Story ID: 
Satcom’s tracking service links to flight planning
By: Mark Huber
Caption: Satcom Direct (Booth No.
Word Count: 293
Satcom Direct (Booth No. 3208) announced a new product and upgrades of existing ones at the NBAA show on Monday. The company’s SD Flight Tracker is a Web-based service designed to deliver precise aircraft global positioning via Inmarsat, Iridium, VHF and broadband networks. It also provides real-time satellite system status and expands the capabilities of Satcom’s FlightDeck Freedom (FDF) service. Users can track flights worldwide using datalink position reporting. The system can be customized to include global maps, tracked aircraft, defined fleets and flight information displays. A real-time weather overlay includes U.S. Nexrad and global satellite cloud coverage. Other features include real-time access to aircraft satcom log-on and call data, datalink message logs, takeoff and landing reports and flight route history. SD Flight Tracker can be linked to the FDF, which offers cross-fleet compatibility and fixed datalink costs regardless of network used. It now supports Primus Epic-equipped aircraft and is compatible with multiple flight-planning systems including Air Routing, FltPlan.com, Jeppesen and Universal Weather. FDF can be bundled with flight-planning services from Air Routing and Jeppesen. It is the only datalink service compatible with FltPlan.com.FDF can transmit flight-critical data to the crew, including pre-departure clearances, digital ATIS, oceanic clearances, airport and graphical weather and flight plan routes. Dispatchers and maintenance personnel can monitor the aircraft through automated takeoff and landing reports, send and receive e-mail to and from the aircraft and locate the aircraft’s position with SD Flight Tracker. Flight crews have direct access to satellite network monitoring and performance tools while en route. Satcom Direct also announced Plane Simple Plus, a satcom management tool that includes usage statistics, diagnostic information, performance details and configurations and alerts regarding any service issues or hardware detected in the previous month.