Flight Tracking with PIE AirportMonitor™
Welcome to PIE
AirportMonitor™, St. Petersburg-Clearwater International Airport's internet flight tracking system. This system allows you to watch the movement of flights and air traffic patterns within the
Tampa Bay region. If you are a first time user, please take a moment to read the information below, to familiarize yourself with what PIE
AirportMonitor™ does and how it works.
Click here to go directly to PIE AirportMonitor
Using PIE AirportMonitor
AirportMonitor shows the flight tracks of aircraft arriving and departing to and from PIE, and from other airports throughout the region. It also shows aircraft transiting through our airspace.
Green aircraft icons represent departures from PIE
Blue aircraft icons represent arrivals to PIE
Yellow aircraft icons indicate aircraft arriving at or departing Tampa International airport
Black aircraft icons represent aircraft operating to or from another airport in the region, general aviation aircraft, or aircraft that are transiting through the region at high altitudes
Red indicates that you have selected a specific aircraft by clicking on it with your computer mouse
The size of the airplane icons is the same regardless of which type of aircraft it represents. At closer zoom levels, the size of the plane icon is larger than at wider zoom levels, to make the screen easier to view, and to simulate the effect of a changing “bird’s eye view.”
Zooming In and Out: Just below the map you will notice 5 buttons with corresponding zoom settings ranging from 5 miles to 80 miles. In order to change the view, just click the button corresponding to the map setting you desire.
General Aviation Identification: “General Aviation” is a term that covers both small, private planes as well as corporate jets. One way these are divided is into “VFR” (“Visual Flight Rules,” generally the smaller, private propeller aircraft) and “IFR” (“Instrument Flight Rules,” generally the larger private or corporate jets).
If a GA aircraft is flying “VFR,” it will often be identified by the software as a radio frequency code “1200” with altitude; and it will not contain aircraft type, origin or destination (this limited information on some GA aircraft is due to the way flight plans are filed).
If a GA aircraft is flying “IFR”, AirportMonitor will usually have all of the same information fields available as for scheduled airline flights.
Helicopters are represented as black aircraft icons, and usually identified with the “1200” code as well.
Current Mode: The default view for AirportMonitor is “Current,” which is the actual flight activity around PIE, with a 10-minute delay for security.
When you click on a flight in “current” mode, it will display SOME of that flight’s identification (limited in current mode for security):
Aircraft type
Altitude
Internal track ID (this is an ID code you can use to identify a plane to PIE before its full identification is made available one hour later).
Pause Mode: When you click on “Pause”, it will pause the display for viewing.
Replay Mode: AirportMonitor makes all flights available in “replay mode” one hour after they appeared in “current” mode, and makes available up to three months for past flight activity to be played back at any time. This makes it easy to review flight activity at your leisure.
Replay of flights become active for a given flight one hour after it has first appeared on AirportMonitor. When you click on a plane in replay mode, “Airline/Flight number” and “Origin and Destination” airports are added to the other information available in current mode (“aircraft type” and “altitude”).
To operate the Replay, use the pull-down menus at the top of the page and enter the corresponding date and time you wish (using the 24-hour clock system), and then press the Start Replay button. To end the Replay and return to the 10-minute delay mode press the “Current” button.
Replay Mode Speed: “In Replay Mode you have the option to choose the speed of the aircraft on your screen. This is useful for "fast-forwarding" to a flight or track of interest without waiting for it to appear in real-time. First, choose the date and time of replay; then select the playback speed you desire; then click on "replay". You can also adjust the speed of playback after you are already in replay mode.
You also have the option to in Replay Mode.
Help Page: Click this button on the top right corner of the AirportMonitor page to receive troubleshooting tips and answers to the most frequent questions.
Understanding Airline and Aircraft codes: The information contained in some of the data fields is encoded to conform to standard FAA contractions (or shorthand). If you wish to decode the information in the Flight ID, Aircraft Type, and Origin and Destination fields please click on the following links:
Aircraft Type
Airline Code
Airport Identifier
A Word about Radar: Aircraft tracking radar, and the software that supports it, while highly reliable, is also complex. Sometimes circumstances can interfere with the signal, causing temporary distortions. For example, you will probably notice that an aircraft flying directly over may temporarily disappear from the screen and then reappear away from the airport. This is due to the aircraft passing directly over the radar antenna and the temporary loss of signal. You may also notice aircraft icons sometimes “dropping off” and/or suddenly doing unusual things. These “ghost” aircraft can be due to radar reflections from high-rise buildings and possibly from terrain and meteorological conditions.
SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS/INFORMATION
AirportMonitor is designed to run on any computer that supports Java Applets and JavaScript.
A reasonable amount of memory is necessary. A minimum 64 MB of RAM is recommended.
AirportMonitor runs best in Netscape or Internet Explorer version 3.0 and higher. JavaScript and Java must be enabled in your browser.
AirportMonitor may take some time to load and begin playing, depending on the speed of your communication link and computer processor. The performance of AirportMonitor will be adversely affected by slow or intermittent Internet connections.
AirportMonitor is a resource intensive application that is best run without any other applications open at the same time.
The optimal screen resolution for viewing this site is 1024 x 768.
LIABILITY STATEMENT
THIS WEB PAGE AND THE FLIGHT TRACKING INFORMATION IS A PUBLIC RESOURCE OF GENERAL INFORMATION. THE USE OF THIS SITE IS FOR ILLUSTRATIVE PURPOSES ONLY. PINELLAS COUNTY AND THE ST. PETERSBURG-CLEARWATER INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT MAKE NO WARRANTY, REPRESENTATION OR GUARANTEE AS TO THE CONTENT, SEQUENCE, ACCURACY, TIMELINESS OR COMPLETENESS OF ANY OF THE DATABASE INFORMATION PROVIDED HEREIN. THE USER OF THIS SITE SHOULD NOT RELY ON THE DATA PROVIDED HEREIN FOR ANY REASON. PINELLAS COUNTY AND THE ST. PETERSBURG-CLEARWATER INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT EXPLICITLY DISCLAIMS ANY WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. PINELLAS COUNTY AND THE ST. PETERSBURG-CLEARWATER INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT SHALL ASSUME NO LIABILITY FOR: ANY ERRORS, OMISSIONS, OR INACCURACIES IN THE INFORMATION PROVIDED REGARDLESS OF HOW CAUSED; OR ANY DECISION MADE OR ACTION TAKEN OR NOT TAKEN BY THE USER OF THIS SITE IN RELIANCE UPON THE INFORMATION OR DATA FURNISHED
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