Operation

This section covers day-to-day operation of FlightRadar — every region of the screen, what each tap does, and how to interpret what you see.

Screen Layout

The 800 x 480 screen is split into two regions:

  • Radar scope — a 480 x 480 square on the left

  • Detail panel — the remaining right-hand strip (320 x 480)

The current local time and date are shown in the top-right corner, and the settings button (gear icon) sits in the bottom-right corner.

FlightRadar main screen with the radar scope and the in-range list

The main screen: radar scope on the left, in-range list on the right.

The Radar Scope

The scope is a top-down "military radar" view centred on your home location, with north at the top.

Scope Elements

  • Range rings: Four concentric rings mark equal distance steps out to the configured maximum range. Each ring is labelled with its distance in kilometres.

  • Compass marks: N (top), E (right), S (bottom), W (left). North is always up. Cross-hairs run through the centre.

  • Centre dot: A bright dot at the centre marks your home location.

  • Sweep line: A bright line rotates clockwise, with a fading afterglow trail behind it — the classic radar sweep. One full revolution takes the configured sweep period (default 8 seconds).

  • Aircraft blips: Each aircraft in range is a green dot with a short line pointing in its direction of travel and a label (callsign, or the ICAO24 hex if no callsign is known).

  • Zoom buttons: The + and − buttons in the top-left corner of the scope zoom in and out through the range presets (see Choosing a Range).

Reading the Blips

  • Distance from centre = how far the aircraft is from you. A blip near the centre is closer overhead; a blip near the outer ring is near the edge of your range.

  • Angle around the scope = the compass bearing to the aircraft (north up).

  • The short vector off each blip points the way the aircraft is heading.

Blip Colour and Brightness

  • Bright/near-white: The aircraft has just been passed by the sweep — a fresh contact.

  • Green, dimming: A known contact fading as time since the last sweep passes; it brightens again on the next sweep.

  • Amber: The aircraft you have selected.

  • Orange-red: The aircraft matches one of your flight alerts (see Configuration).

Contacts that stop being reported by the feed fade out and are removed, so aircraft that have left the area don't linger on the scope.

Selecting an Aircraft

  • Tap a blip to select it. The blip turns amber and the detail panel switches to show that aircraft.

  • Tap an empty part of the scope, or the List button at the bottom of the detail panel, to deselect and return to the in-range list.

Tip

Blips are small, so tapping is forgiving — a tap near a blip snaps to the nearest aircraft within a generous touch radius.

The Detail Panel

The right-hand panel has two modes: the in-range list (nothing selected) and the aircraft detail view (something selected).

In-Range List (Nothing Selected)

The default view. It shows:

  • A heading: IN RANGE  N where N is the number of aircraft currently within range

  • A table sorted nearest first, with columns:

    • FLIGHT — the flight number once it has been looked up (e.g. BA116), otherwise the callsign (BAW116) or ICAO24 hex

    • ALT — altitude in feet

    • KM — distance from home in kilometres

Tap any row in the list to select that aircraft (the same as tapping its blip).

Aircraft Detail (Something Selected)

When an aircraft is selected, the panel shows its full details:

A selected aircraft (amber) with its details in the right-hand panel

A selected aircraft: amber on the scope, full details on the right.

  • Callsign / flight number in large text at the top

  • Identity line: ICAO24 hex, flight number, and class (Commercial / General Aviation)

  • Aircraft line: type/model, registration and operator — e.g. 777 300ER • G-STBP • British Airways — or unknown aircraft if it can't be looked up

  • Route line: origin → destination — e.g. LHR London → JFK New York — or route unknown / no scheduled route

  • ETA line: estimated time of arrival, minutes remaining and distance to go, when a destination and a usable ground speed are known

  • List button (bottom) to return to the in-range list

  • Stats grid of eight values:

    • ALT ft — altitude

    • SPD kt — ground speed in knots

    • TRK — track / heading (0–359°)

    • V/S fpm — vertical rate in feet per minute (climb/descent)

    • RNG km — range from home

    • BRG — bearing from home (0–359°)

    • LAT — latitude

    • LON — longitude

The core ADS-B fields (altitude, speed, heading, position) come straight from the feed and appear immediately. The enriched fields (type, operator, route, ETA) are looked up in the background — while they load you'll briefly see looking up aircraft... and looking up route....

The Clock (Top-Right)

The top-right corner shows the current local time (HH:MM:SS) and date (Mon DD Mon).

  • Synchronised over NTP and adjusted for your configured timezone (with automatic daylight-saving where applicable)

  • Long-press the clock to open the timezone picker

The Settings Menu

Tap the gear button in the bottom-right corner to open the settings menu, styled like an aircraft control-display unit. Settings are laid out in two columns; tap a row to change it, and tap <RETURN to go back to the radar.

The FlightRadar settings menu

The settings menu. Each row shows its current value.

It lists:

Item

What it does

SWEEP

Each tap cycles the sweep: Off, Fast (5 s), Normal (8 s), Slow (12 s)

LOCATION

Set your home location by Maidenhead grid or latitude/longitude

WIFI

View and manage saved WiFi networks (up to 3)

TIMEZONE

Pick your local timezone from ~18 worldwide zones

ALERTS

Manage the flight watch-list (callsign / ICAO / flight-number prefixes)

NIGHT MODE

Schedule the screen to switch off overnight

SCREEN

Each tap toggles between normal and 180°-flipped orientation

SW UPDATE

Shows the current firmware version; tap to check for an update now

ABOUT

Firmware version, Device ID (MAC), WiFi network, IP address, signal and home location

Each of these is covered in detail in Configuration.

Normal Operation Sequence

Power-On

  1. Display up (~1–2 s): scope and panel drawn, settings loaded

  2. WiFi connect (5–30 s): joins the best saved network in range

  3. NTP sync (1–3 s): the clock populates with local time

  4. Feed polling: the device begins fetching aircraft near home (about every 15 s)

  5. Update check: an OTA check runs ~30 s after WiFi comes up, then hourly

If no WiFi is configured, the on-screen WiFi setup takes over instead — see Getting Started.

Steady State

  • The clock ticks every second

  • Aircraft positions refresh roughly every 15 seconds; blips update in place

  • The sweep rotates continuously (unless turned off)

  • Selecting an aircraft triggers its type/route lookup in the background

Auto-Recovery

  • WiFi drop: the device retries automatically and resumes when the network returns

  • Feed hiccup: contacts are kept briefly and the poll retries; a prolonged, healthy network dry spell simply keeps retrying, while a genuinely stuck secure connection is recovered by an automatic restart

Tips for Daily Use

Choosing a Range

  • Under an airport / flight path: a short range (5–20 km) fills the scope with the aircraft nearest you

  • Wide-area watching: a longer range (80–250 km) shows distant traffic but packs blips near the centre

  • Use the + / − buttons at the top-left of the scope to change the range; the ring labels update to match (see Configuration)

Placement

  • Keep the device on a desk, shelf or windowsill within good 2.4 GHz WiFi range

  • Avoid direct sunlight, which washes out the LCD

  • Use 180° rotation (Settings → SCREEN) if you mount it with the USB-C socket at the top

Power

  • FlightRadar can run 24/7 on USB-C

  • Use a quality 5 V supply rated 1 A or more

  • Works from a USB-C power bank for portable use

  • Use Night Mode to switch the screen off overnight and save power/wear

What's Next?