ADS-B Tracking

Last updated 10/17/2026

Overview

ADS-B Tracking brings a live aircraft track to the TV Dashboard. While a tracked aircraft is actually airborne on an active reservation, its usual status screen is temporarily replaced by a Track view: the pilot, the aircraft, its current status, and a moving map of the flight so far, drawn over state borders and nearby airports. As soon as the flight lands (or goes quiet on the feed, or the pilot finishes it), the screen returns to its normal status layout on its own.

This is an optional, self-service feature: your club connects its own FlightAware AeroAPI account, chooses which aircraft to track, and sets its own monthly spending cap. Nothing is shared between clubs, and nothing is tracked unless you explicitly turn it on for that aircraft.

Required Role

You must have the Account Owner role to configure the AeroAPI key, the monthly budget, or the tracked-aircraft list.

Before You Start

Two things need to be in place first:

  1. A TV Dashboard. ADS-B Tracking only changes what the TV Dashboard shows — see TV Dashboard to set one up if you haven't already.
  2. A FlightAware AeroAPI account and key. Create one at flightaware.com/aeroapi. This is a separate FlightAware product from ordinary flight tracking on their website, and it's billed by FlightAware directly, outside of Centerline. For a single club watching a handful of aircraft, FlightAware's Personal tier (intended for personal, non-commercial use) is generally what you want — check FlightAware's own terms to confirm it fits how your club plans to use the display.

Setting Up ADS-B Tracking

  1. Click Setup in the navigation bar, then select the Data & Features tab.
  2. Find the ADS-B Tracking card.
  3. Paste your AeroAPI key into the AeroAPI key field and click Save. Once saved, the key is never shown again — if you need to change it later, just paste a new one over it, or click Remove to clear it entirely.
  4. Set a Monthly budget in dollars, or leave it blank to use the $8 default. See Understanding the Cost below.
  5. In Tracked aircraft, check the box next to each aircraft you want the Track view to appear for, then click Save tracked aircraft.

Only the aircraft you check are ever queried against your FlightAware key — a FlightAware key itself has no way to be limited to specific aircraft, so this checklist is what keeps tracking scoped to the aircraft you actually chose.

What Shows on the TV

Once an aircraft is tracked and has a reservation in progress, its screen switches to the Track view as soon as it reports a position in the air:

  • The pilot's name, with their profile picture if they have one (see The Pilot's Photo below) — otherwise a plain icon.
  • The aircraft's photo, tail number, type, and its usual status pill.
  • A live map showing the flight's path so far, state borders, lakes, major highways, town names, and nearby airports, centered on wherever the aircraft currently is. It's drawn like an aeronautical chart: towered airports are blue and non-towered airports are magenta, as on a sectional. The map follows the display's Appearance setting — a light, sectional-style chart in Light, and a dark navy chart in Dark.

The Track view stays up until about an hour after the feed goes quiet, or about an hour after the pilot finishes the flight, whichever happens first — so a short gap in reporting doesn't flicker the screen back and forth. If an aircraft has a reservation but isn't reporting a position at all (no ADS-B equipment, or it's still on the ground), its screen simply stays on the normal status layout the whole time.

The Pilot's Photo

While an aircraft is in Track view, the pilot's profile picture appears beside their name. A member who hasn't set a profile picture is shown with a generic icon instead. Members can add, change, or remove their picture under Profile → Personal.

Understanding the Cost

AeroAPI charges FlightAware directly per call, and Centerline makes a small, predictable number of calls per flight: one to find the flight, one for its filed route, and one per update while it's in the air. For an aircraft flying a typical 200 hours a year, that works out to roughly $1.15 per aircraft per month — so the $8 default budget comfortably covers around seven such aircraft on one club account.

Your Monthly budget is a hard ceiling, not an estimate: once a given month's AeroAPI spend for your club reaches it, tracking simply pauses for the rest of that month and automatically resumes on the 1st. Nothing else about your club's use of Centerline is affected — this only governs calls to FlightAware.

Tips

  • Start with one or two aircraft. You can check more boxes in the Tracked Aircraft list at any time — there's no need to track your whole fleet from day one.
  • The budget is a safety net, not a target. Leaving it at the $8 default is a reasonable choice for most clubs; raise it only if you're intentionally tracking more aircraft than that covers.
  • If the Track view never appears for an aircraft you've checked, confirm it actually has a reservation in progress and that it's equipped with (and transmitting on) ADS-B — Centerline can only show what FlightAware is able to report.
  • Removing your AeroAPI key pauses tracking immediately for every aircraft in your club, without losing your tracked-aircraft selections or your budget setting — paste the key back in whenever you're ready to resume.
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