Flight Following

"Arnold Sten" wrote in message
...
*chop*
In addition to the above, using Flight Following means that you are in
direct contact with ATC should you develop some sort of in-flight
emergency. You can therefore communicate that difficulty immediately
without having to search for the available and appropriate controlling
agency.
A follow-up question, however: How do request flight following when you
are not actually doing a cross-country? Let's say that my flight
intentions are to fly 50 NM away from my home base in order do
sight-seeing and photo shooting, turn around (not land), and go back
home. Do I simply tell ATC of those intentions of doing nothing more
than a round robin flight? Whenever I have ask for FF, the controller
always asks for a destination. What are you supposed to say?

Arnold Sten

I had that scenario last spring, a guy wanted to fly from Columbus to an
area south of Dayton to photo a crop circle. When I got within about 20-25
miles, I got in touch with Dayton and told him my heading and roughly where
I was going. Once we spotted it, I just told him that we wanted to circle
(loiter) around our current position to do some aerial photography. He
advised us of nearby traffic a coulple of times, so we would just fly west
a little till they cleared out, Dayton being the busy place that it is. When
we were done, I just told him we wanted to depart 080 or whatever and he
advised us of traffic we may encounter on the way out.

--
Hello, my name is Mike, and I am an airplane addict....

"Paul kgyy" wrote in message
oups.com...
I've never been actually denied service, but Indy Approach never
responded to calls once when I flew through there.

Been through there twice in a 150, they were real cool about it. From Ohio
to Illinois via Brickyard, they vectored me through the approaching traffic.
Pretty neat to see a 737 at your altitude out the left window.

--
Hello, my name is Mike, and I am an airplane addict....

Paul Tomblin wrote:

The appropriate response to an emergency is to talk to the person who
you're already talking to, because they already have a decent idea where
you are and where you're going and what type of plane you're in.

I've gotta agree there. 121.5 is for when you're not talking to
someone and don't immediately know who is the best contact. At times
when I'm not getting flight following, I stay tuned to the appropriate
Center or Approach frequency for the area in which I'm flying. Even if
I happen too be to low for ATC to hear me (quite common in the
mountains), I know that there are airliners overhead that will hear me.
If I need help, it's just a button push away.

John Galban=====N4BQ (PA28-180)

Peter Duniho wrote:
snip
Especially in remote areas, there may not be a radar facility listed in the
A/FD, in which case things get a little more difficult. In that case,
usually you won't be able to contact a radar facility anyway, at least not
until you're also high enough to contact the FSS. And of course, the FSS is
always a good resource for all manner of information, including finding out
who to contact for VFR FF (assuming it's available where you are).

Good info. One other good source that many people don't realize is
that Center and FSS freq. info for your current geographical area is
included on Jepp data bases in their handheld GPS. On Garmins (at
least the ones I've used) hit "nearest", then the "menu" key, and
you'll get an entry called "nearest frequencies". That will give you
both FSS and Center frequencies for wherever you happen to be at the
moment. Works great!

John Galban=====N4BQ (PA28-180)

John Galban wrote:


Paul Tomblin wrote:

The appropriate response to an emergency is to talk to the person who
you're already talking to, because they already have a decent idea where
you are and where you're going and what type of plane you're in.


I've gotta agree there. 121.5 is for when you're not talking to
someone and don't immediately know who is the best contact. At times
when I'm not getting flight following, I stay tuned to the appropriate
Center or Approach frequency for the area in which I'm flying. Even if
I happen too be to low for ATC to hear me (quite common in the
mountains), I know that there are airliners overhead that will hear me.
If I need help, it's just a button push away.

Which was exactly the context in which I gave the response about 121.5.
I can't help that Paul gave an answer that was completely out of context.


Matt

In a previous article, Matt Whiting said:
Which was exactly the context in which I gave the response about 121.5.
I can't help that Paul gave an answer that was completely out of context.

