TangoWhiskey
Touchdown! Greaser!
- Joined
- Feb 23, 2005
- Messages
- 14,210
- Location
- Midlothian, TX
- Display Name
- 3Green
- Home Airfield
- KJWY - Mid-Way Regional
At the AOPA Summit in Fort Worth, I stood through a thirty minute overview of some new features LM Flight Service (www.afss.com) has recently added, and was very impressed. They still don't have the interactive 'watch in the web while talking to a briefer', but check these things out that you may not have known about:
- QuickActivate and QuickClose. Enable these on your profile, and you'll get an email with a QuickActivate link after you file your flight plan. Before takeoff, right before you put your phone in Airplane mode, open the email and tap the link. No other info required, just tap the link, and your flight plan is opened. No need to switch to FSS after departure and report your time off and open your flight plan verbally. Opening your flight plan via the QuickActivate link also causes them to email you a subsequent QuickClose link. When you land, click the link and your flight plan is immediately closed. Simple. Cool.
- with current methods, if you file an IFR flight plan via ForeFlight or DUATS, AFSS doesn't receive it at all. They only get VFR flight plans. So if you file via DUATS/FF for an IFR flight, then call for an updated/abbreviated briefing, they don't have any details about your flight. On VFR flights, they don't get the route, just the departure and destination locations. This makes us pilots feel like they "lost" our flight plan or route details, but it is strictly a system limitation. The only way they get IFR flight plans is if you call and brief/file with them directly.
- as a follow on to the previous point, they have developed a web services XML API for developers to use, and are currently working with all the major app / EFB vendors to integrate, which allows apps to send all flight plans to FSS, then IFR ones get forwarded to ATC, to close this gap. FSS also gets full route details this way, to provide better service. The API also allows apps to retrieve weather, NOTAMS, etc.
- you can now opt in for text/email updates of new critical information that comes in after your briefing but before you depart, when those changes affect your route of flight. Destination airport closes due to an accident? New CWA or TFR issued that impacts your route? You can get notified.
- they've added SE-SAR (Surveillance Enhanced-Search and Rescue). Here's how that works: if you have a satellite based messaging device like SpiderTracks (many others are supported as well), AFSS will get an alert for signal lost or panic button pressed, and initiate SAR immediately, knowing your track and last known position (the device vendor shares position information with AFSS if you enable that in your profile at the device vendor's site). You can opt out for any specific flight you don't want monitored. Scenario described was a 3 hour cross country where you crashed a half hour after departure.... With traditional flight plan monitoring, it's going to be at least another 3.5 hours before they even start calling around to locate you, and another hour after that before they start coordinating SAR. And they still won't know exactly where to look. With SE-SAR, you'll get much faster response... They'll start coordinating within ~15 minutes of loss of signal.
- if your satellite based device supports messaging, you can also opt in for critical alerts (TFR, CWA, Sigmets, Airmets, etc.) via that device and receive them in flight.
- choose to opt in and they will contact you with a text message first, with auto reply capability, if you forget to close your flight plan, before they start making your spouse/family/FBO worry. "Did you make it safely to KFCM? Reply YES to close your flight plan!"
Finally, check out their new enhanced briefing format online... Very cool and new things coming mid November. Walks you through information filtered for your route... Highlights critical information. Buries those less critical (but still available). Now, you can see easily that runway 9/27 is closed until 7pm and there are three 2000'+ towers unlit without those getting lost in five pages of minutiae. ALSO, check out how they graphically depict how the weather will change along your route, and the +/- 1 hour trend along your route... Makes it really easy to see how leaving a half hour earlier or waiting an hour later might make your flight better/worse.
- QuickActivate and QuickClose. Enable these on your profile, and you'll get an email with a QuickActivate link after you file your flight plan. Before takeoff, right before you put your phone in Airplane mode, open the email and tap the link. No other info required, just tap the link, and your flight plan is opened. No need to switch to FSS after departure and report your time off and open your flight plan verbally. Opening your flight plan via the QuickActivate link also causes them to email you a subsequent QuickClose link. When you land, click the link and your flight plan is immediately closed. Simple. Cool.
- with current methods, if you file an IFR flight plan via ForeFlight or DUATS, AFSS doesn't receive it at all. They only get VFR flight plans. So if you file via DUATS/FF for an IFR flight, then call for an updated/abbreviated briefing, they don't have any details about your flight. On VFR flights, they don't get the route, just the departure and destination locations. This makes us pilots feel like they "lost" our flight plan or route details, but it is strictly a system limitation. The only way they get IFR flight plans is if you call and brief/file with them directly.
- as a follow on to the previous point, they have developed a web services XML API for developers to use, and are currently working with all the major app / EFB vendors to integrate, which allows apps to send all flight plans to FSS, then IFR ones get forwarded to ATC, to close this gap. FSS also gets full route details this way, to provide better service. The API also allows apps to retrieve weather, NOTAMS, etc.
- you can now opt in for text/email updates of new critical information that comes in after your briefing but before you depart, when those changes affect your route of flight. Destination airport closes due to an accident? New CWA or TFR issued that impacts your route? You can get notified.
- they've added SE-SAR (Surveillance Enhanced-Search and Rescue). Here's how that works: if you have a satellite based messaging device like SpiderTracks (many others are supported as well), AFSS will get an alert for signal lost or panic button pressed, and initiate SAR immediately, knowing your track and last known position (the device vendor shares position information with AFSS if you enable that in your profile at the device vendor's site). You can opt out for any specific flight you don't want monitored. Scenario described was a 3 hour cross country where you crashed a half hour after departure.... With traditional flight plan monitoring, it's going to be at least another 3.5 hours before they even start calling around to locate you, and another hour after that before they start coordinating SAR. And they still won't know exactly where to look. With SE-SAR, you'll get much faster response... They'll start coordinating within ~15 minutes of loss of signal.
- if your satellite based device supports messaging, you can also opt in for critical alerts (TFR, CWA, Sigmets, Airmets, etc.) via that device and receive them in flight.
- choose to opt in and they will contact you with a text message first, with auto reply capability, if you forget to close your flight plan, before they start making your spouse/family/FBO worry. "Did you make it safely to KFCM? Reply YES to close your flight plan!"
Finally, check out their new enhanced briefing format online... Very cool and new things coming mid November. Walks you through information filtered for your route... Highlights critical information. Buries those less critical (but still available). Now, you can see easily that runway 9/27 is closed until 7pm and there are three 2000'+ towers unlit without those getting lost in five pages of minutiae. ALSO, check out how they graphically depict how the weather will change along your route, and the +/- 1 hour trend along your route... Makes it really easy to see how leaving a half hour earlier or waiting an hour later might make your flight better/worse.
