So, it's not a flying day (yet), but in my preparation for a short flight tomorrow [Ed: which I ended up not taking due to weather], I was poking around the
FlightAware website. The main interest was to see if the planes I rent get used for IFR flight. The idea is that I perceive some kind of minimum aircraft reliability for such flights, though it probably isn't warranted. In the long run, it's more for personal interest than anything else.
My search took a turn when I pulled up the history for N46474, the plane I flew down to Laramie
last time. Lo and behold, there was my
track! How could this be?? I thought FlightAware only tracked IFR flight plans. Turns out, since I had requested flight following (and, I assume, since it had been approved by ATC), I was in the system. Of course, there's always a caveat, and here is theirs:
Can FlightAware track VFR flights? What about a VFR flight with a flight plan? Some VFR aircraft with flight following are available on the position maps but it largely unreliable and no arrival/departure/flight plan data is available. VFR flight plans are irrelevant and only used by FSS for search and rescue. We suggest ensuring that aircraft are on an IFR flight plan from wheels up to wheels down for proper tracking.
So, while you wouldn't stake your life on it (or even a fairly modest bet), it's a neat way to allow your coworkers to monitor your cross-country boondoggles. Even on this trip, though the track log seems to indicate a more-or-less complete trip, the
graphical track is clearly lacking due to my lower-than-IFR altitude. The radar just can't see through mountains yet. The real comforting statement is that "VFR flight plans are irrelevant." Nice touch.
