TallyAir

Everything overhead, on the record.

Pending

Live ADS-B flight tracking for iPad, built for watching from the ground.

Follow a tail number, get pushed the second a squawk goes emergency, and keep a log of every flight it makes. When something goes wrong overhead, you are not the only one watching.

One message when TestFlight opens. Nothing else. Unsubscribe from any of them.

SPECIMENSAMPLE STRIP · NOT A LIVE FEEDSample flight strip showing an airborne aircraft. The values below are illustrative, not live data.
Traffic loopAWAITING DATA
Sample composition. Live traffic feed pending.
TAIL
N7811T
TYPE
C172
ROUTE
KSQL → KMRY
ALTITUDE
4,500 FT
SPEED
118 KT
SQUAWK
1200
DUR
00:41:12
DIST
62.4 NM

Everything in range, on one board.

TallyAir puts the live picture and the strips side by side on the iPad screen: what is in the air near you, what you have chosen to follow, and what is unusual enough to be worth looking up for.

Broadcast geometry · schematic, not for navigation
01

See what is overhead

A live ADS-B map beside the aircraft’s strip: altitude, speed, squawk and the track flown so far.

02

Follow a tail number

Search a registration or callsign and follow it. Get a push when it next goes airborne.

03

Keep it on your board

The aircraft you follow stay together as strips, with airborne traffic at the top and unusual types flagged as they appear.

SPECIMENSAMPLE BOARD · NOT A LIVE FEEDSample strip board showing two airborne aircraft. The values below are illustrative, not live data.

  • N7811TC172KSQL → KMRY

    ALTITUDE
    4,500 FT
    SPEED
    118 KT
    SQUAWK
    1200
    DUR
    00:41:12
    DIST
    62.4 NM

  • N629UAB738KOAK → KSAN

    ALTITUDE
    33,000 FT
    SPEED
    442 KT
    SQUAWK
    4271
    DUR
    01:12:40
    DIST
    402 NM
Sample board. Live traffic capture pending.

Coverage depends on nearby receivers and aircraft broadcasting ADS-B. How the live picture works →

Three codes, and what happens when one appears.

A squawk is four octal digits set on the transponder. Three of them are reserved for trouble, and when one shows up on an aircraft you follow — or on anything inside your radius — TallyAir pushes it and moves the strip to the top of the board.

Four thumbwheels, eight positions each · transponder schematic

  • 7500Unlawful interference

    The hijack code. It is the rarest of the three and the one most often seen in error: a transponder being dialled from 7000 up to 7600 crosses 7500 on the way, and some units transmit every code they pass through. A 7500 in your notifications is a broadcast, not a finding.

  • 7600Lost communications

    The radios are gone. The aircraft is still flying, still navigating and still being tracked — it simply cannot talk to anyone. Usually it is a failed radio stack or a frequency left behind, and it resolves without anything else changing on the strip.

  • 7700General emergency

    Everything else: an engine problem, a medical diversion, smoke, a pressurisation issue. It is the code you will see most often of the three, and most of the time it ends as an ordinary landing with the trucks standing by.

What actually fires a notification
Scope
Anything on your follow list, wherever it is being received, plus anything inside your alert radius.
Radius
Centred on your location. 50 NM by default, adjustable from 10 to 250, or switched off entirely so only your follow list can alert.
Trigger
The change itself — the first report carrying 7500, 7600 or 7700. Not every position report that follows it.
Repeat
One notification per aircraft per event. The squawk has to return to a routine code for fifteen minutes before that aircraft can alert again.
Delivery
A push naming the code, the aircraft and its distance from you. Opening it opens the strip.
Clear
When the squawk returns to routine the strip drops back to AIR. Nothing is deleted — the event stays in your log with its timestamps.
SPECIMENSAMPLE ALERT · NOT A LIVE FEEDAn illustration of the notification TallyAir would send. The aircraft, the code and the figures below are sample data, not a live or historical event.

TallyAirnow

7700General emergency

N7811T · C172 · 18.6 NM NNW · 3,200 FT, DESCENDING
SQUAWK 1200 → 7700 AT 14:22:07Z

Sample notification. Wording and figures are illustrative.

The strip lands. The log keeps it.

Every aircraft you watch ends up on the ground, and so does its strip. What is left is a log — every flight of every aircraft you follow, kept without you having to file anything.

The route becomes a record · illustrative chart
SPECIMENSAMPLE LOG · NOT A LIVE FEEDA sample page from a flight log showing three flights of followed aircraft. The aircraft, times and routes below are illustrative, not a real log.

  1. 08 SEP · 14:22ZN7811TC172

    KSQL → KWVI → KSQL. Down the coast and back, 1h 48m on the Hobbs.

    Following since 12 AUG · 9th flight

  2. 06 SEP · 09:41ZN401DBEC35

    KHWD → KHWD. Twenty minutes of low orbits over the bay, then home.

    Following since 03 SEP · 2nd flight

Sample log page. Entries are illustrative.
What a log entry holds
Aircraft
The registration and type — the same identity the strip carried in the air, because it is the same aircraft you followed.
The flight
Where it went and how long it took, assembled from the positions it broadcast on the way.
Time
Takeoff and landing, kept in UTC and shown in your local time.
Position
The aircraft's own broadcast position. It is public data: it is what the aircraft told everyone listening.
Your location
Nothing. No part of a log row records where you were — there is no column for it anywhere in TallyAir.
How it got here
You followed the aircraft. The log is every flight of every aircraft on your list, worked out when you open it — there is nothing to file and nothing to forget to file.
Removing it
Unfollow the aircraft and its flights leave your log. Nothing is kept behind to be cleaned up later.