Pan the map by using the pan controls situated above the zoom
buttons. The large buttons allow you to zoom North, South, East and
West. You can also use the right-click menu
to navigate to a particular spot on the map.This is the help file for the WebTrak application. You can leave it open in your browser while you are using WebTrak for quick access to help with WebTrak's features.
What is WebTrak?
Accuracy of Flight and Track Data
Accessibility
Minimum System Requirements
Getting Help
WebTrak Map Overview
Map Navigation
Community Locator
Displaying Static Tracks
WebTrak provides replay of aircraft operations around the immediate area of the airport for the general public. WebTrak is capable of showing both recent and past aircraft operations around the airport. It shows the path taken by aircraft and as much information about them as is permissible.
While every effort is made to ensure that the data is complete and accurate, WebTrak is not designed to be a detailed analysis system and it should not be used as such. (Please review the Terms of Use).
Every effort is made to ensure the completeness and accuracy of the flight and track data presented in WebTrak. However flights may be missing due to security and safety restrictions, or temporary systems failures.
In addition, due to need to support the widest possible number of communications links and computer platforms, simplifications may be made in how the data is presented. WebTrak is not suitable for detailed geographical investigations of flight data.
Due to the technologies used to provide a geospatial representation of aircraft operations at East Midlands Airport, some components of this website may not be fully accessible to people using screen readers etc. If you cannot resolve your query using this Web site then please contact the airport directly for assistance with your specific query.
WebTrak requires Flash version 9 or later. If you have an earlier version of the plugin, WebTrak will attempt to automatically upgrade your plugin to the latest version.
The system requirements for the Flash plugin may be viewed on the Adobe Flash product information page.
To get help on items in WebTrak, try holding down the shift key on your keyboard, while clicking on an item. The help text will open for the selected item, or at the table of contents if no specific help for that item exists.
WebTrak displays a map showing the area around the airport. Over this map you will see several 'floating' panels. These panels may be dragged to new locations on the screen if they are in your way.
Click on a control name to get a detailed description of each panel:
There are a number of ways to zoom the WebTrak Map.
Using the right-click menu
You can access the right-click menu by holding your pointer over the map and holding down the right mouse button. Then you can:
Using the floating navigator panel
The zoom level bars will also show you the current zoom level. The current zoom level will be highlighted, with the rest of the bars a darker colour.
Pan the map by using the pan controls situated above the zoom
buttons. The large buttons allow you to zoom North, South, East and
West. You can also use the right-click menu
to navigate to a particular spot on the map.
The smaller buttons on the pan controls allow diagonal panning. These buttons allow panning North-West, North-East, South-West and South East.
When it is not possible to pan further in a direction the colour of
the pan buttons will be slightly lighter. Nothing will happen if you click on
the button.
Reset the map by clicking the square in the middle of the pan controls, or by choosing "Reset Map" on the right-click menu. This will reset both the zoom and pan levels to the default view.
The map in WebTrak has a scale bar. The bar updates as you zoom in and out of the map to keep an integral number of units on its display. If the scale bar is not where you would like, it is possible to drag it out of the way by holding the left mouse button down and dragging it to where you want it.
You can use the playback controls (located by default at the bottom left of the map) to stop, start, pause, fast-forward and rewind the playback of flights.
The playback control's background is colour-coded. It displays as green when the application is playing, red when stopped, and orange when paused.
The play button turns into a pause button when WebTrak is in play mode.
The fast-forward and rewind buttons work by changing the replay start time. To move the replay start time forward, use the fast-forward button. To move the replay start time back, use the rewind button. Note that when you click these buttons multiple times, or hold them down, the time change increases and the rate of change accelerates. Replay will begin again about a second after your last click.
If you are too close to the start of the available data, the rewind button will be disabled. If you are too close to the end of available data, the fast-forward button will be disabled.
Using the control panel you can set replay time and configure WebTrak's features.
The Replay section of the control panel contains all the options for selecting the date and time period for replay.
To select a date, click a date in the calendar. You can select a date, scroll forward or backward by month, or by year to choose a different date.
There are two ways to set the replay time.
To select the time using the time menus, simply select the time you want.
The 'Flights by Hour' graph gives you a visual display of how many flights are available for replay in each hour of the selected day. To use the 'Flights by Hour' graph, click the 'Flights by Hour' button to show the graph.
If you move your mouse over the bars in the graph you will see how many flight tracks occurred in that hour. Generally there are many more tracks than there are arrivals and departures at any one airport.
If you click a bar in the graph, the corresponding hour will be selected for you in the time dropdown menu. You may then manually select a minute if you wish.
To return to the calendar display, click the 'Show Calendar' button.
Choose a speed from the speeds drop-down if you wish to accelerate replay.
Note that on slower computers, setting the replay speed to a higher value may cause problems with playback. If you encounter problems, such as the screen not updating or your computer becoming very slow, then try a lower replay speed.