"Completely out of context"? What sort of drugs are you on? You
contradicted somebody who was saying that an advantage of flight following
is that you're already talking to somebody in the event of emergency to
say that the correct thing to do in an emergency is to "dial in 121.5".


--
Paul Tomblin http://xcski.com/blogs/pt/
"Real Programmers don't use Python."
"Real Programmers don't use *whitespace*."
-- Skud and Thorfinn

Paul Tomblin wrote:
In a previous article, Matt Whiting said:

Which was exactly the context in which I gave the response about 121.5.
I can't help that Paul gave an answer that was completely out of context.


"Completely out of context"? What sort of drugs are you on? You
contradicted somebody who was saying that an advantage of flight following
is that you're already talking to somebody in the event of emergency to
say that the correct thing to do in an emergency is to "dial in 121.5".

Yes, here is the text to which I responded:

"In addition to the above, using Flight Following means that you are in
direct contact with ATC should you develop some sort of in-flight
emergency. You can therefore communicate that difficulty immediately
without having to search for the available and appropriate controlling
agency."

The suggestion is clearly made that if you AREN'T using flight following
then your alternative is to "search for the available and appropriate
conrolling agency" to call. My comment is that if you AREN'T using
flight following, you have a much better alternative to trying to look
up a frequency for the ATC in your area - and that is to dial up 121.5.

This really isn't that hard to follow.


Matt

In a previous article, Matt Whiting said:
Paul Tomblin wrote:
In a previous article, Matt Whiting said:

Which was exactly the context in which I gave the response about 121.5.
I can't help that Paul gave an answer that was completely out of context.
"Completely out of context"? What sort of drugs are you on? You
contradicted somebody who was saying that an advantage of flight following
is that you're already talking to somebody in the event of emergency to
say that the correct thing to do in an emergency is to "dial in 121.5".
conrolling agency" to call. My comment is that if you AREN'T using
flight following, you have a much better alternative to trying to look
up a frequency for the ATC in your area - and that is to dial up 121.5.

You didn't say "if you aren't using flight following", you said "the
correct response in an emergency". Which, unless you've redefined the
english language when I wans't looking, means "an emergency", not "an
emergency when you aren't getting flight following".

Say what you mean, or don't complain if people correct you.

--
Paul Tomblin http://xcski.com/blogs/pt/
"If you get upset, emotional, or angry you are not dealing with the
emergency"
-- Rick Grant (quoting RCAF pilot training)

" wrote in message

Can someone explain to a new pilot (who's never used it!) what flight
following is all about and how to actually get it? Thanks!

In addition:

Jot down the commonly used ATC frequencies (dep / apr / terminal / FSS etc.)
along your route during your planning. This will help if you lose contact
at some point. It sometimes happens and can be a bit disconcerting. You
should be able to contact one of them and they'll set you up with the
appropriate facility.

Jot down freqs as you're handed off. It annoys them if they expect you to
call and you've forgotten, or mixed up, the freq. It happens.

Flight following is not anywhere near as safe as IFR WRT traffic control.
Near encounters are not uncommon. I've personally had "sorry about that" as
a response from ATC. It isn't their responsibility to provide the same
level of service as for IFR (though they're almost always perfect) and you
may be mixing it up with NORDO or non Xponder aircraft. Try to remember
that ATC is doing you a favour in busy areas. And, in really busy areas,
they may not be able to provide flight following at all.

Other than that, take full advantage of it. It makes the skies a bit safer.

moo

In a previous article, "Happy Dog" said:
Jot down freqs as you're handed off. It annoys them if they expect you to
call and you've forgotten, or mixed up, the freq. It happens.

Flip flop radios are a god-send when you go to a new frequency and nobody
answers. You can just flip back to the old frequency. Of course, since
nothing is perfect and everybody needs a backup, you should still write
down frequencies.


--
Paul Tomblin http://xcski.com/blogs/pt/
"Please accept my resignation. I do not want to belong to a club that
would have me as a member." - Groucho Marx