Flight Following vs Flight Plan

10 Answers

1. 
   

   
   

   John D. Collins on May 22, 2011

   Flight following service and a flightplan have different purposes.  Flight following is intended to provide the pilot with traffic and other flight information enroute. It is an optional service and provided on the basis that ATC has the time to provide it. If you lose contact with ATC or ATC says “radar contact terminated, squawk 1200, frequency change approved”, no one will come searching for you if you don’t get to your destination, nor will they know how much fuel you have on board, how many soul’s on board, who the pilot is, when you departed, when you expect to arrive at your destination, or what the colors of your aircraft are.  They may also not know your specific route that you plan on following.

    

   The primary purpose of the VFR flightplan  is to trigger a search and rescue operation if you don’t get to your destination when you are expected to arrive. The VFR flightplan provides all the information described above to give the search and rescue folks a clue as to when, where, and what to look for if you end up missing. I would highly recommend that you file a flightplan for your cross county flights. I prefer to do it online and it only takes a few minutes.  At the same time, flight following is a valuable service when you can get it and I would recommend you avail yourself of it as well, but it won’t substitute for a flightplan. 

   +10 Votes 11 Votes  1 Votes

2. 
   

   
   

   Pete Kemble on May 24, 2011

   John’s answer is spot on as usual. To add my own .02 as well – Flight following doesn’t have to be just for cross country flights. While I don’t recommend getting it every time you hit the practice area, I would recommend it if you are practicing maneuvers solo in the airplane, particularly the commercial maneuvers. Of course, take into account the workload of the controllers. Near Boston where there are several satelite airports in the vicinity, I found flight following to be very helpful while working on my commercial when i was in single pilot operation. Again, listen to the frequency for a few minutes after departing to get a sense of how busy things are and make a sensible decision based on the workload of the controller. 
   N.B. – flight following does NOT relieve you of your duty as pilot in command to see and avoid other traffic, but having a heads up on traffic entering your area can be a big help when concentrating on getting those lazy 8’s just right 🙂

   +3 Votes 3 Votes  0 Votes

3. 
   

   
   

   Anonymous on May 26, 2011

   If a pilot merely activated a VFR flight plan without requesting Flight Following, would they receive enroute traffic and flight information?
   Or, would the pilot have to file/active a VFR Flight Plan and combine it with Flight Following to receive these services en route?

   +1 Votes 1 Votes  0 Votes

4. 
   

   
   

   John D. Collins on May 26, 2011

   A flightplan is usually activated by contacting the local FSS once airborne.  FSS does not provide any traffic advisories.  They can file, activate, or close a flightplan.  They also provide weather briefings.
    
   You have to contact ATC on the local approach/departure control frequency or center frequency to request flight following services. To contact ATC, use your full N number and make your request, for example: “Charlotte Departure, Cessna 1234, off Rock Hill Airport, requesting VFR flight following”.  Don’t make a speech, ATC will ask you the questions they need to get your position, altitude, and other data such as destination, route of flight, aircraft type, and cruise altitude. ATC will assign you a unique transponder code and if you have a mode C capable transponder, they will get you to confirm your altitude at least once, so they know if you are transmitting a good altitude.  
    
   You must still fly using VFR rules. The controller will call traffic and may give you vectors.  Generally, altitude is at the pilot discretion unless assigned otherwise by ATC, although they will often request you report any altitude changes.  Even if ATC doesn’t request being advised of altitude changes, it is good etiquette to do so. 
    
   ATC can provide other information such as significant weather, but it is not their primary responsibility.  To get updated weather information enroute, you should contact Flight Watch on 122.0 or the nearest FSS.  If you want to leave the frequency to get an update on weather, advise ATC that you will be leaving the frequency for a few minutes to get weather.  They will normally request you report back on frequency.
    
