Data sources
91 Dispatcher is only as good as the data behind it. This page lists every external source
we use, where it comes from, and how current it is — so you can judge for yourself how much
weight to put on any given number.
If something here looks wrong or out of date, tell us. We would rather be corrected than
trusted by default.
Aeronautical data — FAA
Airports, runways, instrument approaches, waypoints and airspace boundaries all come from
the FAA's published datasets. These are US government works in the public domain.
| what | source | updated |
|---|---|---|
| Airports, runways, services | NASR (National Airspace System Resources) subscription | every 28 days |
| Instrument approach procedures and minimums | d-TPP (Digital Terminal Procedures Publication) | every 28 days |
| Approach geometry, waypoints, navaids | CIFP (Coded Instrument Flight Procedures, ARINC 424) | every 28 days |
| Class B / C / D airspace boundaries | FAA Class Airspace feature service | every 28 days |
We follow the AIRAC cycle — the 28-day schedule the FAA publishes on. Each cycle is
loaded alongside the live one, checked, and only then activated, so a brief is always served
from one internally consistent set of data rather than a mixture.
What this means for you: approach minimums, runway lengths and airspace boundaries are
as current as the cycle in effect. They are *not* a substitute for official charts. Nothing
in this product is approved for navigation.
Weather — NOAA / NWS
| what | source |
|---|---|
| METAR, TAF, PIREP | Aviation Weather Center (aviationweather.gov) |
| SIGMET, Convective SIGMET, G-AIRMET, CWA | Aviation Weather Center |
| Winds and temperatures aloft | Aviation Weather Center |
Public domain, fetched live. Observations and forecasts are shown with their issue time so
you can see how old they are. Winds in METAR and TAF are referenced to true north, not
magnetic — we convert where it matters and say so where it doesn't.
Flight tracking — FlightAware
Position tracks for flights you log or track come from FlightAware AeroAPI under a
commercial licence. This is what fills in the map for a flight you flew, and what powers
arrival and departure times.
Maps and imagery
| what | source |
|---|---|
| 3D globe and weather map rendering | CesiumJS |
| Base map tiles | Stadia Maps / Stamen Toner |
| Mobile maps | Mapbox |
| Sectional chart tiles | derived from FAA published charts |
AI and machine learning
| what | model |
|---|---|
| Brief narrative and risk reasoning | Anthropic Claude |
| ATC audio transcription (in development) | OpenAI Whisper, self-hosted |
AI-generated text in a brief is labelled as such. It is a summary of the underlying data,
not an independent source of fact — and it can be wrong. The numbers it describes come from
the sources above, and those are what you should check.
In development
We would rather tell you what is coming than surprise you with it.
ADS-B traffic data — [adsb.lol](https://www.adsb.lol/), published under the
[Open Database License (ODbL) 1.0](https://opendatacommons.org/licenses/odbl/1-0/). A
community network of volunteers running their own receivers, whose data makes it possible to
answer questions like how busy a pattern is at a given hour, or what a taxi route usually
looks like. If you want to improve coverage in your area, you can
[feed it yourself](https://adsb.lol/feed).
ATC audio. Recording and transcription of air traffic control audio, to help pilots
review what was said. Sourcing and licensing for this are not yet settled, and we will name
the source here before anything ships.
Attribution and licensing
- FAA and NOAA data are US government works in the public domain.
- adsb.lol data is used under ODbL 1.0, which requires attribution — this page is it.
- FlightAware data is used under a commercial licence and is not redistributed.
- Aggregate statistics we derive (traffic counts, seasonal profiles) are our own work built
on the above.
What we do not do
- We do not sell your flight data.
- We do not use your logbook or flights to train models.
- We do not present derived statistics as official guidance. Where we compute something
ourselves — a risk score, a traffic profile — we say so, and we show the sample it is
based on.
*Last reviewed: 2026-07-31.*