Aircraft Information Window
Getting detailed information about aircrafts
Last updated
Getting detailed information about aircrafts
Last updated
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 .
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.
<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
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 |
.
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
...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...
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.