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DavidB2 · 12-01-2017, 18:26

The attached screenshot shows an helicopter visible to our AIS units.
As you can see, the course is 123° and the track shows it is heading south east which seems to verify the heading.
However, the icon is showing the aircraft heading north.
As far as I can see, the SAR message (AIS msg 09) doesn't have a gyro field so all it has to work with is the heading field.
Should the icon rotate to follow the course made good?

Also, while I am at it, is there any way to change certain icons to helicopters instead of aircraft? I am tracking about 5 or 6 aircraft that are all helicopters but are all showing up as planes. There is nothing in the message that allows differentiation between planes & choppers so was wondering if there is a way to have custom icons for any AIS targets? I would want to change all SAR messages to helicopters as I do see some real SAR planes around on occasions.

(oh, and this isn't actually a SAR helicopter but the data I am getting from it is a SAR [09] message)

seandepagnier · 12-01-2017, 21:42

should we start plotting adsb or something as well as ais if available?

DavidB2 · 12-01-2017, 22:10

Quote:

Originally Posted by boat_alexandra

should we start plotting adsb or something as well as ais if available?

I wouldn't say No. Would be nice to see aircraft as long as you aren't near a busy airport where you might get swamped with signals! Actually my reason to look at OpenCPN is to assess suitability as a generic display for other tracking systems as well as AIS.

But in this case I do have a valid (I hope) AIS signal so am wondering whether message 9 is a special case where the icons aren't rotated. So far I have seen 2 helicopters today and both are facing north while flying south east. Possible, but unlikely and with no gyro information in the string, OpenCPN wouldn't know anyway.