Flight Following

[hoser70]

Is there and FAA rule that stipulates you must ask for flight following while you are on the ground? Just asking because ATC tonight was all bent out of shape because people asked for it while in the air.

[HRutila]

It is an AIM recommendation and a test question on the FAA's PPL written exam. It certainly helps us coordinate the service, although at some towers this request cannot be handled due to equipment limitations. On PE as of now, you can (and should) request flight following on the ground if you'd like it.
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Aeronautical Information Manual

4-1-18. Terminal Radar Services for VFR Aircraft

a. Basic Radar Service:
...
(b) Pilots of departing VFR aircraft are encouraged to request radar traffic information by notifying ground control on initial contact with their request and proposed direction of flight.

EXAMPLE-
Xray ground control, November One Eight Six, Cessna One Seventy Two, ready to taxi, VFR southbound at 2,500, have information bravo and request radar traffic information.
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[Peter Grey]

Hello,

Harold has the guidance from the FAA correct. It is encouraged to call for radar services on the ground for ATC to be able to properly coordinate the request. In the real world some airports are not able to accept this request so in that case you would have to call the approach controller airborne. At PilotEdge we have elected to allow the pickup of radar services on the ground at all towered airports (however we are 100% ok with people who simulate not being able to pick it up with the tower and therefore call approach for it). Note you need to specifically request it (as in saying "request radar services/flight following/traffic advisories, etc.).

As a general rule there is no advantage to calling the "tower" airborne for flight following as opposed to on the ground. This actually increases the workload of the tower controller considerably. As a result If you call for it airborne with the tower they may not be able to coordinate the request before you leave the tower's airspace (normally only a couple miles from the airport). If that happens you might be told to call approach control to obtain radar services.

So to summarize the "pickup of radar services" cases:

1. On the ground: 100% ok and preferred.
2. In the air with approach: Also 100% ok.
3. In the air with tower: Not ideal, this may result in a being told to contact approach to pick it up instead.

Regarding the "bent out of shape controller". I listened to the recordings from this time and here is my take on the whole event. Before I go into the details I do want to apologize if anyone felt put off, or felt that they weren't receiving the level service they expect with PilotEdge. That was not the intent here by any stretch.

Regarding the specific details:

First the controller working the tower at the time had a bit of a stressful controlling session due to several stuck mics (including one of a clown horn being blasted in the mic) on the frequency in the 30-45 minutes before your flight. Obviously this isn't an excuse for anything, but I include it for the sake of perspective.

The main part of the problem was it appears that several people did this in a row as part of what appeared to be a group flight, the tower (sensing what might happen) actually asked the first guy in the row if everyone was picking up flight following and he said no. This was then followed by several planes asking for flight following in a row airborne.

From personal experience in real world group flights, ATC will generally *not* provide flight following to all the aircraft involved due to the workload problems it causes. We try to accommodate here, but understand it is a big increase on workload for the tower as he has to let the approach controller know what's coming. It's actually easier that if you "forget" to call on the ground to call approach in the air as opposed to tower. This is especially true when it's busy (as it was last night due to the APV event).

The controller was mainly advising everyone that it is preferred to call on the ground for this service which is correct (see Harold above). We do advise our controllers to let pilot's know about preferred ways of doing things as that is part of the "educational" service we are trying to provide. Admittedly after the 4-5th plane he may have been a little more "bent out of shape" then we would prefer and we apologize if this caused any grief to anyone.

I will have a chat with the controller to make sure we are all on the same page about it.

Please let me know if you have any questions regarding this.

[Chris Smith]

Hi Peter and Harold,

Thanks for posting very insightful replies. It makes sense to request flight following on the ground if possible to help with workload planning. I didn't realize that this was a common procedure so I apologize to the controller for giving him a bit of flack. Regardless, I had a very enjoyable flight and want to thank everyone at PilotEdge for doing what they do! It must be a real challenge considering the range and complexity of airspace plus the number of pilots at any given point.

Regards,
Chris "Smiffy" Smith (N704YN)
Join http://www.ndbair.com today!

[snglecoil]

So would the same guidance follow for coordinating LAX class B transition? For instance, if I were departing Fullerton for Santa Barbara, in addition to requesting advisories with ground, would I also notify them of a request for a mini-route transition?

Thanks,

Chris

[Peter Grey]

In general yes.

However because the miniroute is actually done by towers and not by approach, you won't be able to properly arrange for this on the ground. Feel free to let the controller know about it, but you won't get anything special other then a squawk code and handoff to approach normally.

[tcarney]

This is good info. Where I fly out of El Monte, I've heard the tower tell pilots to make the request to approach when they ask for flight following, so I've always just done it that way. Getting it set up while on the ground seems a lot easier, since you won't have to tie up the approach frequency with a lengthy request.

[jx_]

The issue is time. The time it takes for the pilot to request the services while airborne, plus the additional time needed for the controller to issue the squawk code and generate a flight strip, usually exceeds the time that the aircraft will be within tower airspace.