Welcome to the Flying Page, the real‑time operations hub inside Spidertracks.
If you haven’t already set up your organisation and aircraft, start with our Onboarding Checklist—then return here to learn how to monitor flights using the array of features and tools available to you.
Quick Start
The Flying page is a powerful tool designed to help surface key information to support Flight Operations teams. But at its core, using it is quite simple if you remember these three summary steps:
Step 1 – Search & Filter
Keep your view clean with only the information that is helpful for the task at hand.
Step 2 – Select & Centre
Click on an aircraft in the list to auto-center and zoom the map. The map will keep update periodically to keep the aircraft within view.
or, click the Center Map control to auto zoom to your fleet or filter selection.
Step 3 – Monitor & Act (ongoing)
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Watch the aircraft status and tag colours for changes:
Red = SOS, Amber = delayed, Green = normal, Grey = inactive
SOS and airborne aircraft float to the top automatically
Follow your organisation's procedures if an SOS is raised or if tracking becomes significantly delayed
You’re now flight-following. Dive into the detailed sections below to customise maps, layers, and track display when you’re ready.
1. Search & Filter
Use the Search bar to find a specific aircraft, or switch to Filter where you can focus your view by Organisation or Aircraft type (only shown if more than one option is available to you). Time window options include:
Now | Active aircraft only |
Today | (default) All aircraft that have been active today (per your time zone setting) |
24 h | All aircraft that have been active within the last 24 hour window |
7 days | All aircraft that have been active within the last 7 day window |
All | The most recent flight of any aircraft you have visibility of - remains until aircraft is deleted |
2. Aircraft List & Statuses
Each aircraft that has flown since being made 'visible' to you is shown in your Aircraft summary list. Selecting an aircraft expands the panel to reveal more information; clicking again deselects and collapses the panel.
Status Indicator & List Order
Aircraft are listed according to a combination of their Status and when they last flew.
Icon | Status | What it means |
---|---|---|
Active (airborne) | Listed first. Based on flight log events for Spider X, and speed/altitude for older models. | |
Active (on ground) |
Listed second. | |
Inactive | Listed last. Based on 'power off' event and 'safe' landing (Spider X), or no position sent for >15 minutes (older models) |
When the aircraft is in Active Watch mode, the status indicator will have a Blue ring around it to indicate the automated watch function is active.
If an SOS is raised by the aircraft (crew button press) or triggered by an auto Watch 'timeout', then status indicator will show a Red ring around it, all text will be red and the aircraft will be pushed to the top of the list to ensure it gets priority attention. An SOS remains open until cancelled by the pilot (Spider X only) or closed by a Tier 1 or 2 responder - even if the tracking goes inactive.
Tip: You can hover over the status icon to show the current status in a tool tip, along with the time since last position report (and until Watch trigger if in Watch mode).
Summary/Collapsed
When a flight is Active, the following is shown:
- Status indicator dot
- Registration / Tail number
- Messaging icon: Gray if Spider not paired, blue if spider paired to a user
- Aircraft icon: The icon for this aircraft, rotated to the last heading reported
- Time: The time the Spider was powered on
- Altitude: Shown as 'above ground level' (AGL) <1000 AGL, else shows 'above mean sea level' (AMSL)
- Speed: GPS ground speed
- Duration: The elapsed duration since the Spider was turned o
If the flight becomes Inactive, the Registration changes to gray the content changes to show:
- Aircraft icon: The icon for this aircraft, rotated to the final heading reported
- Times: The start and end times, according to when the Spider was powered
- Speed (optional): This will only show (in amber) if the last position reported was at >30 knots. This cautions that the available track data ended whilst the aircraft was still moving, so it is recommended to check the flight ended safely.
- Duration: The final duration that the Spider was turned on for this flight.
When your mouse is over any aircraft in the list, quick links will show for:
- Flights on this day: Opens multi flight view with all flights from this aircraft on this day
- History: Opens History page pre-filtered by this aircraft
- Flight Explorer: Opens Flight Explorer for the current/most recent flight
Expanded
When an aircraft is selected, the information panel expands to include richer information.