When using accelerated replay WebTrak will require additional bandwidth. For example running at ten times replay speed requires ten times the bandwidth of running the same period at normal speed. You may find that slow Internet connections are not able to support the data rates required by higher replay speeds.
Click the "Start Replay" button to start the replay at the selected time.
Info tags are small translucent panels that follow an aircraft and display information about it. The aim of the info tag is to provide a simple summary of the most important information about the aircraft. You can find out what more WebTrak knows about the aircraft by opening an information panel.
The information shown in a info tag will vary depending on what WebTrak knows about the aircraft. It may include such items as
Moving your mouse over each item in the info tag will reveal a tooltip describing the field. (You cannot do this when you have used placing your mouse pointer over a single aircraft to show the info tag).
Choose the 'Options' tab in the control panel to reveal the 'Show Info Tags' option.
Selecting the "Show Info Tags" toggle will turn Info Tags on or off.
In addition to turning on info tags for all aircraft, it is also possible to place your mouse over an individual aircraft to show its info tag.
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Clicking on an aircraft will reveal a more detailed information panel. In addition to the information contained in the tags, the information panel may contain additional information such as the name of the aircraft type, the airline, and so on. Moving your mouse over each item in the panel will reveal a tooltip about that item which will contain either more information about that data item (eg, the full name of the carrier or airport) or a description of the data item.
The information panel's title bar will display the most descriptive unique identifier available for the aircraft.
The information panel will be displayed with a line connecting it to the aircraft in question. This line will move as the aircraft moves. The panel can be moved by clicking and dragging it to a new location. Several information panels may be opened at the same time.
Information displayed in the panel depends on the information that WebTrak has available. The following table explains the information that may be seen.
| Short Name | Description |
|---|---|
| Aircraft Type | A code that identifies the basic type of the aircraft. You can use this to look up more information about the aircraft (e.g. take off weight, number of passengers, engine type etc) |
| Altitude | The vertical position of the aircraft above mean sea level. This is only the same as the height above the ground level at the aircraft's current position, if the ground level is the same as sea level. |
| Arrives | The time that the flight is expected to arrive at its destination. |
| Beacon | A number that is used by the secondary surveillance radar to distinguish the aircraft that are operating in the airspace. |
| Destination | The code used by the airlines and air traffic control for the airport where this flight is going to. It is possible to look up the code to find out specific airport details. |
| Flight Id | An identifier used by airlines and air traffic control to identify the flight. |
| Origin | The code used by the airlines and air traffic control for the airport where this flight originated. It is possible to look up the code to find out specific airport details. |
| Tail Number | A unique registration number handed out by the country where the aircraft is registered. For some countries (e.g. the US and UK) it is possible to look up the aircraft owner and details using the tail number. |
Some of the information in the tags may have a link associated with it. The
link will appear as a small world icon like this:
.
Click on the icon for more information, eg, clicking on
a link next to Aircraft Type will open another window to an online
aircraft database. From there you can search for the aircraft type for
in-depth information on the model and type of aircraft.
Remove an information panel by clicking on the 'x' on the top right hand side of the panel.
Each flight track will have a particular icon to identify it. The type of the icon varies depending on the aircraft type or purpose of the flight. This icon will also be coloured, based on the operation type and airport. The following table provides the details.
| Icon | Aircraft Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Commercial Jet | A flight being flown by an airline using a jet aircraft. The aircraft may be carrying passengers or freight. |
| Helicopter | A flight being operated using a helicopter. Typically these will be police or emergency services. |
| Propeller aircraft | An aircraft with propellers rather than jet engines. Typically these will be smaller and slower aircraft. Often the aircraft will be operated by private individuals or corporations. |
| Unknown type | WebTrak does not have sufficient information available to classify the operator or the type of aircraft. |
Each icon will have a colour assigned to determine the type of operation. Icons will be coloured depending on operation (arrival/departure) type, and also the origin airport.
Each icon will have a colour assigned to determine the type of operation. Icons will be coloured depending on operation (arrival/departure) type, and also the origin airport.
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NEMA | Arrival | |
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NEMA | Departure | |
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Other airports | All |
The flight tracks (or tails) behind each aircraft icon will be coloured depending on site configuration. In the default mode the tracks are the same colour as the icon.
The Community Locator is a quick and easy way to find a particular community, area or suburb on the map.
You open the Community Locator by clicking on the community tab in the control panel.
Select the drop-down and scroll through to find the area of interest. Click on the selection and the map will pan and zoom to that area.
To reset the map to the default view, click the "Reset" button.
The static track button on the information panel allows you to review all of the track data that WebTrak has for a given flight track.
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Within the information panel you will see the Static Track button.
Click on it to load this flight's track data.
If you wish to pause replay while the static track is displayed, click the pause button in the replay controls.
Click again on the Static Track button to remove the static track display.