Reading the Aircraft Info Panel

Summary: What’s shown when you click an aircraft – the plain-language summary, the Listen on block with the frequency to tune, the detail rows and the folds beneath.

Click any aircraft on the map to open its info panel. It opens with one sentence saying who and what the aircraft is, where it is going and what it is doing — “British Airways Airbus A320-232 from Heathrow (EGLL) to Aberdeen (EGPD), cruising at 36,000 ft heading north-east at 450 kt.” Emergencies and stale positions are spelt out in it.

The Header

• Callsign — as transmitted, with MIL for a military aircraft and a badge for a special category (SAR, POLICE, GOV, CONTRACTOR, AIR AMBULANCE). For a military aircraft, how the callsign is spoken sits underneath (“Reach 572” for RCH572), which is what you’ll hear on frequency.
• Military aircraft often fly with no callsign set, or stop sending it part way through a sortie. The callsign the aircraft last used in the past day is then shown in italics with a last seen tag and how long ago. Where the UKAFG Station’s analysis of the flight gives a likely callsign, that is shown with a likely tag instead. A callsign that cannot be this airframe’s (an airline flight number on a fighter, say) is not shown at all.
• Read aloud — with the speaker button in the map’s button stack switched on, clicking an aircraft reads this summary with your browser’s own voice, the callsign first and digit by digit (“Madras six eight”), then the route and what it is doing. Nothing leaves your browser.

Listen On

Straight under the summary, the Listen on block is the panel’s one answer to “what do I tune”:

• The best frequency in large type with its label, and a line on why — “used 19% of the time here”, “from squawk 3650, 6 nm away”, “in the open FIR under Swanwick Mil”.
• A confidence badge with a tooltip: Certain, High, Medium or Low for the map’s own prediction, or High probability, Likely and Possibly when the answer comes from the UKAFG Station’s analysis of this flight (high probability for five minutes after the station placed it, likely to fifteen, possibly to twenty).
• Also try — the next best two, with a word each (“departures, used 13%”, “same sector, VHF”). For a military aircraft the alternatives keep to its own air force.
• 📡 active on the live feed just now — when the headline, or one of the candidates, is active on UKAFG’s live feed; a candidate that is active replaces the headline. Every member sees this; Active Mil members also see who the frequency was active for.
• 📡 Also active — military aircraft usually work two radios, the controller on one and the squadron on the other, so up to two other frequencies of the aircraft’s squadron, base or service that are active are listed under the headline.
• Likely destination and AAR likely lines from the UKAFG Station, with “returning to base” where that is what it is doing; the destination is drawn as a dashed line on the map and the refuelling area outlined.
• Tune and Track (Squawker PC only) — when the map is open inside Squawker PC and a scanner profile is running, a Tune button sits beside the predicted frequency and each “also try” frequency, and a Track button has the Fast Scanner scan the aircraft’s likely frequencies as it moves. See Tune, Track and Scan These.

Predictions only cover UK airspace (the London and Scottish FIRs): they stop 20 NM past its edge for an aircraft heading away, and start 40 NM out for one heading in. Further out the panel says Outside UK airspace – no frequency prediction, and over the Atlantic Shanwick Oceanic – HF / datalink. The Channel Islands are the exception: outside UK airspace but still predicted.

An emergency is worked on the frequency the crew are already using, so the block headlines that frequency marked emergency declared here, with Guard (121.5, or 243.0 for military) as the first alternative “only if contact on the working frequency is lost”. A radio failure (7600) keeps the working frequency in front and notes that blind calls may come on Guard too.

The Detail Rows

Every row label is a full word and explains itself when you hover over it:

• Aircraft and Reg — the type code with the model it stands for, the registration with the year it was built; a Size class row explains the transponder’s emitter category. Ground equipment — tower transponders, airport vehicles, obstacles — gets one Equipment row instead, and no frequency.
• Route — origin and destination for scheduled flights where known; routes are flagged as “unverified” when the source data isn’t confirmed.
• From and Arrival (military aircraft) — military flights have no published schedule, so the panel shows where the aircraft took off, worked out from its own track (a plain airfield name means it was seen on the ground there; likely in front means it was first picked up climbing out nearby), and, once within 40 nm, its likely arrival — the UKAFG Station’s likely destination, or its home base when returning. Both carry a dashed from track tag; hover for how the airfield was worked out.
• Altitude, Selected altitude, Ground speed (with the Mach number at cruise), Airspeed, Heading with its compass word and any ATC-assigned heading, Pressure setting, Wind aloft, Outside air, Autopilot with a sentence saying what the modes mean, and ICAO address.
• Distance — how far the aircraft is from your radar location, or from this device.
• Squawk — the transponder code, with its meaning and who assigns it beneath.
• Weather at departure/arrival — QNH, wind, and outside air temperature from the nearest METAR.

The Folds Beneath

• Airspace and other frequencies — the working behind the block: the ATC sector or airspace the aircraft is in or approaching, the next sector, the destination’s frequency and the likely landing runway. These rows are left out when the aircraft is outside UK airspace; a military aircraft’s squadron and air-to-air frequencies still show, since they belong to the unit rather than the place.
• Callsigns this airframe has used (military) — every callsign the airframe has been logged with, grouped by family: “Madras” with MADRS68 (in use now) and MADRS69 (last used 4 days ago) beneath it, then “Ascot” with RRR2163, most recently used first.

Each fold stays open or closed as you last left it.