Curious about what the various size and shaped airplane icons represent on Skyview? I had two Fed Ex MD11 aircraft flying at roughly the same altitudes (FL 39+/-), same time of day, same general speed, etc. etc. - yet one Icon was a very large icon plane and one was an unusually ‘small’ airplane icon. I operate near a GA airstrip with an International airport nearby as well as an Air Force Base so not unusual to see a B-52, fighter jets, Airline Big Iron and tiny Cessna commuters and GA aircraft all operating at the same time. Doesn’t it make more sense to assign the plane icons to represent their relative ‘size’ comparisons among displayed aircraft? What am I missing with the current icon assignments other than trying to distinguish between so many ‘larger’ targets filling up the screen?
Aircraft type is not transmitted as part of ADS-B.
When Skyview knows the aircraft type for an aircraft from its static database, it’ll try to pick a suitable icon.
When Skyview doesn’t know the aircraft type, it picks an icon based on the ADS-B “emitter category” which has very vague categories so it may not get it right.
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Thanks - answered the question perfectly and concisely. - Bill
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