how accurate would you say this is, because yesterday a flight flew over my house so i went to see what it was but it wasnt on here why??? JW And what has been going on about fleet tracking???
Flights are based on the time that the pilot filed his flight plan, so in actuality you’re not viewing the flight in real time. We had a tail wind that got us to our destination earlier than filed and I went to the PC at the FBO and it said we had 22 minutes left on our flight and we were already on the ground however I still think FlightAware is still a great tool for family friends and others.
This is absolutely not true; it is the opposite. We are tracking flights with live radar position reports and other FAA/ATC data; the flight track and arrival/departure times are not based on the flight plan.
We had a tail wind that got us to our destination earlier than filed and I went to the PC at the FBO and it said we had 22 minutes left on our flight and we were already on the ground.
If you incorrectly estimated the time enroute for your flight and we were unable to estimate a new ETE for you, the time enroute would’ve remained on your original estimate that you filed on the flight plan. Since we display data with a five minute delay per FAA policy, we wouldn’t have shown your (early) arrival for another few minutes.
Not quite true…
The schedules are based on filings, but the flight tracking starts with a Departure Message from FAA (from the controller) ends with an arrival message and in between you have radar data to plot position. All of this is delayed 5 min (by the FAA for security) and an additional 1-2 min for FA to process the rather large amount of data streaming in.
I have often seen an aircraft overhead and found it on FA right where it should (should have been 6 min ago)
If a flight didn’t appear, it could be a couple of reasons:
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An airliner at cruise could have a ground speed of >550 Knts. In the six minutes the FA data was delayed, the Actual position and FA plotted position would be 55 nautical (63 statute) miles.
(unless I goofed the math, I just discovered an interesting [and probably obvious to pilots] relationship. Since the nominal FA delay is 6 miniutes, and that is 1/10 of an hour, the distance in nm between ACTUAL/PLOTTED position would be Knts gs / 10 ) . -
It could have been VFR w/o flight following. If ATC is not tracking the flight, FA will not know about it.
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The owner/operator could have the tail number blocked. This is a privacy measure that the FAA provides and FA honors.
Nitro didn’t describe the “flight he saw”. If it was a contrail high in the sky, see option 1. If it was a biplane buzing his the house, see option 2. If it was a slow moving, steady light gracefully arcing across the sky, these are better tracked HERE.
[note dbaker posted while I was composing - “note quite true” refers to captain4004’s response, not Baker’s]
Okay then already 
, I admit it I don’t know everything 