I flew IFR on April 1st from CCR CA to STS CA and back in my BE-76 Duchess N54V. Only the flight back is tracked and it continues from CCR all over the US somewhere to North Carolina where tracks end with comment “Unknown”. The speed is 39 kts and it seems it is a real long range bird! It is recorded is BE-44! Does anybody know what makes the Flight Aware to be so incorrect? Or is it just the Fool’s Day?
A VFR flight in the eastern US (probably a helicopter) interfered with your flight when the controller entered “54V” for their call sign. We’re working on a solution to this problem.
I’ve noticed that this perhaps frustrates more of the folks who only have 3 digits to their N-number. Since the FAA routinely abbreviates call signs to the last 3 digits, they seem to enter just those last 3 a lot for popup clearances, which works okay locally in real time, but causes confusion after the fact, like when looking up your flight in FA.
N54V and N1254V are two different aircraft to us, but the computer doesn’t know the difference when the controller only enters “54V”.
It’s the only time I’m glad that I have 5 digits to my N-number. At least if I file in advance, so it’s automaticially in the system and a busy controller doesn’t have to type it in, I can be pretty sure it will be there. But if I request pop-up IFR, it could be under the full number or the last 3 digits, and if the latter, would probably get mixed up with many other planes ending in the same last 3.