How it works?Once a message is received by the RadarBox the message contains a Mode-S ID which is the unique identifier for that aircraft.
Example: 401240
This doesn't mean much to us and hence we need to identify the registration of the aircraft from the Mode-S ID. The RadarBox has an aircraft database to which it has the Mode-S ID linked to a registration and then details about that aircraft.
Example: 401240 - G-EUUT - A320
If these look up details are not the local database on your machine it looks them on the Internet. If an aircraft appears in your MyFlights (local aircraft) the aircraft is looked up in the local database and if its not found it looks up on the main database on AirNav Systems Server. If an aircraft appears on the network, it is only populated locally on your database if you click on the row in the network list.
AirNav Systems is has an agreement with Airliners.net and GAS (Gatwick Aviation Society) and the looks up take place and if the aircraft data is found it is then saved back into your local database.
July 2010 - The online database which is on our site is also been worked on by our Database Volunteers. They are doing a great job going through the database amending the records. During this time the GAS linkup has been switched off while they work through the database.
What happens if you want to add aircraft details your self?This can be done from the Database Explorer tool. If you open up Database Explorer and select the aircraft table, you can now edit/delete/add any of the entries in the table.
Please NOTE: If you are adding aircraft, you must add an entry for the column LK - picture link (this can be just a dash) and also add a picture starting with the file name being the registration of the aircraft in your picture folder.
Example - G-EUUT.jpg
This must be done otherwise your records will be overwritten if the aircraft appears, as the software will see an incomplete record and try to download the details from our server which may be incorrect.
Some of the IssuesIf the data in your local database is outdated it cannot be updated by new data on our server.
Data regarding Military aircraft and Commercial aircraft is not available to the public and hence the look up values are generated by people determining the Mode-S to Aircraft Registration from visually viewing aircraft land and confirming what there registration and from other similar methods.
An Aircraft is leased/bought by another company. This will mean the aircraft details (operator, picture) in your local database will be wrong as they cannot be updated currently when in your local database by our master database on our server.
The size of the database is more than 100,000+ entries which means its very easy for aircraft to get missed and not updated for a while.
What are we doing regarding the issues?At present we trying to do the following:
1.) Reach out to other organisations with this data and reach an agreement to share the data with RadarBox customers. Hence expanding the data available. (Especially for areas outside Europe)
2.) Determine which out of the aircraft online database is accurate and use that data to pass on to RadarBox users.
3.) Introduce a new database system whereby the changes on local database regarding Mode-S ID being changed to another registration/different operators are handled.
4.) Introduce a database populate which can handle newer data on our server
What can you do?If you know of corrections, additions then please send them to GAS or our Database Update Team at:
http://www.airnavsystems.com/forum/index.php?topic=4980.0http://www.gatwickaviationsociety.org.uk/modeslookup.aspIf you have ideas on how to make the system more accurate or robust then were happy to listen and take note by contacting support from the methods in our signature.
