FlightWatch/X-Country

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charris911

Pre-takeoff checklist
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charris911
Flight from Houston to Weatherford, few storms building to the west of destination.

Could see the buildup on WX, first time to use FlightWatch (when I really needed advice).

Called, 122.000 gave my position (accidently said Houston FlightWatch), few seconds later "Fort Worth FlightWatch" answered, asked me for my "nearest VOR, aircraft type and go ahead". They were great, said, at my speed, no issue, but check back in 30 minutes and he would have an update ready for me.

Really great service, called back in half-hour, he answered straight away and advised the storms moved further north, and gave me the nearest METARS.

Kuddos to them. Better than negative reports have heard about expirences with FlightWatch. Great flight too. Houston, Waco and Regional Approach all good people.
 
:yes: they have always been great, sometimes seemed like they were glad to talk to somebody. glad you made it.
 
I have used Flight Watch a few times, on long cross countries. They've always been very helpful and gave me exactly what I needed.
 
It is a great service and I enjoy using it to confirm what I see with eyeballs and ADSB wx.
 
Yeah, the only issue is that you typically need some altitude before you can hear them reliably, but they will give you all sorts of useful info.
 
Use flight watch all the time.most pilots usually use it when things are going downhill .got in the habit of giving pilot reports to help them with what is actually happening.call them early and they can help keep you out of some bad stuff.
 
I have seen a chart somewhere that shows the flightwatch "sector" so you know who to call. I can't find it. If anyone has a link please post it.


Bryan
 
My garmi n portable gives the info on what FSS you are going to contact.
 
I almost always leave 122.0 dialed up on XCs when I'm not going to be a factor to any nearby airport traffic. Even if I'm not making any calls I can listen to what the weather around me may be doing.


Flight Watch is good stuff.
 
I get a kick out of everyone agreeing with this thread that Flightwatch is good stuff, but whining ( when they're on the ground with high bandwidth on their iPad ) that the exact same briefers "suck" at AFSS.

Guess when you don't have any other way to get info you appreciate it more, eh? ;)

Would this thread be different if every airplane had high bandwidth data service? ;)
 
bburnett said:
I have seen a chart somewhere that shows the flightwatch "sector" so you know who to call. I can't find it. If anyone has a link please post it.


Bryan
Click to expand...

If you're calling 122.0 Flightwatch, the sector isn't something that's required now... Just something like a name of a VOR or two and distance away from it/them so the briefer can pinpoint your location.

Announcing the sector isn't needed because their computers are now smart enough to know that your transmission is being received over "these" towers in that location. Then the computer will alert the briefer working Flightwatch for that area that you're wanting to talk with him.

During a tour, I saw the system in action and it's really impressive how quickly they can isolate your call to them out of the background. When you call, the computer displays "you" on a touch screen that is already filtering out the inactive channels. The briefer just touches the icon representing your call/channel, steps on a foot switch and talks to you.
 
denverpilot said:
Would this thread be different if every airplane had high bandwidth data service? ;)
Click to expand...

"Daddy, why is that red and white cessna circling the cell tower?"

"Oh, that's just Nate trying to get an update about the weather".

/duck_and_run
 
Flight Watch sectors same as Center's areas of responsibility.
 

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I've not had great luck with flight watch. On a long XC across Texas with deteriorating weather. Tried to call Flight Watch, I was 3rd in line, but I was with center and could not sit on the freq and wait. Finally my turn, and she had to give me AIRMETs for 500miles away before she could give me the metar and TAF for 100miles in front of me.

Can't ever get a quick hellos, question asked and answered, good bye without having to listen to all the AIRMETs for the entire area first, and most of those were behind me already.

Also could not get FSS or FW to answer up to extend ETA on a VFR flight plan. Finally got ATC to forward it, I was on flit following with them. I knew it was not their job, but when I explained that FSS would not answer up, and in 15 min they were going to start looking for me, they passed the ETA.

Can not get FSS to answer in the LAS area to open VFR flit plans.
I do everything I can on the computer, get my own briefings, file, etc.

Now if they would come up with a cellphone based text with pin code system for open and closing VFR flight plans , that would be great!
 
BillTIZ said:
Can not get FSS to answer in the LAS area to open VFR flit plans.
I do everything I can on the computer, get my own briefings, file, etc.

Now if they would come up with a cellphone based text with pin code system for open and closing VFR flight plans , that would be great!
Click to expand...

