I’m new to flightAware and was wondering how to find the route of flight for any of the tracks I view?
To the right of every map, you will see something similar to:
Route V186 PDZ V186 V66 MZB
It’s in aviation terms though.
The above sez
V186 = Victor highway 186
PDZ = VOR
V186 = continuation of Victor highway 186
V66 = Victor highway 66
MZB = VOR
Allen
Here’s a sample of what Allen said above - the V186 PDZ V186 “part”. V186 is the
thin red line (starting near the upper left corner), and PDZ is the Paradise VOR radio
navigation beacon in the little red circle.
You can access the same view of the chart at skyvector.com/ and then type in
EBITE in the field to the right of the image and then press “GO”. When the image
comes up, then you can zoom in and out and also click on the image to drag it around.
Keep in mind that the published route you see on FlightAware is the proposed route
filed in the flight plan. Planes often deviate from the filed route to avoid weather, or to
fly a more direct route if so cleared by ATC.
In a more general sense, if you only track as a point of interest and are not trained as a pilot / controller, than you can use the link below. Great Cirle Mapper. Keeping in mind the earth is a sphere, it will show you the shortest distance between two points on the globe. So use KJFK and KLAX as dept - arr airports for example, and the site will display the most direct route ( and most likely to be followed route by any given airline )
Keep in mind that things like weather, wind aloft ( jetstream ), NOTAMS, restricted areas and congestion on popular flight paths ( just a few reasons) might lead to deviations from the filed or optimum flight path.
Things open up when you begin to understand all the aviation abbreviations and terminology. Lots of link here to help in that respect.
Go to faa.gov/airports_airtraffic/ … lications/ and locate the Location Identifiers manual (available in 2 flavors: HTML and PDF) for decoding/encoding VORs, airports, and other locations.
I appreciate all the feedback to my question. I’m one of the PATCO controllers fired in 1981, so I’m famiiar with all the flight plan info, just didn’t see it on the screen. I certainly enjoy this site and all the discussions, once again, thanks…
Wislndixie
controller at AVL, BHM, STL…
One other thing to consider that I was reminded of this week in another thread is that if the flight status is “scheduled” under that individual tail number, if you put your cursor over that word scheduled, you will get the routing requested on the flight plan.
Once the wheels go up, it will move to the right of the map in the route line.
Allen
very good. Thank you again.
Sorry to here that ( the firing that is) . Guess you haven’t voted Republican since. 
Actually, he (his union, to be technical) got me my job. From what I understand, Air Traffic Assistants were a position developed after the legal firing of illegal strikers. I’m no longer an ATA but it was interesting while it lasted.
I loved the ATC work, but, since the strike, I now own a couple of companies in the insurance world, am already semi-retired and don’t miss the shift work at all. It’s ironic now though that the controllers on board today are whining and complaining about the sames things we did, lack of adequate personnel, outdated equipment, etc. etc.
MIke
Pretty much the same things that I hear people working for every part of the government saying. If Hillary gets elected, we may hear our doctors and hospitals saying the same thing as she tries to federalize the health care system (again).
To view the route, what kind of account should I use? I can view the map but not the route. Thanks.