# Flight/Tail # Instructions

**URL:** <https://discussions.flightaware.com/t/flight-tail-instructions/3275>\
**Category:** General\
**Created:** [April 26, 2007, 10:18pm UTC](https://discussions.flightaware.com/t/flight-tail-instructions/3275 "2007-04-26T22:18:59Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![BFARLOW](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/df788c/32.png) [@BFARLOW](https://discussions.flightaware.com/u/BFARLOW)\
**Post date:** [April 26, 2007, 10:18pm UTC](https://discussions.flightaware.com/t/flight-tail-instructions/3275/1 "2007-04-26T22:18:59Z")

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Good Evening,

```
 I am a newly registered user and I would like some instrustion on using the Flight/Tail # Tracker becuase it doesn't seem to show what I was hoping it would show. I have tried searching through the posts, but have come up empty. What I was hoping I could do was go to airliners.net, for example, and find the tail number for a commercial airliners at my local airport, KCLE and then enter it into FlightAware and see where it has travelled lately. I have tried a number of them - for example, N235WN (a Southwest B737 flying from KHOU to KMCO), but FlightAware is showing the following Error (below) and it did this for most of the tail numbers entered.

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‘FlightAware couldn’t find N235WN just yet’

Am I misinterpreting how to use this feature or am I using the wrong numbers? Any help would be appreciated. Thanks in Advance.

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**Author:** ![2point0](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/2/e8c25b/32.png) [@2point0](https://discussions.flightaware.com/u/2point0)\
**Post date:** [April 26, 2007, 10:42pm UTC](https://discussions.flightaware.com/t/flight-tail-instructions/3275/2 "2007-04-26T22:42:22Z")

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You can’t track a commercial flight by the tail # as they do not use that as their call sign… They go by the flight # so you need to search by that… You can also search by airport- Following the individual airplane as it travels would require you to know all the flight numbers planned for it which could vary depending on day/ airline/ route… difficult–

Here’s your flight- this one’s free…  
[flightaware.com/live/flight/SWA1172](http://flightaware.com/live/flight/SWA1172)

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**Author:** ![NeedleNose](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/user_avatar/discussions.flightaware.com/needlenose/32/86946_2.png) [@NeedleNose](https://discussions.flightaware.com/u/NeedleNose)\
**Post date:** [April 26, 2007, 10:43pm UTC](https://discussions.flightaware.com/t/flight-tail-instructions/3275/3 "2007-04-26T22:43:18Z")

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Welcome to the forums, BFARLOW!

The answer to your question is in the [**FAQ**](http://flightaware.com/about/faq.rvt) which can be found in the top “sticky” posted message titled “[**Announcement: WELCOME TO FLIGHTAWARE - Please Read BEFORE Posting!**](http://discussions.flightaware.com/viewtopic.php?t=2)” in the [**GENERAL**](http://discussions.flightaware.com/viewforum.php?f=3) forum.

The short answer to your question is that airliners go by their flight number - not their tail number. “Washington Center, this is **DELTA 171** with you out of five thousand for flight level tree-one-zero”.

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**Author:** ![BFARLOW](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/df788c/32.png) [@BFARLOW](https://discussions.flightaware.com/u/BFARLOW)\
**Post date:** [April 27, 2007, 4:27pm UTC](https://discussions.flightaware.com/t/flight-tail-instructions/3275/4 "2007-04-27T16:27:02Z")

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Thanks for the response on this one. It answered my questions. I wasn’t sure if the Flight Number and Aircraft ID were stored separately on an IFR Flight plan. From what was said, only the call sign is stored which would be a Flight Number for a commercial airliner and the registration number for most others. Thanks again for the help.