Adding ICAO Aircraft Types?

[Kreg]

Hi all,

First post here. I’m the manager of our local airport and have been a long time Flightaware user. Traditionally we’ve always tracked the IFR flights coming to/from our airport, but now with the advent of ADS-B we’ve really grown to enjoy tracking ADS-B flights as well for both local and transient aircraft. Matter of fact we enjoy it so much that one of our tenants acquired both the FlightFeeder 1090 and 978 antennas to attach to their hangar.

Due to this, on our airport’s Flightaware page it populates all the ADS-B flights to/from our airport. I have noticed that some uncommon types of aircraft do not show their ICAO aircraft type next to their N-number (see attached photo). I’m guessing this is something to do with their ICAO type not added in Flightaware’s database.

What would be the best way to go about including these types? If it isn’t too labor intensive I would be happy to assist as well. I sent an email to Flightaware Support and was directed here to inquire.

You will see a couple examples of the issue in my photo.

[GunzO]

Hi Kreg,

While there is a chance of a rare type of aircraft not being in the FlightAware database, we pull aircraft type from the filed IFR flight plan. If the aircraft flies VFR then we will most likely not have aircraft type associated to the track. If you are flying IFR and the type is not showing properly then you can submit an email to customer support at support@flightaware.com and the CS team will look into whether that type is in the database or why the type does not show.

Even if an IFR flight plan is filed, there are times that it does not make it to FA or other causes like long delays can dissociate the flight plan from the flight. This will cause the flight to be tracked by position only and may not show aircraft type.

Regards,