Search for real live traffic with aircraft call sign?

Hello all - fairly new to MSFS, first-time poster here on the forum…

I am interested in the possibilities of being able to track real-world flights in real time within the sim. Currently, there are multiple add-ons that inject real-world live traffic into the sim (FSLTL, PSXT etc.) - these seem to work by taking the position of your aircraft and generating AI aircraft up to a specified distance away according to the ADS-B data made available by a service like RealTraffic.

What I am interested in is the other way around: being able to search for aircraft anywhere in the world (for example, by the call sign), and have the sim “jump” to that aircraft in the 3D world. A similar feature is offered by Flight Radar 24 (without the 3D visualisation of course). Does anyone know if an add-on with this or a similar feature already exists? Or perhaps a way I could do this already within the sim? It could well be that this is an add-on I have to create myself, but any help with the above questions would be much appreciated!

So to ensure I understand, you want a way to have the sim automatically place you within the world in accordance to a specific real world flight that is in progress?

No, nothing that I know of exists currently like that.

Yes, exactly!

Ok, thanks for the quick response. Looks like I will have to try to put something together myself.

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Hi @TheAviator123
@skypilotYTS

This is not exactly what you’re looking for, but it’s as close as I’ve come using just what’s in the sim.

  1. Go into the WM and find a flight (I either just pick a random live flight on the WM or go to FlightAware and find one), make sure “live traffic” is turned on, then go find it on the WM). Select that plane icon on the WM and chose “create flight plan”. That will give you their starting/ending point.

  2. Go back into the WM and click on the same flight icon and select “set as departure”. You’ll pick up the flight from where they are and go to their destination. If you pick a similar type plane (airliner/GA/bizjet) in your setup, you’ll be “somewhat close” to picking up their flight from where they currently are to their actual destination.

It gives me the option to pick up a flight already in the air and fly the rest of their route.
Regards

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Very interesting, I was not aware that this could be done. Thanks for the tip!

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