Area Tracking
Draw the areas your FlightWall watches and filter the aircraft it shows.
Area Tracking watches every aircraft inside the shapes you draw, then cycles through them on the display. Open a FlightWall in the TheFlightWall app and select Area Tracking.
An area does not have to sit near your display. Pick anywhere with flight data.
Draw an area
The Tracking Areas section holds your shapes. Select Add area and pick a type.
Radius watches a circle. Tap the map to place the center, then use the slider to size it. The slider runs from 1 to 18 km, or 1 to 12 miles. An 18 km circle covers about 1018 km², over the 1000 km² save limit, so the top of the slider cannot be saved.
Polygon watches a shape you draw. Tap to add points and hold and drag to move one. A polygon needs at least three points. Use it when a circle covers too much water, too much empty land, or the wrong side of a runway.
Two map controls help while you edit. Use current location moves the selected area to where your phone is, and only changes the area, not the view. The fullscreen view gives you more room to place points.
You can name each area. Names are for your reference in the app.
How many areas you can have
| Item | Limit |
|---|---|
| Radius areas | 5 |
| Polygon areas | 5 |
| Combined coverage across all areas | 1000 km², about 386 mi² |
The combined limit is the one that binds. The app blocks the save and shows Coverage area exceeds maximum allowed until you reduce it. A circle near 17 km already uses most of that budget, so a large circle leaves little room for a second area.
A narrow polygon over the traffic you care about works better than the biggest shape that fits under the limit. A circle centered on a quiet house shows nothing while a thin polygon along an approach path stays busy.
Map edits do not reach the display on their own. Select Save in the device header after moving a center, resizing a radius, or editing points. Until you save, the display keeps using the last saved area.
You cannot save while your phone is joined to the display's own Flightwall-
network. Rejoin your normal network first.
Filter the results
Filters apply to area results only. They do not affect flights you track by name.
Aircraft types
Five toggles under Aircraft Types: Commercial, Small Jets, Light Aircraft, Helicopters, and Other, which covers aircraft not yet classified. At least one has to stay on.
Show Flights with Unknown Routes
Some aircraft broadcast a position with no origin or destination. Leave this on
and they appear with N/A in place of the route. Turn it off and they are
hidden, which removes most light aircraft and helicopters, since they often
file no flight plan.
Airlines
Pick up to ten airlines by name, IATA code, or ICAO code and the display shows only those. Leave the list empty to allow every airline.
While the filter is active, aircraft with no airline code are hidden.
Airline search needs a connection to the display. If search reports it cannot run, connect from the System page first.
Altitude filter
Turn it on for a range slider. It runs from 0 to 15,000 m, or 0 to 50,000 ft.
Aircraft that broadcast no altitude are hidden while this filter is on, so a range covering everything is still narrower than leaving the filter off.
Speed filter
Turn it on for a range slider. It runs from 0 to 1200 km/h, or 0 to 750 mph.
Aircraft metric units
Aircraft metrics units on this page sets how altitude, speed, vertical rate, and heading appear. The same setting also drives the Display Layout units, so changing it here changes both. See Display units.
If the display shows nothing
An empty display after an area change is usually the area or the filters, not a fault. Work through it in Display problems.
The quickest test is to move a radius over a known busy airport, save, and wait a minute. If flights appear there, the original area or the filters were the cause.