When I am getting Flight Following from ATC, sometimes it pops up on Flight Aware and sometimes it does not. What determines when it does and when it will not? Thanks.
Check the FAQ’s first.
flightaware.com/about/faq.rvt#vfr
And also try the search for Flight Following or VFR.
I did read these sections, however normal VFR flight plans do not involve ATC at all. But Flight Following requires that ATC create a data block in the system in order to give you a transponder code, track you and do hand-offs.
So the question re-phrased is: what does ATC do that sometimes enables Flight Aware to pick it up and sometimes not? Or put differently, what does Flight Aware look for in the database that causes it to display a Flight Following flight?
Generally I think its whether you get a local squawk or if your squawk gets put into the national system. A search revealed this helpful thread.
The whole thing about VFR tracking comes down to what beacon code you get, as Magnetoz said.
Here is a link to FAA Order 7110.66C, the National Beacon Code Allocation Plan. Check it out. Note how incredibly complex it is.
(here is a direct link to the .pdf)
faa.gov/documentLibrary/medi … 10.66C.pdf
Another link on the 7110.66C page goes to the FAA’s Central Service Areas Supplement to the Allocation Plan. After the National Order carves up the general beacon assignments, then each service area divides the codes up to individual facilities.
faa.gov/documentLibrary/medi … 10.66C.pdf
(sorry, that url wouldn’t shorten for some reason)
So, the only way to figure this out is for you to remember what your beacon code was, and see if we can match it up in any of these categories.
And even that probably won’t answer the question why some codes get coverage in Flightaware and some don’t. Or why some will on one day but not the next. Different facilities may need to “borrow” codes from another facility due to traffic considerations, etc.
One step further. VFR flights that originate in SoCal Approach airspace seem more likely to get tracked than flights that do not.
Last Sunday I departed Grants Pass Oregon VFR talking to Cascade Approach non stop to Corona CA, about 600 miles (4 hours) at 15,500. Kept the same code though Seattle Center, Oakland Center NorCal, Oakland Center again, LA Center, Joshia and SolCal. Not one thing showed on Flight Aware.
Cool document and explains why my “national” squawk usually begins with a five… But I don’t think the actual squawk code determines whether you get tracked.
Same as what Frank posted, my experience with flight following is that I don’t get tracked in my neck of the woods unless an IFR flight plan is filed (or VFR flight plan routed as an IFR plan). Last Sunday, flew through quite a few sectors (Houston and Memphis) and even was changed from a local squawk to a national squawk with Mobile approach enroute from KGPT to KMBO via KMPE and never got tracked. Local squawks the way I understand it begin with 01.
I really think it falls on to how the controller enters the data into their computer as to whether flight following is initiated in Flight Aware.
I will be posting a video tonight of what I thought was rather sloppy handling of last weeks XC with another pilot. EVERY handoff (didn’t matter if it was a center or approach controller), the controller asked what type of plane we were in AND destination. Some even asked on course heading. Readbacks were lengthy as we were doing a round robin and had to explain we were not doing full stops. One controller didn’t even know what a touch and go was 
Not one portion of this three hour leg was tracked.
I think we’re barking up the wrong tree.
My 3:55 hour VFR flight last weekend was tracked on FBO web.
FlightAware doesn’t even know I unlocked the hangar door.
It’s not an ATC thing, it’s a FlightAware error.
Starting to get some input from ATC controllers at
liveatc.net/forums/atcaviati … ?topicseen
on why some VFR flights show up in Flight Aware and some do not. It also explains why the handling wasn’t as “sloppy” as I inferred above.
Some other flight tracking vendors are more tolerant of incomplete flights (which are generally VFR) than we are. We won’t create a flight if we don’t get an ETA, etc.
And there…you…go…
Can you put this in the FAQ as an answer to the question why do other trackers pick up VFR flights and Flight Aware does not? Be easier to point them to a consistent answer everytime this comes up. 
It must be something else. Clearly the FBOWeb tracker had the destination (look at their map) so an ETA would have been known.
Mark,
I’d have to agree with Frank on this one. See liveatc.net/forums/atcaviati … /#msg36726 for what an ATC guy **thinks **why some VFR flights are in the NAS.
Now he doesn’t make any mention of ETA at all, nor does he show it in his example so if that is not included and FA requires ETA for it to be a complete flight plan, what you say makes sense but it’s Flight Aware’s decision not to include the flight would be the problem on why VFR flights are not tracked, not the FAA NAS computers. We historically have been blaming the FAA computers which may not be the case.
Of course everything must come together IF the information is put in the right format by the controller. Based on the liveatc.net thread, formatting is everything for VFR flight following to work.
Lack of ETA doesn’t appear to be an “incomplete flight plan” in the NAS system based on what davolijj says in the above link or this is how I read it anyway.