   From time to time as your flight progresses, ATC will ask you to contact the next sector frequency.  When you make your initial call on the new frequency, use your full N number, altitude, and note you are VFR, for example: “Atlanta Center, Cessna 1234 sixty five hundred, VFR”.  No need for “with you” or any other superfluous information.
    

   +5 Votes 6 Votes  1 Votes

5. 
   

   
   

   Heather McNevin on Jun 18, 2011

   At a Center, no VFR flight plan information is recieved.  So when you call, you will have to give your type and equipment suffix, destination, and route if not direct.  Remember you will be a surprise to the controller, so get their attention before spouting off all that info.  If you lose contact with ATC and havent been told that your radar service is terminated and to squawk VFR, ATC is looking for you.  Numerous phone calls are made each day for someone who just decided they were done with flight following and switched us off.  If you go NORDO, just like any other flight, we have to try to reestablish communications and we start security and possibly search and rescue initiatives.  Just give the controller a heads up you want to terminate flight following when you’re done with it.  Also, if you know the area is a poor radar coverage area, you probably can’t get flight following since you have to be seen in order to be advised of traffic!

   +1 Votes 1 Votes  0 Votes

6. 
   

   
   

   Oren on Jul 03, 2011

   Does receiving flight following in a cross country flight automatically opens/closes the VFR Flight plan? Or should the pilot still activate it with FSS?
   Thank you.

   0 Votes 0 Votes  0 Votes

7. 
   

   
   

   Kent Shook on Jul 05, 2011

   Oren,
    
   Flight following (aka traffic advisories) and a VFR flight plan are two completely separate things, with separate purposes. No, getting flight following does NOT open or close the VFR flight plan, nor does calling the tower or anything else except calling FSS to open and close it yourself. 
    
   One thing I like to do, flying out of a towered airport with an FSS frequency available on the field, is to call FSS when I finish my runup and before I call the tower, and open the flight plan right before I call the tower ready for takeoff. Let them know that you’ll be taking off momentarily, they’ll usually open the plan with a departure time 5 minutes in the future or something. Then, you can get flight following from start to finish and not need to request a frequency change to open your flight plan.

   +2 Votes 2 Votes  0 Votes

8. 
   

   
   

   R. A. on Mar 26, 2013

   It was mentioned that the ‘purpose of the VFR flightplan is to trigger a search and rescue operation if you don’t get to your destination when you are expected to arrive’. On short XC’s, typically (50-70nm), I usually file a flight plan online but do not activate it. The reason is to have the freedom to make slight heading deviations to circle a nearby are for sightseeing purposes or take the opportunity to do a few practice maneuvers along the route.

   Two questions. If I request flight following do I still have the options? Should I activate a FP even on short flights? I can always call the closest ATC if I get in trouble. Thoughts? I am a low time pilot that returned to fly after a 22 year hiatus.

   0 Votes 2 Votes  2 Votes

9. 
   

   
   

   JZ on May 13, 2013

   R. A.

   First of all, welcome back to flying! My guess is that you are filing but not opening a flight plan just so you can have proof that you had an official briefing . And while that can be problematic in Canada, you’re allowed to do that in the U.S. But FSS won’t initiate a search for you if you don’t open your flight plan. Even if you crash. Because they don’t know that you crashed. They don’t even know that you left the airport. No one ever told them. Namely you. Your flight plan just expires and no one gives it a second thought. That probably won’t be very comforting if you find yourself crashed in the middle of nowhere.

   So yes, I would recommend that you open your flight plan. But also realize that even with an open flight plan, if you crash somewhere on your 70nm flight, FSS may not react until 30 minutes after you were supposed to land. And there are several steps to find overdue aircraft before launching Search and Rescue, including checking the airport where you are likely munching on a $100 hamburger completely forgetting about your un-closed flight plan . When they still can’t locate you, they’ll try to figure out the last place anyone knew where you were. They don’t know that you crashed 49nm into your flight. Because the last they heard, you were just taking off from your departure airport. No one ever updated them. Namely you. I hope your injuries can wait.

