AO Quickstart: First 15 Minutes

This quickstart is for a first useful AO session. The goal is not to learn every panel. The goal is to open the workspace, find one live aircraft, understand what AO is showing, and make one practical measurement.

In about 15 minutes, you will learn how to:

• read the active map workspace
• search for an aircraft by callsign
• select a target and use the automatic detail panel
• read the first flight fields that matter
• measure distance with Range Calc Mode
• use display toggles without losing your place

Before you start

• Open AO in a desktop browser at https://anobservatory.com.
• Use the current default workspace and browser zoom at 100%.
• Keep Live Traffic on.
• Keep MSFS Connect off for this walkthrough.
• Start in the operating context AO opens with, or choose the context closest to your task from TWR/GND, DEP/APP, and ENR.

Step 1. Read the workspace

Start by understanding the screen before clicking into traffic.

Use the workspace in layers:

1. The map is the primary surface. Aircraft, tracks, range rings, airspace, and gridlines are read together.
2. The left rail opens the main menu, search, layers, traffic tools, account, settings, and terminal.
3. The top bar shows the active control area or map context.
4. The top-right mode buttons switch between TWR/GND, DEP/APP, and ENR.
5. The lower edge shows map position, scale, altitude filter, clock, alerts, and status information.

Do not try to tune everything first. For a first pass, keep the map readable and learn one workflow end to end.

Step 2. Search for one aircraft

Open ATC Search from the left rail. Set the search type to Aircraft, then enter a callsign or identifier.

In this example, the search returns ANA110 with altitude, speed, and heading in the result row. Select the result to move from search into target inspection.

If your search returns too many results, use a more specific callsign. If it returns nothing, check that live traffic is on and try a nearby aircraft label from the map.

Step 3. Select the target

When you select an aircraft, AO highlights that target on the map and opens the target detail panel automatically.

Confirm three things before reading deeper:

1. The highlighted aircraft on the map matches the callsign you searched.
2. The right-side target panel shows the same callsign.
3. The bottom flights table includes the selected aircraft and nearby traffic for comparison.

The selected target may use a different color from surrounding traffic. Treat that as your anchor while reading the rest of the screen.

Step 4. Read the target details

The target detail panel is the fastest way to confirm what AO knows about one aircraft. Continue from the selected target view and read the panel on the right.

Start with these fields:

• Flight Number: the callsign or flight identifier you selected
• Source: where the live traffic record came from
• Barometric Altitude: altitude used for most quick traffic reads
• Ground Speed: current speed over the ground
• Track: direction of movement across the map
• Barometric Rate: climb or descent trend
• Seen: how fresh the current position data is

Do not judge the whole traffic picture from one value. Look at altitude, track, speed, vertical rate, and freshness together.

Step 5. Use the flights table for context

The bottom Flights table gives you a compact comparison view. Use it after selecting one aircraft, not before.

Helpful first columns include:

• C/S for callsign
• SQWK for squawk
• TYPE for aircraft type
• ALT for altitude
• HDG for heading or track
• SPD for speed
• V/S for vertical speed

This table is useful when you want to compare the selected aircraft against surrounding traffic without opening a new target each time.

Step 6. Measure a distance

Enable Range Calc Mode from the tools workflow, then place measurement points on the map.

Use Range Calc Mode for quick checks:

• distance between selected aircraft
• spacing between traffic flows
• rough distance from a target to a fix, coast, airport, or visual reference
• altitude difference when the measurement label includes vertical separation

For a beginner workflow, one clean measurement is enough. Add more only when you can still read the map clearly.

Step 7. Check display toggles

The main menu exposes display controls such as Theater Mode, Gridlines, and Live Traffic.

Use these sparingly:

• Keep Live Traffic on for this guide.
• Turn Gridlines on when you need geographic orientation.
• Use Theater Mode only when you want a focused map view.

If the map suddenly looks wrong, check these toggles before changing deeper settings.

Common mistakes

• Changing display, target, and workspace settings before learning the base flow
• Searching without confirming that live traffic is enabled
• Reading altitude or speed without checking track, vertical rate, and data freshness
• Forgetting that target details open automatically after selection
• Adding too many range measurements until the map becomes hard to read

Next step

After this quickstart:

1. Repeat the search and selection flow with another target.
2. Practice one Range Calc measurement, then clear it and make a cleaner one.
3. Continue with AO Guide: Search and Select Aircraft.
4. Read the latest product changes in Updates.