How/why does Flightaware.com calculate Takeoff and Landing times?

RussR

RussR

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I just filed a flight plan, using Foreflight, for a flight this afternoon. This is from one uncontrolled field to another (if that matters).

I filed my takeoff time as 2:00 PM with 1:47 enroute.

When I go to flightaware.com, it shows the following:

upload_2019-10-21_10-48-52.png

So it shows my "scheduled" times but then adds 10 minutes, for what? I used to think it was to allow for gate/pushback/taxi times for the airlines, but now I'm not so sure, since the ETE stayed the same.

Not a big deal really with 10 minutes, but last week I had one that added about 40 minutes to my time.

Anybody know how Flightaware is calculating these?
 
In my experience as a VFR pilot using flight following, Flightaware starts tracking when ATC gives me a discrete squawk code, and stops when ATC cancels flight following near my destination and asks me to squawk 1200. I believe they make some assumptions about the times on both the takeoff and landing segments of the flight when ATC isn't tracking you. Another example that puzzles me is when I use flight following flying somewhere for lunch. Flightaware will show me taking off and landing at my original departure airport, but not landing at my destination airport for lunch. They consider two fifteen minute flights and an hour eating lunch on the ground as a single hour and a half flight. Weird, especially since I'm assigned different squawk codes for the flights to and from lunch.
 
I believe it calculates wind correction. Change the date/time around and note the ETE change.
 
Because we never depart on time. Always 5-10 minutes late it seems.
 
I should have clarified, this was an IFR flight plan. My screenshot is from well before takeoff, even before I left for the airport, so not while it's live tracking.

I do not think Flightaware knows anything about, or does anything with, wind correction. I am not using Flightaware as a flight planner, if it even has those capabilities.

I filed, using Foreflight, a flight with a 2:00 departure time and an ETE of 1:47. That's what the FAA had on me. And Flightaware apparently got the same information, but then shifted the whole thing 10 minutes later. This was an uncontrolled field, there were no official ATC delays in effect or anything like that.

As I said, I initially suspected they were allowing 10 minutes for taxi time to the runway. But then they should have allowed that on the other end as well and made my arrival time 4:07 PM (1:47 flight, 10 minutes of taxi on both ends). So that doesn't seem like what they did.

But even then, the fields in Flightaware say "Takeoff" and "Landing" time, not "Gate Departure" and "Gate Arrival" or something like that.

So I'm still not sure what's going on.
 
I noticed that Flightaware has a "Discussion" section. I'll poke around there and maybe ask this question.
 
I found this thread in the Flightaware discussion forums. It's pretty much my exact question. It is from 2013, but the answer pretty much came down to them getting their data from the FAA's Enhanced Traffic Management System.

https://discussions.flightaware.com...e-arrival-time-not-matching-flight-plan/13891

So, apparently if I want to pursue this, I need to find out why the FAA ETMS thinks I'm going to depart 10 minutes later than planned.
 
RussR said:
I found this thread in the Flightaware discussion forums. It's pretty much my exact question. It is from 2013, but the answer pretty much came down to them getting their data from the FAA's Enhanced Traffic Management System.

https://discussions.flightaware.com...e-arrival-time-not-matching-flight-plan/13891

So, apparently if I want to pursue this, I need to find out why the FAA ETMS thinks I'm going to depart 10 minutes later than planned.
Click to expand...

What's your ETD vs ATD been historically? Maybe it's keeping tabs on you. :D
 
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