VATSIM Scope

A clean, map-first VATSIM flight tracker prototype built as a static frontend.

What it does

• Loads live pilot data from the public VATSIM data feed
• Plots flights on an interactive map
• Lets you search by callsign, route, pilot name, airline, or aircraft type
• Shows a rich detail panel for the selected flight
• Attempts to load an aircraft-related image from Wikimedia based on airline and type

Local run

This machine does not currently have Node.js or Python installed, so the repo includes a tiny PowerShell static server.

1. Open PowerShell in this folder
2. Run:

.\serve.ps1

3. Open http://localhost:8080

If your PowerShell execution policy blocks the script, run:

powershell -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File .\serve.ps1

Notes

• Data source: https://data.vatsim.net/v3/vatsim-data.json
• Refresh interval: 15 seconds
• Aircraft photos are best-effort and not guaranteed to match the exact livery for every flight
• This is a frontend prototype, so there is no server-side caching, rate limiting, or image licensing layer yet