Duats strikes again

gismo

gismo

Touchdown! Greaser!
Joined
Feb 28, 2005
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Minneapolis
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Display name:
iGismo
Yesterday morning I filed a flight plan from Dupage to the home base with an ETD of 6:30 pm CST. When I called for clearance the tower couldn't find anything and I had to call FSS and refile. I called Duats today and was told they had a computer problem yesterday that dumped a bunch of flight plans. I would have thought they would have some kind of mirror backup for that but I guess that would be asking too much. I've had them lose flight plans before but not for a few years and I'm pretty sure some of the "lost" plans were simply filed for the wrong ETD by (my) mistake.

On a side note, the LM briefer who answered the radio didn't have a clue what or where any of the waypoints in my route were even though they were both major VORs.
 
One of the features of flightaware.com that I love is being able to set up an email alert when a flight plan is filed on an airplane. Gets sent to my phone and I know I'm good to go.

I don't know if fltplan.com uses a duats interface to file flight plans or if they have their own gateway, but I've never had a problem with anything filed through them.
 
gibbons said:
One of the features of flightaware.com that I love is being able to set up an email alert when a flight plan is filed on an airplane. Gets sent to my phone and I know I'm good to go.

I don't know if fltplan.com uses a duats interface to file flight plans or if they have their own gateway, but I've never had a problem with anything filed through them.
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I do that too. Then I know my FP was filed.
 
Whatever method you use to file an IFR flight plan, it should show up on FlightAware also a few minuted after filing. That's another way to check whether it was successfully filed.
Jon
 
gibbons said:
One of the features of flightaware.com that I love is being able to set up an email alert when a flight plan is filed on an airplane. Gets sent to my phone and I know I'm good to go.
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+1, this is a fantastic feature.
 
kevin47881 said:
How do you set up this feature?
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I just did it.

I started out having already registered for a free flightaware account, and I was logged in. So, get to that point if you haven't already.

Then, in the upper-right corner, click the "Profile" link, and then go to the very bottom. 3rd space from the bottom, put in the e-mail address that sends text messages to your phone (for AT&T customers it's yourphonenumber@txt.att.net, and IIRC for Verizon it's yourphonenumber@vtext.com). Click the "Update my profile!" button. You'll get the same page, with a little blue success message at the top. Go all the way to the bottom again. There's a link just above where you just entered your SMS e-mail: "Manage flight alerts." Click that, and the rest should be self-explanatory. :yes:
 
4CornerFlyer said:
Whatever method you use to file an IFR flight plan, it should show up on FlightAware also a few minuted after filing. That's another way to check whether it was successfully filed.
Jon
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AFaIK, DUATS doesn't actually file the flight plan until a couple hours before the ETD so that you can edit the plan before that time. I assume this means that a plan filed at 8:30 am with a 6:30 pm departure (which was my case) wouldn't show up until 4:30 pm at which point I didn't have any internet access. I suppose I could fire up my laptop at the FBO and check flight aware before loading up the airplane but that would normally be a waste of 5 minutes. For that matter I could have contacted the tower before starting engines, something I often do but didn't this time because I wanted extra time to warm up the engines anyway (turns out there was plenty of time to achieve sufficiently warm oil temps on both engines even though the FBO had only plugged in the heater for one engine).
 
I think the only problem with those text messages from FlightAware is if you are not the only one who flies the airplane. You'll be getting text messages at random times anytime someone files an IFR flight plane with that N-number.
 
Everskyward said:
I think the only problem with those text messages from FlightAware is if you are not the only one who flies the airplane. You'll be getting text messages at random times anytime someone files an IFR flight plane with that N-number.
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My thought as well, which is why I only have it set up for the Mooney and my Aztec.

The Mooney it's only the owner and I who fly it, so that's not much extra (we tend to track eachother's flights anyway). And if someone's flying the Aztec IFR and it's not me, I certainly want to know about it...
 
flyingcheesehead said:
I just did it.

I started out having already registered for a free flightaware account, and I was logged in. So, get to that point if you haven't already.

Then, in the upper-right corner, click the "Profile" link, and then go to the very bottom. 3rd space from the bottom, put in the e-mail address that sends text messages to your phone (for AT&T customers it's yourphonenumber@txt.att.net, and IIRC for Verizon it's yourphonenumber@vtext.com). Click the "Update my profile!" button. You'll get the same page, with a little blue success message at the top. Go all the way to the bottom again. There's a link just above where you just entered your SMS e-mail: "Manage flight alerts." Click that, and the rest should be self-explanatory. :yes:
Click to expand...

Thanks, Kent!
 
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