What we collect, what we don't, and why. Last updated 13 September 2026.
Flying Tools is a collection of free aviation and utility tools for flight simulation, run as a NaughtyGnome project. This policy covers everything on this site, including the tool pages, the feedback form, and Route ATC.
Everything here is for flight simulation only. Nothing on this site should be used for real-world aviation.
We set a small number of first-party cookies and browser storage keys. The browser storage entries never leave your device.
| Name | Type | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| PHPSESSID | Cookie | Standard session cookie, used on the feedback page (spam protection) and admin areas. Strictly necessary, expires when you close your browser. |
| vatsimtracker | Cookie | Route ATC session. The cookie itself holds only a random session identifier; the VATSIM CID you entered is held on our server against it. Scoped to Route ATC, expires 24 hours after you start tracking, and is cleared the moment you press "Stop tracking". |
| flyingtools-theme | Local storage | Remembers your light/dark theme choice. |
| flyingtools-gdpr-consent | Local storage | Remembers whether you accepted or declined analytics. |
| flyingtools-tracker-* | Local storage | Route ATC preferences: which sectors you have ticked off, which new-ATC alerts have already sounded, your mute setting, and the sector filter. Stays in your browser only - we never see it. |
| _ga, _ga_* | Cookie | Google Analytics, only set if you accept the cookie banner. See below. |
We use Google Analytics 4 to see which tools people use most, so we know where to spend our time. It only loads after you press "Yeah, go for it!" on the cookie banner. If you decline, it never loads and nothing is sent to Google Analytics at all.
When enabled, Google Analytics collects standard usage data such as pages visited, approximate location, browser and device type. See Google's privacy policy for how Google handles this data.
Changed your mind after accepting? There is no in-page toggle yet, but clearing this site's data in your browser settings resets your choice and the banner will ask again on your next visit.
When you submit feedback we store the feedback type, the name you enter (optional, feel free to stay Anonymous), your message, and the time of submission. We also record your IP address, used only to limit abuse (a cap on submissions per hour) - it is never used to identify or profile you.
Submissions are stored in our database and a copy is emailed to the site operator so we actually read them.
Heads up: if your feedback is accepted onto the Roadmap, the name and message you entered are shown publicly there. Use "Anonymous" or a nickname if you'd rather not appear.
Want a submission removed? Send us a message describing it and we will delete it, including the stored IP address.
The feedback page uses Google reCAPTCHA v3 to keep bots out. reCAPTCHA runs in the background on that page and sends signals about your browser to Google to produce a spam score. Its use is governed by Google's privacy policy and terms of service.
Pages load the JetBrains Mono font from Google Fonts. When your browser fetches the font, Google's servers see your IP address and browser details, as with any file loaded from a third party. No cookies are set by Google Fonts.
There is no login. You type your numeric VATSIM CID and the Route ATC uses it to find your flight in VATSIM's public data feed. That CID is the only thing we hold about you: it lives in a server-side session for 24 hours, then it is gone. No name, no email, no password, no account, and nothing written to our database.
Everything Route ATC shows you - your callsign, position, altitude, filed flight plan, the ATC online around you and the frequency you are tuned to - is already published by VATSIM for anyone to read. That is why no login is needed: there is nothing here that isn't already public. It also means it does not check that a CID belongs to you, because doing so would not protect anything.
We do not store your flights. Your checklist progress, mute setting and alerts stay in your own browser. The only thing cached on our server is airspace and route data keyed by airport pair (for example EGLL-EHAM), shared by everyone flying that pair and never linked to who flew it.
Route ATC uses the same consent-gated analytics as the rest of the site: nothing loads unless you accept the cookie banner. If we ever add the optional VATSIM Connect login (the code is there but switched off), this page will be updated first.
Tools like METAR, Airport Info, Bad Weather Finder and Route ATC fetch data from external providers: CheckWX, the VATSIM data feed, OurAirports, where2fly.today, and - for airspace boundaries and sector altitudes - the VATSpy Data Project and VATGlasses data sets hosted on GitHub.
Every one of those requests goes through our own server, so those providers see our server's address and the query (for example, an airport code), never your IP address or browser. Queries are not logged or stored beyond short-lived caches used to keep the site fast, and the airspace data sets are downloaded whole rather than per visitor, so they carry nothing about you at all.
Ordinary session cookies expire when your session ends. Route ATC's session is deliberately longer so it survives a flight, but it is capped: the CID it holds is discarded 24 hours after you start tracking, or immediately when you press "Stop tracking". Browser storage stays on your device until you clear it. Feedback submissions are kept while they are useful for running the site and are deleted on request.
Depending on where you live (for example, under UK/EU GDPR) you have the right to ask what data we hold about you, have it corrected, or have it deleted. Given how little we collect, this almost always means a feedback submission - just get in touch and we will sort it.
Questions about this policy or your data? Use the feedback form and we will get back to you.
If what we collect changes, this page will be updated and the date at the top revised. Significant changes will also appear in the changelog.