Flightaware and local flight plans

ScottM

ScottM

Taxi to Parking
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iBazinga!
Yesterday I was headed down to KBMG for a double birthday celebration with the nieces. The ride up at 7500'MSL was really smooth and fast. My GS was at 150knots. There was a layer that was broken to overcast below me for most of the last part of the flight. But KBMG was reporting CLR so no biggy, I would descend once I was in the clear. But at 16 miles away there was no sign of an clearings. There were a few holes but I decided that instead of finding a big enough "legal" hole to spiral down I would just request a pop up IFR and get a descent down below the layer and continue on.

ATC, Hulman Approach, was more than accommodating and in the course of the vectors to the approach I actually ended up grabbing about 15 minutes of IMC.

I check flightaware.com this morning and see nothing about my flight.

I was given what I think was just a local squawk of 0103. Does flightaware not display local IFR flight plan info?

What keys them to capture the data as I have noticed some VFR flights are now being referenced and displayed?
 
I believe they get a feed from the national system and if you got a popup and stayed with the same sector/facility I don't think it made it into the national system.
 
Scott, I'm a VFR only pilot (almost finished with IR) and most of my flights show up on FlightAware. Of course 99% are on flight following and most of my flights are 150 to 400 NM in distance.
 
If a particular flight has a terrific groundspeed or shows off the marvelous range of your airplane or some other striking feature you want to see/share, flightaware will filter that flight out so no one can ever see it.
 
Let'sgoflying! said:
If a particular flight has a terrific groundspeed or shows off the marvelous range of your airplane or some other striking feature you want to see/share, flightaware will filter that flight out so no one can ever see it.
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Oh I slowed up far before I filed the pop up and I was not getting flight following. But I have video of the GPS so I have the proof.

My question was more technical about what sets up the flightware feed. This was just a local pop up flight plan and I have seen those left off of flightaware before. Nothing new here, just curious about the feed and storage mechanism.
 
FlightAware tracks most of the aircraft on flight plans entered into the NAS. Local VFR beacon codes which are only used intrafacility do not show up on FlightAware. If the controller inputs all of your data into the NAS and gets a beacon code assigned from the center host computer, then usually the flight plan will also show up. If you file IFR and then ask clearance to pick up your IFR beacon code as a VFR departure, it usually shows up as well since that code was assigned from the center. Filing a VFR flight plan only goes to FSS and has no ATC function, but if you give your VFR flight following information to the controller and they enter it into the FDIO then usually the flight plan will stick in the center host computer and on you go.

Hope this helps.

Best,
 
My question was more technical about what
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My answer was (yet more) failed humor and no response was expected.

I know Flightaware will capture my flights to some class C's in my area even if I get vfr radar services only through 25mi of their airspace.
 
Let'sgoflying! said:
My answer was (yet more) failed humor and no response was expected.
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Oh! I got it. I just wanted to let you know I have the proof. I am working on the videos right now. Uploading them to the Mac for editing and then youtube in a little bit. You'll see the 150knots ground speed.

Of course I flying the MLOD and am lucky to be alive!!! ;)
 
Practically all of my flights (VFR) make it onto Flightaware. I do use flight following almost always except for local flights. However some of the data seems to get corrupted very often in strange ways. For example, the origin and destination points are often not correct. That's not surprising, I figure probably the controller who sends my info to wherever FA gets it from is down the line and doesn't know my actual point of origin or types my destination in wrong. What's really weird is that sometimes one or the other shows up as a non-existent variant of a navaid along my route. Type my tail number into Flightaware to see what I'm talking about (eight-two-eight-juliet-tango). My flight to Mackinac last Sunday apparently started from KSVM (SVM is a VORTAC near my home base). I almost needed a new keyboard when I saw the graphic for the flight I took from Ionia to 57D a few days before that: it starts from somewhere out in the Pacific. I guess I must have covered thousands of nm in 23 minutes. Pretty good for a bugsmasher Cardinal! :D
 
My flight out of KVLL showed up as starting at KSVM also. I believe what happened was when I requested flight following the controller entered it because I was closer to Salem than my departure airport. The starting points on many flight following or pop up IFR trips are like that with most departure points coded in even stranger and more indecipherable ways.

I think Jason has it right. If the flight makes it into the national computer it shows up. Local only and it doesn't.
Joe
 
Could be, Joe. But I was a lot closer to lots of other navaids than SVM on my trip to MCD, in fact I was never anywhere near SVM. And the track is not right either -- I went direct KVLL -> KMCD and out over Saginaw Bay. In fact the track shown on FA is pretty much exactly what my track should have been for my return flight which was KMCD SPARR V133 BANJO KIKW. (Even the little zag at the end fits, I flew the RNAV 24 approach into KIKW because it was dark and hazy.) For some reason that flight never got into FA even though I was on a code from ZMP the whole way. My home leg from KIKW to KVLL showed up as starting from KFNT -- that's about par for the course for a VFR flight in my experience.

