are you "in the system" with flight following?

[GCA319]

I've noticed that I'll show up on flightaware if I requested it with a Class B or C TRACON, but not with an ARTCC. Your mileage may vary in different areas.

 

[Mike I]

The controller has no control over whether you show up in flight aware or not. And he does not care. It's an automated system. A VFR flight following with ATC is not linked to a VfR flight plan filed with FSS. It makes no difference if a VFR flight plan was filed or activated.

None of this has anything to do with VFR Flight Plans filed with FSS. Mentioning that confuses the issue.

 

[kimberlyanne546]

The only reason I know I showed up was because the folks back at the flight school tracked me. They made a comment upon my return from my 400-500nm (round trip) four day flight about my altitude. I explained there was turbulence and clouds, then asked how he knew my altitude had been changing? He showed me the flight aware track. Funny thing is, both for the leg going South 4 days earlier, and for that day's flight, the data was incorrect.

I saw these problems:

Flight Aware didn't start tracking me until long into my flight
Flight Aware had the wrong departure or arrival airport
On the leg home it thought I was going to Oregon and my flight tracked stopped once I got close to home base, probably when they asked me to sqwak 1200. I looked up the code for the other airport and it was similar to the code "O69" so they must have heard me wrong.

 

[azure]

I saw these problems:

Flight Aware didn't start tracking me until long into my flight
Flight Aware had the wrong departure or arrival airport
On the leg home it thought I was going to Oregon and my flight tracked stopped once I got close to home base, probably when they asked me to sqwak 1200. I looked up the code for the other airport and it was similar to the code "O69" so they must have heard me wrong.

This is very normal, in my experience, when under VFR flight following. I haven't figured out exactly what those points where my track begins and ends correspond to. They might be where the controller puts my flight into the computer and where he cuts me loose, or limits imposed by the ARTCC computer, or they might be something else altogether.

The really crazy flight tracks are the ones that suddenly jog out to somewhere in the middle of the Pacific Ocean (and I'm in Michigan!). The only thing I can think of there is that someone misspelled a navaid along my route, or else there is another navaid outside US airspace boundaries with the same name.

 

[Mike I]

The really crazy flight tracks are the ones that suddenly jog out to somewhere in the middle of the Pacific Ocean (and I'm in Michigan!). The only thing I can think of there is that someone misspelled a navaid along my route, or else there is another navaid outside US airspace boundaries with the same name.

When picking up flight following, controllers seem to often key in the closest VOR or a lat/long as your departure airport. Flightaware doesn't interpret these properly. Take this for example:

http://flightaware.com/live/flight/N360JH/history/20120727/1833Z/4259N/N07

Shows the departure as 4259N (airport), which breaks FlightAware and shows us in the ocean.

On our flight we passed through 42.5906N, -79.5003E, which is the exact point we crossed from Canadian airspace back into US airspace. Probably a handoff issue. Somehow FA doesn't properly process the Lat/Long field.

We were IFR on the flight home, and there's an identical flight that tracks properly on FA. But I've seen this happen when VFR with odd effects, just like the VOR issue.

 

[COFlyBoy]

So I flew a Round Robin IFR flight out of KAPA to do some practice approaches in actual IFR conditions a while back. Flight Aware got the actual flight path right, but really got confused on the filed flight path. I believe I actually flew 3 approaches, but only 2 show up (or I followed the needles so closely that 2 of the tracks laid right on top of each other, yeah that's it )

http://flightaware.com/live/flight/N3687W/history/20120427/1430ZZ/KAPA/KAPA

 

[denverpilot]

So I flew a Round Robin IFR flight out of KAPA to do some practice approaches in actual IFR conditions a while back. Flight Aware got the actual flight path right, but really got confused on the filed flight path. I believe I actually flew 3 approaches, but only 2 show up (or I followed the needles so closely that 2 of the tracks laid right on top of each other, yeah that's it )

http://flightaware.com/live/flight/N3687W/history/20120427/1430ZZ/KAPA/KAPA

Real flyable IFR at KAPA? Hell must have frozen over that day too.

 

[Henning]

I am married

Dude, that is the worst reason to use Flight Aware as it does some funky things here and there that will have you dropping off the face of the earth when VFR FF. Seriously, warn her not to panic.

 

[flyingcheesehead]

Dude, that is the worst reason to use Flight Aware as it does some funky things here and there that will have you dropping off the face of the earth when VFR FF. Seriously, warn her not to panic.

Yup - And it's gotten worse recently. Used to be you'd just disappear and get "result unknown." Now, FlightAware will estimate a flight track and show it as if it's actually happened. I am NOT a fan of that feature.

If the wife really wants to track you - Spidertracks, SPOT messenger, or DeLorme InReach.

 

[flyingron]

I got an IFR popup into OSH over MKE. Oddly the flight plan shows "Dinnerbell, WI" (neat name) as the origin for the flight.

While getting FF on the way back over central Indiana, the controller asked my departure point, and he put in OSH rather than some made up fix near where I had actually requested it.