If a flight is in progress, a smart summary timeline includes any key flight events and durations that are known, along with the current status and live stats for the aircraft:
When the flight is complete, the smart summary includes final Flight Log durations if available:
3. Basic Navigation & Tools
- Zoom & Pan – mouse scroll to zoom, or use ‘+’/’–’ keys in the bottom right. Click and drag to pan.
- Aircraft Selection – click an icon or choose from the list to auto‑centre and zoom
- Follow Mode – Select an aircraft and the map will auto update to keep the latest location on screen for hands‑free tracking
The following table provides a summary of the features available via the map controls and tools available on the right side of the map panel:
Full Screen |
Maximise the map; perfect for dedicated flight following displays. To enter full-screen map view, click the full-screen icon. Press Escape or click the icon again to return to standard view. |
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Track Display Options |
Customise how aircraft tracks appear. Choose from:
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Center Map | Re-centers the map on the last reported locations of all aircraft selected in the aircraft list. | |
Weather |
Enrich your planning and logistics with the latest weather information and notices; Choose from Radar, cloud tops, AIRMETs, SIGMETs, METARs, TAFs, NOTAMs and winds aloft (1,000, 5,000 & 10,000 ft). |
|
Map View |
A selection of core and aviation base map views. Choose from standard, satellite, terrain, hybrid, VFR, IFR and basic. |
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Map Layers |
Toggle on/off Geofence display (beta) Toggle on/off any custom layers imported by you or your organisaiton. |
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Favorites | Add and manage favorite views so you can efficiently zoom to areas of interest. | |
Measure Tool | Map out multi-leg routes and identify leg + total distances to assist with flight planning. |
4. Track & Icon Settings
The type, icon and colour of each aircraft can only be managed by an Admin via the Admin settings. All members of the Org will see the same icons and colours set by the Admin.
The track will default to the same colour as the icon. On the Map, tracks that are active or selected will render more bold and on top of others to help with visibility.
The following track display preferences can be adjusted per member under Account > My Settings > Preferences
- Bold Width: Helps the track to standout against standard and VFR map layers. Enabled by default.
- Gray Underline: Improves contrast of the track against most map layers. Enabled by default.
- Match Aircraft Colours: Disabling this makes all tracks red for maximum contrast, but at the expense of easy differentiation. Enabled by default.
Tip: All units in Flying and History (date/time, speed, altitude etc) are also displayed according to your preferences.
5. Point Information Panel
Selecting any Aircraft will zoom the map to the track available from its current or most recent flight and open the Point Information Panel in the corner of the map.
This panel shows details from each specific position report received, and provides navigation controls to sweep (slider) or sweep through all reports in the track. When a track is selected (and set to show "All Events"), you can also zoom in see every individual position marked on the track; click on any point to jump the point information panel to this report.
Tracking Performance & Delays
Spider X devices set to HD Tracking (included in all subscriptions, recommended for aircraft) create individual position reports no more than 15 seconds apart when airborne. Typical delivery latencies varying between seconds to 1 minute depending on where the aircraft is relative to cellular and satellite networks.
The Flying page includes features that visually highlight when tracking is delayed, and by how much;
- Tracking Delayed icon; An amber hourglass icon after the aircraft's registration means tracking delays have exceeded a threshold (default is 5 minutes). This icon is easy to spot when scanning through an aircraft list.
- Amber aircraft label: This behaves the same as above, but shows in the map view instead. This is helpful when in full-screen mode, and to add geographic context that might justify the delays (e.g. in valley or next to mountains that degrade satellite view).
Delays longer than a couple minutes are unexpected and normally indicative of suboptimal installations - if these are experienced regularly, refer your Maintenance team to the Spider X Diagnostics function of the Spidertracks mobile app to investigate.
For further assistance with the Flying Page, please contact support@spidertracks.com.
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