Frequently Asked Questions (back to homepage)

General Questions

  • 1. How long does this data go back?
    See the bottom right of every page.
  • 2. How reliable is the data?
    I'd characterize it as "pretty good". I don't make any guarantees that the data is valid because I don't have any control over it. It's provided by the same data feed that feeds all other VATSIM data applications and that data feed has been known to go down occasionally, sometimes for hours at a time. Make sure you read the answer to question General-3 (right below this one) as well.
    I would not recommend using this site as VATSIM verification for virtual airline hour tracking systems, and make no claim or warranty as to its suitability for that purpose.
  • 3. Why doesn't my flight show up? What types of flights are tracked?
    Both VFR and IFR flights are tracked, as long as they file a flightplan. Flights must either have not departed, be CURRENTLY airborne, or have arrived to be listed. This means that flights that you do not complete (land) will be purged a short time after you disconnect.
    If you disconnect mid-flight and then resume it later, vataware may discard your "first connection" data. To avoid this, don't disconnect mid-flight. Pausing for long periods of time can also confuse vataware and cause various problems, so don't do that either - pausing on VATSIM is generally a bad idea anyway.
  • 4. This is cool. Will you design our VA's website or program something for us?
    E-mail me with a description of the project and your budget and I'll get back to you.
  • 5. I want to link to my VA's page, my personal page, or my favorite airport's page from a different website. Can I?
    Certainly!
  • 6. I want to use some of your data/graphs on a different website. How can I do that?
    E-mail me with what you are trying to do and we can discuss further.
  • 7. The site seems slow to me. I thought VATSIM had better servers.
    vataware is not written by, run by, or sponsored by VATSIM. vataware runs 100% on dedicated donated hardware & bandwidth. If you have spare server-grade equipment to donate, I'd love to hear from you. As my site makes direct use of VATSIM data and therefore is dependent on VATSIM, I cannot accept cash donations, but will happily make use of any donated equipment that's better or on par with what we have now.
  • 8. I registered on the site but never got my email, typoed my email, put in the wrong VATSIM ID, ...
    See this thread in the forums.

Feature Questions

  • 1. What does 'movement' mean?
    'Movement' is a standard aviation industry term that means either a takeoff or a landing of an aircraft. So, one normal flight equals two movements (one takeoff, one landing).
  • 2. Why do some of the graphs say 'clock minutes'? What other kind of minutes are there?
    It's to differentiate from simulator minutes. This becomes important when time compression is used. A six-hour simulated flight that's flown at 4x will show up with one & a half clock hours (90 clock minutes). Think of it as 'real time'.
  • 3. I have a super great idea for a feature, graph, page, or woodchuck you should add.
    Great! There's an entire Suggestions forum just for this purpose.
  • 4. Why does the ground elevation not equal my altitude when I'm at my origination or destination airports? I'm on the ground, so shouldn't they be the same?
    They should be, yes, but VATSIM does not report the ground elevation as part of its data feed, so I am obtaining this data from another datasource which is only accurate to within 1 kilometer. So, what's happening is that the sample point used to determine the ground elevation was not exactly on top of your position, so there may be an "error" of up to about 150 feet.

Data Questions

  • 1. Why does my 'Operator' field on my flight show up as Unknown?
    Because your flight is not using the prefix of a known airline or country's private registration. Go to the forum and check the Data Issues forum - if nobody has yet posted about that airline, feel free to post and let me know and I'll add it. Please note that I will only add new airlines that are VATSIM VA Partners.
  • 2. Why does my airline's logo not show up?
    Probably because I don't have it. Make an 85x18 PNG file and post a link to it in the forum under Data Issues and I'll put it in.
  • 3. I see other airlines that have a (website) link show up. Why isn't there one for mine?
    When I started with the database, all the websites were blank, so those that you see have been added by hand. My firm policy on airline websites is that I will not link to websites for airlines that are simulations of current or former real-world airlines. This is because many real airlines are simulated by more than one VA and I have no desire to get involved in declaring one better than another. However, if your VA uses its own flight prefix that is different than the real-world airline's prefix (for example, DVA instead of DAL), I'd be happy to link to you. Just post in the forum under data issues.
  • 4. Why do some airports just show the code and no name or flag?
    This means the airport is not in my database. If you're positive it's not a typo, post in the forum under Data Issues with all the information you have on what that airport should be (ICAO identifier, name, latitude, longitude, elevation, city served, country) and I'll fix it.
  • 5. Why do some people's names not show, only their ID?
    This is a rare issue that will be corrected the next time that person connects.
  • 6. I noticed some other data issue, like a typo or the wrong flag/country being displayed somewhere.
    Post in the forum under Data Issues with all relevant information, including the URL where you noticed the issue, and I'll check it out. I have spent many hours hand-tuning the database but I'm sure it still has errors.