where the camera points to, as long as the aircraft is displayed in LiveTraffic.
Or you can select any specific aircraft for display by entering an id into the first field A/C key. Type in any one of the following and LiveTraffic searches for a match once you hit [Enter]:
- transponder hex code
- registration (tail number)
- call sign
- flight number
- squawk code
- index within LiveTraffic, which is just an arbitrary number starting with one up to the number of displayed aircrafts (and is not currently stable, i.e. with aircrafts appearing and disappearing one particular aircraft might have a different index any time), it is mostly meant to search around for something interesting.
Note that some lines are split into two fields. The label is then divided by a vertical bar
|
.ld | Example | Content |
---|---|---|
| | Aircraft Information |
A/C key | ACBE88 | Transponder hex code uniquely identifying an aircraft (strictly speaking: its transponder) |
AUTO | | |
Registration | N920DU | Registration, aka tail number.
The link symbol at the beginning takes you to OpenSky's aircraft database where you can update the aircraft profile if needed. |
ICAO Type | B739 | Unique, ICAO-defined identifier for the type of aircraft, like A388 or SR20. See the ICAO DOC8643 aircraft type designators for a list. This code is received from the tracking data and plays an important role in CSL model matching, i.e. influences heavily how the aircraft is rendered in X-Plane. "?" if there was no ICAO type in the received tracking data. |
Class | L2J | L - Land plane, H - Helicopter, S - Sea plane, and others. 1,2,3,4... - number of engines J - Jet, P - Piston, T - Turbo, E - Electric, and others |
Manufacturer | Boeing | Human-readable, ie. non-standardized text |
Model | 787-900ER | Human-readable, ie. non-standardized text about the aircraft model |
Operator | DAL: Bank Of Utah Trustee | ICAO-defined identifier of the operator of the aircraft, often an airline, plus its human-readable text |
| | Communication / Flight |
Call Sign | DAL822 | Call sign used in radio communication. For airliners this often gives away the flight number, but this is just convention and no guarantee. |
Squawk | 2004 | The flight's current squawk code. |
Flight: Route | DL822: KLAX-KMCO | Flight number: Route
The route typically is "Departure Airport - Arrival Airport" but can in some cases include more stops.
All of this is community-maintained data from the tracking data or from OpenSky's route database and might be inaccurate.
The link symbol at the beginning takes you to OpenSky to maintain flight/route information for this callsign. |
| | Position / Spacial |
Position | 4.6nm SW of KLAX | Relative position to nearest airport |
Coordinates | 33.9066 N 118.4918 W | Current aircraft position (latitude / longitude). |
Altitude | 2197ft | ...in feet MSL. |
AGL | 2197ft | Height above ground level in feet, or GND_ON if on the ground. |
Speed | 241kn | knots over ground. |
VSI | +680ft/min | ft/min vertical descend (negative) / climb (positive) rate. |
Heading | 224° | ...in degrees relative to true north. |
Pitch | 1.7° | Pitch angle in degrees |
Roll | 0.0° | Roll/bank angle in degrees |
Bearing | 244° | Look into this direction to see the aircraft, based on your current camera position. |
Distance | 5.3nm | The plane is this many nautical miles away from your current camera position. |
| | Modelling Information |
CSL Model | BB_Boeing B739_DAL | Actual CSL model currently used for rendering this aircraft within X-Plane. This is one of those you installed with the CSL packages. |
Simulated Time | 2021-12-11 00:17:46.2Z | This is the ZULU time currently simulated, which should be current real time minus the buffering period. |
Tracking Data | +78.7s, ADS-B Exchange Online | Number of seconds into the future (+) or in the past (-) of the last available position information. If this number is positive then there is future data available and the plane will keep moving at least until then. If the number is negative then we already ran out of tracking data and the plane will disappear soon if no more data is received. |
Flight Phase | Climb | Current flight phase like Take Off, Climb, Cruise, Approach... |
Gear | 0% | Gear position: 0% - fully retracted, 100% - fully deployed |
Flaps | 0% | Flap position: 0 - fully retracted, 1 - fully deployed |
Lights | nav/bcn/ strb/----/lnd | Indicates which lights are on: nav - navigation lights bcn - beacon strb - Strobe taxi - Taxi Lights (not all CSL models show taxi lights) lnd - Landing Lights |
...control the visual appearance of the Aircraft information Window. Click to open.
Both options are Drag Sliders: Click with the mouse somewhere in the bar and drag to the left/right to change the value. Why this type of control has been chosen becomes apparent when you drag the Font Scaling control...
Option | Default | Description |
---|---|---|
Font Scaling | 100% | Changes the text size of all Aircraft Information and Status Information Windows, thereby influencing the window size, too. |
Opacity | 25% | Opacity of all transparent windows 0% - fully transparent, 100% fully black background |
Last modified 6mo ago