When I choose to see the flight activity for crq and then click the local map, why do the flight overlays heading for san and lax as well as other airports, including departures, take preference over showing me the flights to and from crq? I can most always see the light blue line but the map won’t show the flight number until it clears the other flights.
Do you think at some time in the future that the overlays will be shown as hot links so that a click anywhere on the blue line will automatically open the flight status search page?—Buddy cbbudman@aol.com
The map server currently displays random flight info blocks (decluttered so they don’t overlap). In the future we may be able to offer info blocks only related to the airport you’re looking at. In the meantime the list of enroute flights and departures should be more-or-less sorted by distance from the airport (unless it’s one of those pesky VFR flights).
Yes, we’re working on clickable maps to go to the flight pages.
Our technology that underlies the maps is extremely powerful. We are still in the process of design and experimentation for how we’ll make those capabilities available through the interface.
You might, for example, want to turn off the NEXRAD radar overlay. You might want longer or shorter tracks, to zoom in and out, to pan, and as you said, to view only flights heading for, or departing from, your chosen airport.
We also have the underlying ability to turn off the road overlay, to turn on and off an urban area overlay, show city names, and even view surface visibility at night.
Something we’re really close to having is showing other major airports within sight of the airport you’re looking at. For example, it’s practically weird to view JFK and not see EWR and LGA on the map.