Is there a way to get scheduled and actual wheels down and gate times? I only see arrival time, is that timestamp wheels down or gate?
"flight": {
"ident": "DAL116",
"aircrafttype": "B752",
"origin": "KTPA",
"destination": "KATL",
"filed_ete": "01:15:00",
"route": "ENDED4 CTY HONIE8",
"faFlightID": "DAL116-1318311885-airline-0362",
"filed_altitude": 360,
"filed_airspeed_kts": 465,
"filed_time": 1318532269,
"filed_departuretime": 1318531500,
"estimatedarrivaltime": 1318536216,
"actualarrivaltime": 1318536660,
"actualdeparturetime": 1318532220
The “departure” is wheels up, and “arrival” is wheels down. The gate times are not currently available in FlightXML2, but they will be a part of FlightXML3 available for beta testing in the near future.
The four metrics that are most commonly associated with “Block Times” are:
Out - Pushback from the gate (ie the aircraft’s first movement), beacon ON, or parking brakes Released
Off - Gear strut squat switch indicates aircraft airborne
On - Gear strut squat switch indicates aircraft on ground
In - Aircraft arrives at gate, engines shut down, beacon OFF or Parking brakes Set
Note, on some aircraft, Opening/Closing a cabin entry/exit door or cargo door can also affect out and in times.
Before the advent of ACARS, the Flight Engineer or First Officer (on a two man crew) would record these times manually and turn them in to the gate agent upon arrival at destination.
Gate times are currently available through our Firehose API, if you have high volume data needs that would warrant world-wide coverage of all flights. The mapping of OOOI events is described in the Firehose FAQ: flightaware.com/commercial/fire … q.rvt#oooi