Yeah; my primary instructor wasn't a big fan of VFR flight plans, so I never really got in that habit early. (His advice was, get flight following and declare your emergency when you're still high enough they can hear you.) After I started making more cross-countries on my own, I started filing flight plans and thought "this isn't so bad", though did have one or two close calls on closing them in time. Recently, with all of the VOR voice outages and the busy radio environment near DC, I don't even bother, because I know that even if I file one, I'll never open it...
 
I'm sure you know this but you can activate them when you call to file the plan and get a briefing. Just tell them what time you'll be in the air. This works well at an uncontrolled quiet field where you know how long it'll take you to preflight and get rolling.

mcmanigle said:
Yeah; my primary instructor wasn't a big fan of VFR flight plans, so I never really got in that habit early. (His advice was, get flight following and declare your emergency when you're still high enough they can hear you.) After I started making more cross-countries on my own, I started filing flight plans and thought "this isn't so bad", though did have one or two close calls on closing them in time. Recently, with all of the VOR voice outages and the busy radio environment near DC, I don't even bother, because I know that even if I file one, I'll never open it...
Click to expand...
 
You mention "close calls" closing your flight plan. What do you perceive as the reason to file and open one in the first place?
 
mcmanigle said:
Yeah; my primary instructor wasn't a big fan of VFR flight plans, so I never really got in that habit early. (His advice was, get flight following and declare your emergency when you're still high enough they can hear you.) After I started making more cross-countries on my own, I started filing flight plans and thought "this isn't so bad", though did have one or two close calls on closing them in time. ..
Click to expand...

I have used them until 2 years ago. I had a flight plan from El Paso to Carlsbad NM. Called to cancel it in the air when I entered the pattern at Carlsbad and they wouildn't let me (said it was a safety issue and they wanted to assure the landing). Landed unloaded and called 1-800-WXBrief to close the flight plan. Stayed a day and loaded up to return to EL Paso. Upon calling to activate the return leg flight plan they told me I had one open (the one from the day before). I told them I closed that one, and if it WAS still open why weren't they searching for me ... things got silent and they responded that the "new" flight plan was now activated.
 
JHW said:
You mention "close calls" closing your flight plan. What do you perceive as the reason to file and open one in the first place?
Click to expand...

I don't have a good answer to that, but I'll tell you my bad answer/s. I call WxBrief for briefings on anything more than 50nm or so. When they say "do you want us to file that?" I say "sure, why not." Then, when I'm in the air, if I'm not doing anything else, I'll sometimes get bored and think "I wonder if any of the RCOs are working" and activate.

As for why I call Lockheed (after satisfying myself that all is well using ForeFlight), I like the idea that if anything is investigated, there will be a tape somewhere of my mumbling "uh huh" at the right bits and "thank you very much" at the end of a briefing, rather than "well, we see from DUATS records that a big dump of text was sent to him; who knows if he read any of it."

After enough NTSB reports of "probable cause was the uncertificated pilot's decision to fly the stolen airplane into a mountain in IMC without checking the weather first. Contributing was that he was high on cocaine," I'd rather there be records of my call hanging around.
 
danhagan said:
I have used them until 2 years ago. I had a flight plan from El Paso to Carlsbad NM. Called to cancel it in the air when I entered the pattern at Carlsbad and they wouildn't let me (said it was a safety issue and they wanted to assure the landing). Landed unloaded and called 1-800-WXBrief to close the flight plan. Stayed a day and loaded up to return to EL Paso. Upon calling to activate the return leg flight plan they told me I had one open (the one from the day before). I told them I closed that one, and if it WAS still open why weren't they searching for me ... things got silent and they responded that the "new" flight plan was now activated.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I once managed to close a flight plan from the air, but only because I had landed and taken back off on the next (no-plan-filed) leg when I called to close.
 
XC 4 yrs ago, coast to coast and return. Used a flight plan on every leg, and flight following when we were in radar coverage. About 50% of the time we had problems activating flight plans. Most were closed by cell phone after landing. All were filed by computer before departure, pre iPad ForeFlight days.

Last year XC through Canada to Alaska and return. Flight plan every leg. Flight plans required in Canada, phone filed every leg. In Canada flight plans are automatically opened on proposed departure time, no call to activate required. They presume you may crash on departure, granted with a 4 hr flight plan, it may be awhile before they start looking for you, but at least they'll be looking.

Flight plans are automatically closed if landing at a towered airport. They already have the inbound information to expect you. They will also update your departure time on takeoff with FSS, no need to ask.
 
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