Live Flights – Watching Aircraft in Real Time
Summary: How to switch on live flight tracking, filter by altitude, follow an aircraft, and control labels and sound alerts.
Switch on Live Flights in the Layers panel to see real-time aircraft positions over Europe and the Atlantic, updated continuously. A live count badge on the layer shows how many aircraft are currently on screen.
All Aircraft vs. Military Only
Use the master toggle at the top of the Live Flights section to switch between:
- All Aircraft — every tracked aircraft in range.
- Military Only — filters the map down to military traffic (see the separate article on Military Flight Filters & the Activity Board for what’s available in this mode).
Filtering by Altitude
Use the altitude-band buttons to show or hide aircraft by height band: GND (on the ground), Low (1,000–10,000 ft), Mid (FL100–FL250), and High (FL250+). Combine bands to focus on, say, just low-level traffic near an airfield.
Following an Aircraft
Click any aircraft icon to select it, then choose Track to keep the map centred on it as it moves — handy for following a single flight without manually panning. Click Track again, or select a different aircraft, to stop.
Labels and Sound
- Persistent labels show each aircraft’s callsign directly on the map (visible from zoom level 8 and closer, and only for aircraft currently in view) so you don’t need to click every icon to identify what you’re looking at.
- Audio alerts play a distinct tone for emergency squawks and for zone alerts (see the separate articles on those features), even if the map tab isn’t in focus.
For details on what’s shown when you click an individual aircraft, see Reading the Aircraft Info Panel. For notifications when the map isn’t open, see the Alerts & Notifications category.