I'm not saying that Jason's explanation isn't right, I'm sure he (and you) know a lot more about the system than I do. I just wanted to mention some odd glitches I've noticed in FA lately and wondered if anyone knew what was going on there.
 
If you are on an IFR flight plan or on flight following, it will get you. It coincides with your squawk - if you are 1200 or anything that starts with 0 (e.g., 0312), no tracking. If you start with a number besides 0 (except 1200), you'll be on tracking with the services.
 
ntinkle said:
If you are on an IFR flight plan or on flight following, it will get you. It coincides with your squawk - if you are 1200 or anything that starts with 0 (e.g., 0312), no tracking. If you start with a number besides 0 (except 1200), you'll be on tracking with the services.
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Yup, this is what frequently happens when I get FF from PHL Bravo. if I get a 0 in the first number, I know not to bother looking at FA, as I've never shown up with a squawk leading with a 0. Anytime I get some other sequence we show up and have the tracking notification on our phone when we land from Flight Aware.
 
Rob Schaffer said:
Yup, this is what frequently happens when I get FF from PHL Bravo. if I get a 0 in the first number, I know not to bother looking at FA, as I've never shown up with a squawk leading with a 0. Anytime I get some other sequence we show up and have the tracking notification on our phone when we land from Flight Aware.
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Many VFR beacon code banks assigned to the TRACON start with 0, but not all. BDL TRACON and certain areas in NY TRACON are an example where codes start with 5, and 4, respectively.
 
Correct - Must be put into the system. Controllers won't bother if you are not leaving their sector; especially for pop-up IFR.
 
ntinkle said:
If you are on an IFR flight plan or on flight following, it will get you. It coincides with your squawk - if you are 1200 or anything that starts with 0 (e.g., 0312), no tracking.
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That's true of the 0100-0400 code blocks, but discrete codes in the 0500-0700 code blocks are external ARTCC subsets. They're assigned by ARTCC computers to flights that exit the originating ARTCC's airspace and will be tracked.
 
Rob Schaffer said:
Yup, this is what frequently happens when I get FF from PHL Bravo. if I get a 0 in the first number, I know not to bother looking at FA, as I've never shown up with a squawk leading with a 0. Anytime I get some other sequence we show up and have the tracking notification on our phone when we land from Flight Aware.
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The 0100-0400 blocks are for internal use by terminal radar facilities. Codes from these blocks shouldn't be entered in the computer for flight data processing but if a controller did so the track of that flight would appear on Flight Aware.
 
HPNPilot1200 said:
Many VFR beacon code banks assigned to the TRACON start with 0, but not all.
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The only specified "VFR beacon codes" are 1200 and 1201.

BDL TRACON and certain areas in NY TRACON are an example where codes start with 5, and 4, respectively.
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The 0100-0400 code blocks are for internal use by terminal radar facilities. If a flight, IFR or VFR, is entered in the flight data processing computer a code from one of the host ARTCC's allocated code blocks will be assigned to it. Boston ARTCC is allocated code blocks 4600, 4700, 5300, 5500. New York ARTCC is allocated code blocks 4200, 4300, and 5200.
 
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roncachamp said:
The only specified "VFR beacon codes" are 1200 and 1201.

The 0100-0400 code blocks are for internal use by terminal radar facilities. If a flight, IFR or VFR, is entered in the flight data processing computer a code from one of the host ARTCC's allocated code blocks will be assigned to it. Boston ARTCC is allocated code blocks 4600, 4700, 5300, 5500. New York ARTCC is allocated code blocks 1200, 4300, and 5200.
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1201... that's a great trivia question, but I know several folks here that will know which class of aircraft it's used by.
 
TangoWhiskey said:
1201... that's a great trivia question, but I know several folks here that will know which class of aircraft it's used by.
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In the LA basin, we're told to squawk 1201 while transiting the special flight rules corridor over LAX.
 
HPNPilot1200 said:
Many VFR beacon code banks assigned to the TRACON start with 0, but not all. BDL TRACON and certain areas in NY TRACON are an example where codes start with 5, and 4, respectively.
Click to expand...
I was shooting approaches in Chi-App airspace this weekend with a squawk that started with a 5. No listing in FA with that either.
 
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