I did in fact check the FAQ before posting.
Since USAirways Express has changed from primarily turbo props on this route
to CRJ-200 or Embrarer 135/145 - the flight data is consistently incorrect.
It shows 17-19 min for a flight that is typically 30-45 min. This flight is seldom above 12,000 feet, is there something in the tail tracking software that has issues with flights at lower altitudes ? Yes I know the time is wheels up to down, not arrival and dep times. And I’ve been on the flight when it was 40 min due to ATC delays and the data showed 17 min.
Every one of these flights is filed at 44 or 45 minutes and flown appropriately. Do you have a flight that you remember in which is was different?
Agree on the filing, but take a look at flight 3718 for the past week.
Shows duration of 17-18 min. And similar for the others.
I few the 6:50 flight about 3 weeks ago and it showed 17 min.
The distance between these two airports is 110.7 nautical miles. Given a proposed 332 knot speed, it would take right around 20 minutes. Granted that this flight is not going straight line. The flight is only filed for 12,000 feet, but if you look at the logs, it rarely will go above 10,000. Airlines will file this because they want to go as high as they can while ATC may limit them. Additionally, the biggest factor of all since our data come from the FAA, is if a controller declares the aircraft landed ahead of time and closes out its flight plan. This will give us the indication that the flight has landed already.
Regardless, the data itself is something from the FAA feed and if it says it landed, it’s reported as landed even if we all know the flight is longer…
So the tail data is not actually raw data, the FAA massages it a bit.
Thanks for the clarification.
No, controllers don’t “close out” an IFR flight plan, unless the pilot requests to cancel IFR. And, as long as Air Wisc. is flying passengers, that isn’t likely.
Especially when going to a large airport with a control tower, like PHL. The little data tag on the tower radar display will just go away when the aircraft lands. (That is the simplified version).
There would be no reason for any of the controllers on the aircraft’s way to PHL ( the center, the approach control, or the tower) to simply drop the tag and consider the aircraft “landed.” They all need the tag.
So, there is a different reason for the discrepancy in the flight times.
Looks like we’re getting an arrival message right around the time there’s a handoff to Philly tracon.