   So yes, I would recommend position reporting, especially it you’re not getting radar service. In fact, give a pirep while you’re at it. That way they can cross off the first 45 miles of your flight path from their search grid, and they’ll have a better idea of local flight conditions before you went down. If you want to make heading deviations or linger in an area for sightseeing purposes, there’s nothing wrong with that. FSS just wants to know when and where to look for you if you go MIA. If you end up changing your route of flight or are running really late, just tell them, “Hey, I took an unplanned scenic detour, and I’d like to update my route, ETA, etc.” Otherwise they may not be able to find you in your time of need. Because no one ever informed them. Namely you. And clarity of intention is warranted,
   especially when working with VFR flight following, .

   And yes, I would also recommend flight following if it’s available. Unlike the FSS specialist, who may be handling briefings, pireps, overdue aircraft, or any number of things at a given time, the radar service ATC controller is mainly focused on the real-time location of aircraft. As such, they would be the first to notice that you’re headed west at 2,900ft when you told them you’d be going north-east at 7,500. Believe it or not, they already know that VFR aircraft may not be flying a straight line from point a to point b. They know that VFR pilots may be following the highway or river, or aiming towards a lower elevation for a higher absolute altitude, or going around a cloud that parked itself in the middle of their flight path. If you’re basically doing what you told them you’d be doing, you should be fast friends. If you start an improvisation routine, they’re going to ask you about it. Because no one ever enlightened them. Namely you. This doesn’t mean, however, that they’re the fun police.

   If you find a patch of flowers that you feel you need to circle over, tell them you’d like to orbit at your current position for a minute or so. If there’s a lake a few miles to the west you’d like to fly over, give them a heads up that you’re temporarily diverting that direction. If you’re itching to practice maneuvers, let them know before you start jinking. Controllers are people too. They can’t read your mind, so communicate your intentions. If they can continue to provide traffic advisories and accommodate your whim at the same time, they most likely will. If not, it’s up to you to choose between radar services or lazy eights at that point of your 70nm cross country. And if you’re not already communicating with ATC when you get in trouble, calling them can be a challenge.

   Any time you’re flying, your priorities should be aviate, navigate, communicate, in that order. Depending on what kind of trouble you get into, you may have your hands full with the aviate part. If you are nose down and on frequency with ATC, a Mayday call can be a quick and easy process. If you’re not, I hope you can get your transponder to 7700 and your radio over to 121.5 to declare an emergency while trying to control an airplane that doesn’t want to fly anymore before it’s too late. And you’re right, 50-70nm isn’t really that far. You could easily take longer cross country flights than that and never make it off of some Terminal Area Charts. In some areas of the country, a crash would put you on live nationwide tv before you were even overdue, and in other areas where falling trees don’t make a sound, your would-be rescuers may never find you.r crash site So just use common sense, fly safe, and don’t be afraid to talk to the controllers.

   +4 Votes 5 Votes  1 Votes

10. 
    

    
    

    Mark Kolber on May 13, 2013

    >>Two questions. If I request flight following do I still have the options?

    Yes. This is an advisory of where you plan to be at a certain time and of your anticipated route to they can find you if you’r not heard from. It’s is not a clearance that requires you stay with a specific route. You can do whatever you want, even change your destination entirely without telling anyone.

    That said, if you are going to file and open a VFR flight plan, you should also advise Flight Service (not ATC) of any changes along the way. It also makes sense to periodically give a position report if you are not also using Flight Following.

    That’s not a requirement but think about it: the sole purpose of a VFR flight plan is to find you. Does it make sense for them to know where you planned to be be when you opened it or where you actually are (or have already passed)?

    I’ve done both. On my long student cross country, I changed my route due to unexpected weather. And flying in the Colorado mountains where FF is spotty at best, I’ve generally made (and teach) position reporting.

    +2 Votes 2 Votes  0 Votes