You can have a destination without an ETE/ETA. For NAS flights (which most VFR flights are), there is no ETA from the FAA but we synthesize one from EDT+ETE or ADT+ETE when ETE is available.
Like some of the girls I used to date, maybe your standard is too high?
Frank Holbert
160knots.com
I don’t have the know-how of how FA gets its flight plan data from the FAA, but I can clear up some stuff on the ATC side.
If a pilot requests VFR flight following the controller has the option of putting it into the NAS; if that happens, the center HOST computers treat it the same as an IFR flight. The AC type is entered, the computer figures out an ETA for all of the different airspace boundaries along the route of flight, and all of the radar facilities receive information on that aircraft, just like an IFR aircraft. These are the flights that should wind up on Flight Aware.
If the aircraft is not going to leave the boundaries of a single approach control, then it’s usually not necessary to put that aircraft’s information into the NAS. A local beacon code is assigned (these usually start with 0, and if it’s busy, they tend to come out in sequence . . . 0334, 0335, 0336, etc . . .).
Sometimes an airplane wants flight following, and the controller doesn’t get the chance to put the information into the center computer (the FDIO, which puts plans into the NAS). They can assign a local code, then do a manual handoff with the next facility. Over the phone, they give the aircraft’s position, beacon code, type, and destination. That won’t show up on Flight Aware, ever.
Where I work, we can only do automated handoffs with adjoining facilities if the flight plan is in the NAS. Some places are a lot more up-to-date than where I work, and have the ability to do an information transfer and automated handoff with an adjoining facility without putting the information into the NAS, hence it won’t show up on Flight Aware.
lieberma, if none of the controllers knew your type or destination, your flight plan was not put into the NAS. The computer won’t accept the entry without an aircraft type and some sort of route of flight (even if it’s just Airport A direct to Airport B). My best guess is that you were on the receiving end of either some poorly-done manual handoffs (less likely), or some automation issues (more likely).
Before, when I said that local codes usually start with 0 and NAS codes usually start with any other number . . . that’s not always the case. MKE, for example, gives out local codes that start with 45, and I occasionally get an IFR proposal with a beacon code that starts with 01.
And again, like someone stated, filing a VFR flight plan has absolutely nothing to do with getting flight following or if you will show up on flight aware. That is a completely correct statement.
discussions.flightaware.com/view … 1484#81484 is the round robin flight in question.
Just curious what your take would be on the handling and what we can do as pilots to make it better for handoffs? Per the liveatc.net thread seems like maybe the round robin and entering it (formatting?) was causing the problem???
Holy information overload on initial call up with ground control! The root of your problem with this flight was giving your entire route of flight to the poor guy working both local and ground control at Gulfport. It’s just not realistic to expect that ground controller to be able to take in and process all that information into flight following for the entire flight. For a controller to put in more than one airport/waypoint in for flight following, the whole thing has to be entered exactly like an IFR flight plan, which is what we have flight service and duats for.
The problem is that you can’t get VFR flight following in the computer that way. The suggestion I would make is to break the flight up into segments and work from there. Tell GPT ground you want flight following to 4R4 . . . when you get to 4R4, tell the approach controller you’re going to do a touch and go, then you want flight following to MPE . . . tell the approach controller there you want to fly over MPE, then get flight following to MBO. This way, you have 3 separate legs, with each facility/controller only worried about one leg, which is much more manageable from a controller standpoint.
In the video, what happened is that the GPT departure controller did a manual handoff with the next approach controller . . . it wasn’t until you got the 2nd beacon code that a manual handoff wasn’t needed anymore . . . notice when you called MEM Center, they didn’t ask for the type and destination that time? When you were terminated, the controller didn’t realize you wanted to continue on; your flight following was probably only put in to MPE.
I’m going to do an experiment to see if I can trick the computer into letting me put in some VFR flight following via DUATS, I’ll report my findings in a bit. What I am trying to do it let you file that whole round robin like an IFR flight, but fly it as a VFR flight with flight following.
Here are the initial experiment results: I went through duat.com and filed an IFR flight plan from GRB to RHI. I filled it out as I would normally, but in the altitude box, I put “VFR”.
Some background: In the Flight Data computer, to change an IFR flight plan to VFR flight following, all the controller does is change the altitude to “VFR”.
Duat accepted the flight plan with “VFR” in the altitude box instead of an actual altitude and the flight plan transmitted successfully to Minneapolis ARTCC. I’m expecting it to pop up in the “Scheduled Departures” window on Flight Aware in a few minutes.
Anyhow, I just called up GRB tower, and the controller confirmed that he received a strip as if he had just put in VFR flight following.
So on the next one, try putting in the round robin, select “IFR” flight, but put “VFR” in the altitude, and you can put something like “VFR Flight Following” in the remarks if you’d like.
I’d imagine this will ensure that the flight shows up on FA because it’s being transmitted as if it were an IFR flight, and it ensures your VFR flight following is in the system.