Flight Following Is Your Friend
If you are a pilot, then you should be familiar with VFR Traffic Advisories—an awesome service that ATC can provide to VFR flights on request. Some pilots are Flight Following frequenters; others seem to have banished it to the farthest reaches of their mental galaxy. The former tend to be good aviation neighbors; good participants in the National Airspace System. The latter tend to be rogue VFR primary radar returns on a controller’s scope causing them to tell other traffic, “Piper 1234, traffic 12 o’clock, same altitude, seems to be maneuvering, I’m not talking to him.” Don’t be the latter; be the former. Here is a quick review to help us all become VFR Advisories Super Ninjas on our VFR flights.
The What, Where, When, How, and Why of Flight Following
What. VFR Traffic Advisories (“VFR Advisories” or “Flight Following”) is:
A service that ATC can offer to VFR flights providing radar-based traffic alerts and other relevant safety advisories;
Provided only upon pilot request;
Provided only if ATC’s workload permits (it almost always does); and
Is NOT a flight plan, an IFR clearance, a Bravo clearance, or any other kind of clearance.
Where & When. You can get VFR advisories anywhere in the National Airspace System with radar coverage (much of the United States). Use it for cross-country flights, flights in a practice area, or other flights outside the airport vicinity like photo missions or aerial survey work.
How. All you need to do to receive the service as a VFR flight is key up with the ATC frequency controlling the airspace where you are (more on this later), and say:
Your full callsign;
Your aircraft type;
Your location;
That you are requesting VFR Advisories (or Flight Following)
Your destination; and
Your planned cruise altitude.
It’s that simple. If the controller wants some of that information in a different order or missed it, don’t worry: they’ll just ask you for what they need. Then ATC will give you a squawk code (which you will enter in your transponder and read back to ATC), and will often request that you ident on that code (you really need not read back an ident because pushing the “IDENT” button is the nonverbal equivalent of you saying “Ident”).
Here is a quick example of how the verbal exchange might go on frequency:
Me: “Boston Approach, Arrow 4350T is a papa 28 Romeo 5 miles north of Lawrence, request VFR Advisories to Bangor at seven thousand.”
ATC: “Arrow five-zero-tango, good afternoon, the Manchester altimeter is 29.92, squawk 1314 and ident.”
Me: “29.92, squawk 1314, Arrow five-zero-tango.”
I enter the transponder code before or as I read it back. Then I push the transponder’s ident button.
ATC": “Arrow five-zero-tango, radar contact six miles north of Lawrence.”
Me: “Position checks, Arrow five-zero-tango.”
It’s that easy. That formula seems to work well in most circumstances. As with your other radio calls, read the proverbial room. If the pace on frequency is nice and you don’t want to waste anyone’s time, just key up with your request straight off, as above. If the frequency is pretty sleepy, and you’ve not heard anyone talking for a few minutes, consider giving ATC a quick “wake up” call first to avoid having to repeat everything twice: Me: “Boston Approach, Piper 1234, VFR request.” ATC: “Piper 1234, say request.” At that point, the controller will expect to hear a VFR Advisories request or a practice approach request, so they’ll be ready for you.
Why. First, now that I am on VFR Advisories, I am on frequency with the person controlling the airspace I presently occupy. That’s always a good thing. Communication improves situational awareness and safety. Second, I’ve gained access by proxy to ATC’s radar scope: ATC will advise me of traffic they see on radar that might be a threat to my flight. That’s great because, even though I have two eyes that work well and am equipped with ASD-B In, I won’t see everything and not every airplane has ADS-B Out. But ATC can see non-ADS-B traffic targets on radar and so advise me. Third, ATC will also provide me other relevant safety alerts (e.g., skydive activities). Fourth, I’ll be hearing other traffic in my area on frequency, and we’ll all have a better understanding of the entire picture around us. Fifth, just like on an IFR flight, ATC will hand me off to the next controller as I pass from one ATC sector to another—which has an added bonus: If my flight track and destination take me through airspace requiring communication with ATC (e.g., Class C), I don’t really have to think too much about it because I’ll get handed off to the controlling facility for that airspace well before I enter it (usually). Shall I go on?
With VFR Advisories, you aren’t IFR, you aren’t on a flight plan (unless you filed and opened a VFR flight plan separately), and ATC isn’t controlling you. You haven’t received any clearance of any kind. Each controller to whom you speak should see your destination, but they won’t see any routing (you’re not on a flight plan, remember?). You can advise ATC if you want to use some waypoints; they might just respond, “Roger”—but they might make a note and they will appreciate it. For example: if you want to use an airport as a flyover waypoint, but going there takes you through a MOA that is hot, ATC might advise you to that effect—if you’ve informed them of your intent.
A Few Ways to Use VFR Advisories
Pick up VFR Advisories in the air. This is a very common method; it is described above in “How.”
Pick up VFR Advisories on the ground. If you have a clearance delivery frequency available on the ground (or ground control at a Class D), you can ask them for VFR advisories in the same way before you ever take off. Be ready to copy a departure control frequency and squawk code. Enter the squawk code immediately, and set the departure frequency in standby as soon as you switch to the tower frequency before takeoff. Shortly after takeoff, the tower will hand you off to departure: “Piper 1234, contact departure. Good day.”
Use VFR Advisories in the practice area. You don’t need to be on a cross-country flight to use VFR Advisories. What if you’re going out to practice maneuvers? Seems like a fine time to let ATC know where you’ll be, what you’ll be doing, and to receive advisories from ATC about potentially hazardous traffic conflicts, no? Just key up ATC with a typical VFR Advisories request—but instead of a destination, let them know the area you’ll be using for air work. Here’s how a typical interaction might go:
Me: “Tampa Approach, Arrow 4350T over St. Pete Beach at 2,500, request VFR Advisories for air work 5 west of St Pete Beach between 3,000 and 5,000.”
ATC: “Good morning five-zero-tango, Tampa altimeter 30.18, squawk 1033.”
Me: “Zero-one-eight, squawk 1033, five-zero-tango.”
ATC: “five-zero-tango, radar contact three west of Whitted field.”
That’s it. The above example is something I just did today. I didn’t need any clearance to do my VFR air work in this Class E airspace. But now I wash talking to the person controlling traffic through that airspace; they know my intentions (and therefore have a fair idea where to expect me to be and not to be); they have my squawk code on the screen so they can easily know which of those airplanes is the guy doing airwork in that area just offshore between 3,000’ and 5,000’ MSL; they’ll advise me of any potentially-conflicting (hazardous) traffic in my area; and we have an open line of communication, just in case. In fact, it made the controller’s life easier because she had several IFR arrivals coming through the area where I was doing maneuvers, and she just gave me an altitude restriction (“five-zero-tango maintain VFR at or below 4,500, I have a few arrivals above you at 5,000”) so she didn’t have to adjust her arrival program. Great!
Conclusion. Obtaining VFR Advisories is easy, it’s great for safety and situational awareness, and it’s free. I get the impression that some pilots don’t use that service because they are uncomfortable interacting with ACT. Or perhaps it’s because they think they’ll just be some silly bugsmasher getting in ATC’s way and clogging up the frequency. Let’s not think of it that way. I know a lot of air traffic controllers quite well. They don’t bite, they’re not grumpy, and they would much rather be talking to VFR flights than just watching them zoom randomly through their airspace. Sure, you’ll occasionally run into a controller who is totally down the tubes and their patience is running thin. But that is rare, and it’s not your fault. If you want to gain confidence talking to controllers, just find a local CFI and say you want to do so. We (any CFI) can work with you on the ground to think through and rehearse how radio calls might go; then grab that CFI and GO FLY!
