What triggers the presence in flight aware?

My IFR flights obviously all appear.

My ADIZ plans in the DC area which have VFR in the altitude block but are entered as IFR plans never show.

A bizarre one was Sunday. I entered multiple plans in the system due to several change of events:

Plan #1: IFR from IAD to BUF (was going to fly the passengers from a AOG Queen Air (total avionics stack failure) back there while the pilot stayed at IAD to get the plane fixed).

Plan #2: ADIZ plan (IFR but VFR alt) from IAD to HGR to ferry the Queen Air to a shop there as a flight of two.

Plan #3: IFR plan from HGR to BUF.

What we ended up doing is departing from Dulles and flying as a flight of two all the way to near BUF. The controllers turned me loose over HGR (all we were issued for clearance was the usual VFR class B – report clear of the ADIZ). At HGR I tried to pick up the HGR-BUF clearance, but ATC either forgot about me or I missed their call (I was also bouncing to FSS and air-to-air getting the other plane coordinated).

I just assumed they never opened the plan and it was a VFR day anyhow so we just went. Never got anything resembling an IFR clearance.

Oddly if you look up N5327K, you’ll see the flight as IAD-BUF but ending at HGR.

The real destination of the Queen Air was CYSN, so when we got to Lake Erie he went off to negotiate the border crossing with BUF approach and I told him I’d circle over a convenient uncontrolled field in case we needed to make a backup plan. After a minute or so of circling BUF appoach calls and wants to know if that is me out there circling and what I intend to do (as they did have a flight plan for me). Fortunately the Queen Air had managed to raise them, and they said he was getting close to YSN so I told them I was just going home (they did volunteer flight following).

For whatever reason, ATC sent a departure message for the IAD-BUF plan when you left IAD. ATC sent a cancellation message for that plan when you were over HGR; this isn’t uncommon for complicated situations or with multiple controllers.