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LiveTraffic
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  • LiveTraffic
  • Introduction
    • Features
      • Flight Data Channels
      • Display of Aircraft
      • Snapping to Taxiways
      • TCAS
      • Accessing LiveTraffic's Aircraft Data
      • Feeding Data to LiveTraffic
    • Requirements
    • Limitations
  • Setup
    • Installation
      • Step-by-Step
      • adsb.fi
      • OpenSky Network
      • Open Glider Network
      • ADSBHub
      • ADS-B Exchange
      • RealTraffic
      • FSCharter
      • SayIntentions
      • ForeFlight
      • XPMP2 Remote Client
    • First Steps
    • LiveTraffic and other multiplayer Clients in parallel
    • Configuration
      • Settings - Basics
      • Settings - Weather
      • Settings - A/C Labels
      • Settings - Advanced
      • Settings - CSL
      • Settings - Debug
  • Using LT
    • Message Area
    • Menu Items
      • Keyboard and Button Commands
    • Status Information Window
      • Aircraft List
      • Messages
      • Status / About
      • UI Settings
    • Aircraft Information Window
      • External Camera View
      • Hide and Impersonate Aircraft
  • Reference
    • Help, Support, Bugs, Issue
    • FAQ
    • Change Log
    • Known Issues
    • Video & Screenshots
    • Privacy
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On this page
  • Opening an A/C Info Window
  • AUTO and Locked Mode, Search
  • AUTO mode
  • Locked mode / Search for aircraft
  • Displayed Information
  • Settings
  1. Using LT

Aircraft Information Window

Getting detailed information about aircrafts

PreviousUI SettingsNextExternal Camera View

Last updated 8 months ago

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 ) behind real time anyway.

and 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 . The Visible and Auto Visible buttons .

Opening an A/C Info Window

  • Plugin > LiveTraffic > Aircraft Info... for a window inside X-Plane

  • Plugin > 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

AUTO and Locked Mode, Search

The "AUTO" checkbox in the first row switches between AUTO and Locked mode:

AUTO 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).

Locked mode / Search for aircraft

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.

Displayed Information

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

ICAO Type

B739

"?" 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

Simulated Time

2021-12-11 00:17:46.2Z

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

Settings

...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%

Opacity

25%

Opacity of all transparent windows

0% - fully transparent, 100% fully black background

All menu items mentioned here can be . There are two relevant menu items:

Or you can open an Aircraft Information Window by clicking the symbol in the .

You can also hide/show all windows at once with the and close all of them with .

Switches between and mode

Registration, aka tail number. The link symbol at the beginning takes you to where you can update the aircraft profile if needed.

Unique, ICAO-defined identifier for the type of aircraft, like A388 or SR20. See the for a list.

This code is received from the tracking data and plays an important role in , i.e. influences heavily how the aircraft is rendered in X-Plane.

aircraft class:

Actual CSL model currently used for rendering this aircraft within X-Plane. This is one of those you installed with the .

This is the ZULU time currently simulated, which should be current real time minus the .

Changes the text size of all Aircraft Information and Windows, thereby influencing the window size, too.

bound to keyboard shortcuts or joystick buttons
OpenSky's aircraft database
ICAO DOC8643 aircraft type designators
ICAO-defined
buffering period
Status Information
AUTO
Locked
config
External Camera View
hide/show the aircraft
Data
Settings
Aircraft List
Aircraft Info Shown menu item
Close All Windows
CSL packages
Aircraft Info Window, showing N920DU flying DL822
CSL model matching