Flights Overhead
Ottawa International · YOW— aircraft nearby·50 km range
Scanning the sky…
Learning centre
Select a plane on the radar or in the activity list. Its flight data becomes the examples below. Open a topic to explore.
RUNWAY NUMBERSRWY 32
Runways are named for the compass direction they point, last digit dropped. Runway 32 points at 320°, roughly northwest.
WIND300° at 14 kt, gusts 23
Wind is named for where it comes from, not where it's going. 300° means it blows out of the northwest.
HEAD & CROSSWIND14 kt headwind, 2 kt crosswind
The wind split two ways: headwind blowing down the runway (helpful) and crosswind blowing across it (awkward).
VISIBILITY15 SM
How far you can see, in statute miles: ordinary land miles. 15 SM is about 24 km.
PRESSURE1009 hPa
The weight of the air right now. Pilots dial it into their altimeter so everyone nearby agrees on what 7,400 ft means.
FLIGHT CATEGORYVFR
Visual Flight Rules: clear enough to fly by looking out the window. IFR means flying on instruments alone.
CLOUD LAYERSSCT056 BKN200
Scattered cloud at 5,600 ft, broken cloud at 20,000. Scattered means patchy blue sky; broken means mostly covered.
DENSITY ALTITUDEDENSITY ALT 1300FT
How high the air feels to a plane. Hot air is thinner, so wings and engines behave as if the airport were higher up.
RAW METAR30014G23KT 15SM
The raw weather report, in the compressed code pilots read at a glance. The Airport Conditions section is this line, decoded.