General I keep hearing about tail number blocking. What exactly does this mean? Why are some International Flights missing data? How often does the weather radar and satellite image update? Why do I sometimes see hollow airplanes on my display? Why are flights over the ocean almost always hollow?   Q: Re: FlyteComm's Flight Tracker / Flight Status Tool...I keep hearing about tail number blocking. What exactly does this mean? A: NBAA recently instituted an aircraft tail number blocking program to allow aircraft owners and operators to have their aircraft blocked in the data stream in order to insure privacy. Each data vendor is responsible for blocking these aircraft, and every 30 days, NBAA sends each vendor a list of aircraft tail numbers to block. FlyteComm blocks these aircraft in such a way that that the aircraft still appears on the display with all relevant data tag information except the call sign, which is changed from the aircraft's call sign to "GA". In addition, FlyteTrax also has an alias system that allows an owner or operator to block its aircraft but still see them on its display through the use of a pass code. Back to Top Q: Re: FlyteComm's Flight Tracker / Flight Status Tool...Why are some International Flights missing data? A: The graphical display can be incorrect because of the way the FlyteTrax software was originally written. We've always had a problem with flights crossing the International Date Line. The SW has trouble understanding the 'date' change and does the best it can to try and compensate. The time error also has to do with the International Date Line. When flights leave the US Flight Tracking Range and enter a Foreign Control Zone, the FlyteTrax software can then only estimate the flight's location; it does this until ETE (Estimated Time Enroute = 0) and then 'drops' the flight. FYI...Over the Atlantic Ocean, this happens when the flight passes 20W. FlyteTrax 2000 is a 'Domestic Air Traffic Monitoring System' (including Canada). As more countries make their flight tracking data available, FlyteTrax's coverage area will continue to expand. Back to Top Q: Re: FlyteComm's Flight Tracker / Flight Status Tool...How often does the weather radar and satellite image update? A: Radar weather updates every 15 minutes. The satellite image updates hourly. Back to Top Q: Re: FlyteComm's Flight Tracker / Flight Status Tool...Why do I sometimes see hollow airplanes on my display? Why are flights over the ocean almost always hollow? A: The FlyteTrax 2000 receives a radar position report on each aircraft once every 4 minutes when they are in the ARTCC airspace. When they are within 40 miles of the airport the system receives a radar position report every minute. If the system goes for 7 minutes with no position report the target is hollowed to let you know that the position you see the aircraft in is based on dead reckoning from a radar position received more than 7 minutes ago. Oceanic flights only provide position reports crossing every 10 degrees of longitude. These reports can be as much as an hour apart. Therefore they will spend most of their flight being dead reckoned (or hollow). Back to Top