Welcome to Van Nuys Airport's Internet Flight Tracking System - AirportMonitor™ v 2.0 Gold.

If this is your first time using the VNY Internet Flight Tracking System, we recommend that you first read the material on this page to familiarize yourself with how it works. If you choose to bypass this page, you can always access the help page on AirportMonitor.

This system allows you to watch the movement of flights and air traffic patterns within the greater San Fernando Valley and Los Angeles regions. These flight tracks, although taken from actual raw radar data, are not in real time. For security reasons, there is a delay of about ten minutes as indicated by the date and time in the Date/Time box located in the Flight Information field on the right side of the screen. This delay can be useful if you notice an overflight of your neighborhood and you need time to bring up the VNY Internet Flight Tracking System to find out the identification of the aircraft type and its altitude. Please keep in mind that due to the current national security situation, military and sensitive national security flights are filtered out and will not appear on the system.

VNY AirportMonitor's Features

• Pause/Resume: You can pause the flight activity, click on flights in pause mode to see who they are, then resume where you left off. This works in both live and replay mode, which can be useful for taking the time to find the flight you want at your own pace.
• Fast Forward in replay mode lets you choose faster replay speeds, to view the flight you want quicker.
• Color-coding for alternate airports- a yellow aircraft icon shows flights to/from Bob Hope/Burbank Airport to help you clarify and sort air traffic.
• Helicopter classification - some helicopters, depending on their speed and flight behavior, will be identified by a helicopter icon (helicopters that are flying like airplanes may still be identified by the black airplane icon).
• Online help page - frequently asked questions and topics are now conveniently located right on the application.
• VNY AirportMonitor 2.0 Gold is best viewed when using a high-speed connection. Users on a dial-up modem may notice a slow-down in the application.
• VNY AirportMonitor 2.0 Gold provides you with a large number of maps to view. This means the system will be slow the first time you access this new version as the maps are being downloaded to your computer. . Following the first access, it will open faster.
• VNY AirportMonitor 2.0 Gold has a number of functions that work with the click of your mouse, like fast forward at different speeds, pause/resume, and panning across the map. As a general rule, always wait to see the results of your click before clicking again.

AirportMonitor shows the flight tracks of aircraft arriving and departing to and from VNY, and from other airports throughout the region. It also shows aircraft transiting through the airspace. The aircraft icons are color coded as follows:

• Green aircraft icons represent departures from VNY that have filed a flight plan with the FAA.
• Blue aircraft icons represent arrivals to VNY that have filed a flight plan with the FAA.
• Black aircraft icons represent VNY and non-VNY general aviation aircraft traffic operating under visual flight rules, aircraft operating to or from another airport in the region, or aircraft that are transiting through the region at high altitudes.
• Red indicates that you have selected the specific aircraft by clicking on the icon with your computer mouse.
• Yellow represent aircraft that have filed a flight plan with the FAA operating to/from Burbank/Bob Hope Airport (BUR).
  
  

  Please keep in mind that 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."
  
  Zoom and PAN
  
  

  Just to the right of the map you will notice 5 buttons with corresponding zoom settings ranging from 5 miles to 80 miles. In order to change the preset zoom level, just click the button corresponding to the zoom level you desire.

  Then using the compass (shown on your left) click the direction you desire. The middle button will bring you back to starting center point. The panning function works for the 5 mile and 10 mile (2 pans in any direction) and the 20 mile (1 pan in any direction). There is no panning for the 40 and 80 mile maps.

  Remember: First select the zoom level, then pan.

  
  
  General Aviation Identification

  "General Aviation" (GA) 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 and some propeller aircraft).

  If a GA aircraft is flying "VFR," it will be identified as "General Aviation" with only the altitude displayed; and it will not contain aircraft type, origin or destination. This is due to the nature of the data transmitted by the aircraft's transponder.

  If a GA aircraft is flying "IFR", AirportMonitor will usually have all of the same information fields available that are seen on scheduled airline flights.

  Helicopters are usually represented by black helicopter icons, although they may also show as a black airplane icon as well. Helicopters generally fly under VFR thus identification of the specific operator or helicopter type is not possible.

  
  
  "Current" Mode

  The default view for AirportMonitor is "Current," which is the actual flight activity around VNY, with a 10-minute delay for security reasons.

  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

  "Pause" Mode

  When you click on "Pause", it will pause the display for viewing. You can click on any plane icon while in pause, and it will display the available flight information. Clicking "Restart" will pick up the flight tracking where you left off. To return to the current time, hit the "Current" button. Pause and Resume work in both Current and Replay modes.

  Replay Mode
  
  

  AirportMonitor makes all flights available in "replay mode" and makes them 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.

  Flight numbers 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), click on the replay speed you desire, and then press the "Start Replay" button. To end the replay and return to the current (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". It is usually best if your initial speed setting is the Normal or 2X speed and then go to a higher speed after the replay initiates. You can adjust the speed of playback after you are already in replay mode.
  
  

  You also have the option to in Replay Mode - it works exactly the same way as it does in "Current" mode. (see above)

  Help Page

  Click this button on the top right corner of the AirportMonitor page to receive troubleshooting tips and answers to the most frequently asked questions.

  

  Understanding Airline and Aircraft Codes

  

  Since the information contained in some of the data fields comes from the aircraft's transponder, they are 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 link: (DECODE PAGE)

  Printing from AirportMonitor

  Printing from AirportMonitor is a simple copy-and-paste process called "Screen Capture" or "Print Screen." To print any AirportMonitor screen you're looking at, do the following:

  • Select the page or screen you want to print
  • On a laptop computer hit the Function [Fn] and the [F11 key] simultaneously to copy exactly what is on your screen at that moment
  • On a desktop computer hit the [Shift Key] and the [Print Screen] simultaneously to copy exactly what is on your screen at that moment
  • Open a new document in any word processing or graphics program
  • Select "Paste"
  • The image of the screen you copied will appear as a single picture
  • Print (or Save, then Print, if you want to keep the image)

  A Word about Radar

  Aircraft tracking radar using secondary surveillance radar and the software that supports it, while highly reliable, is also complex. Sometimes circumstances can interfere with the signal, causing temporary distortions, anomalies and incorrect data assignment. For instance, you may observe aircraft identified with an obviously incorrect Aircraft Type, or is assigned an incorrect color to its icon. You may also notice aircraft icons sometimes "dropping off" the screen and/or suddenly appearing or doing unusual things. These anomalies and "ghost" aircraft are due to radar or aircraft transponder reflections from the ground, mountainous terrain, or meteorological conditions in the San Fernando Valley. They may also be due to the way the FAA reuses the limited number of transponder codes in the region.

  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.
  • This site does not work with MSN TV also know as WebTV.
  

  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. THE CITY OF LOS ANGELES AND THE DEPARTMENT OF AIRPORTS MAKES 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. THE CITY OF LOS ANGELES AND THE DEPARTMENT OF AIRPORTS EXPLICITLY DISCLAIMS ANY WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. THE CITY OF LOS ANGELES AND THE DEPARTMENT OF AIRPORTS SHALL ASSUME NO LIABILITY FOR:

  1. ANY ERRORS OMISSIONS, OR INACCURACIES IN THE INFORMATION PROVIDED REGARDLESS OF HOW CAUSED; OR
  2. ANY DECISION MADE OR ACTION TAKEN OR NOT TAKEN BY THE USER OF THIS SITE IN RELIANCE UPON ANY INFORMATION OR DATA FURNISHED HEREUNDER.

  To view VNY AirportMonitor click here.