Spidertracks Spider 3, Instruction Manual

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3. Operation
Tracking, communication and other flight data transmitted via the Spider can be viewed on
the Spidertracks website and mobile application, however, this will first need to be
configured at go.spidertracks.com. For setting up your account, please refer to the User
Guide for the Spidertracks website.
Reporting parameters are configured within the website and not on the Spider itself. When
such parameters are initialised, or changed, the Spidertracks system queues a
configuration message for delivery to the Spider. This sits on the gateway until the next
subsequent ‘session’ that the Spider establishes, at which point the message is delivered
and the Spider’s operating system is updated accordingly. Configuration updates can be
made in real time while the aircraft is in flight.
When powered and in full view of the sky, the Spider will begin to send position reports
consistent with how it has been configured without any interaction required by the pilot. The
purpose of the keypad is to provide visual indication on the state of the Spider as well as
additional functionality but is not required for the Spider to report aircraft position.
3.1. System Attributes
There are many features of the Spidertracks system that are delivered through software
services and are not specific to any of the Spider product variants. The full range of these
are beyond the scope of this document, however, the following two sub-sections summarise
cornerstone attributes and provides context for Spider functions discussed in this section.
3.1.1. Tracking Modes
Spidertracks provides both passive and active tracking capabilities (referred to as
normal and watch modes respectively).
Under normal tracking conditions, the Spider will report positional information and flight
events in real time, however, if the aircraft were to encounter an emergency situation in
flight, ground personnel would not be alerted to this unless there was a conscious SOS
button press by the crew.
In watch mode, the Spidertracks system is actively monitoring the status of the flight. If
communication with the aircraft is lost for a period of ten minutes a tier one alert will be
pushed through to the emergency management framework.