It seems VFR flights are again being tracked by FlightAware! I have not seen any VFR flights show up in months (year?) but two of my recent VFR flights got tracked from start to finish. One was a pure VFR flight following that was activated with Boston Center after departing KLEB. And the second was about a week later departing the KPVD class C VFR after coming in IFR. In the latter case the outbound VFR flight got combined with our inbound IFR flight on FlightAware despite each flight having a different squawk code, but nonetheless was very completely tracked.
I have also seen a lack of tracking recently. In Nov I made a flight
from the east coast. Last track was from LA area to KRHV. I’m
now in SEA area, and have not seen tracks for months. I wonder
if ERAM based centers don’t send data, but HOST based centers do?
Aircraft N248CT, not blocked by BARR.
It’s not really the restoration of VFR tracking, there’s no flightplans/departures/arrivals. It’s just a bug on our side appending the later VFR positions to the earlier IFR flight.
The lack of VFR flights in our feed is a matter of FAA policy. I’d suggest contacting AOPA/EAA/NBAA government affairs office to lobby for VFR flights to be included in ASDI.
I should have been more clear. In the past I’ve seen tracks when I’m getting flight following from centers.
This has worked from ZBW, Boston; ZOA, Oakland;
but never with ZSE, Seattle. I think ZSE and ZLC are
running ERAM, so I wondered if that affected your feed.
Thanks for the great service of tracking!
Agreed. As I mentioned in my original post I am now getting tracked on pure VFR flights that were not preceded by IFR. Just like the old days before the datafeed change. Maybe the FAA recently changed it again.
Hello again. I recently flew down to Grand Canyon area from Portland area. I got
flight following services. I asked what software Seattle Center is using: ERAM.
I forgot to ask Oakland center. Oak data shows up on Flightaware, Sea does not.
This confirmed my suspicion that ERAM is not currently providing the data feed
that Flight Aware needs. Now, I agree this is a low priority compared to aircraft
separation. But it feels like selling TIS to pilots, then buying new approach radars
which don’t provided the TIS feed. That happened to me in the Portland, ME area.
The new FAA programs are deleting features that pilots use.
On one of my recent flights, I got a code for following from KSLE ground,
and got following by Seattle Center up to KHIO (hillsboro) OR. This did not
show up on Flight Aware. Usually, I’ll take off and clear class D , open flight
plan, then initiate following. That SLE HIO flight was an anomaly.
Oh, I mixed up Portland’s in the prior post. I spoke of Portland ME losing TIS
coverage; yet now I’m based near Portland, OR.
I did a lesson in the C150 as N6461S back in August and looked it up and said Flightaware did not receive any data about the flight. But last year in May as N53020 in a C172 is showed up on Flightaware and showed up on here as well. So some VFR/IFR flights can appear every now and then but it’s rare.
