Flight Following, Part II

I was motoring home from New Orleans a couple of months ago, sliding eastbound along the shoreline, IFR at 9000 feet. After a controller gave me a frequency change for the next controller, I switched over and listened, which I always do when coming onto a new frequency. The first transmission I heard was a pilot saying something like ...and we have four hours of fuel aboard. Hmmm. In my experience, its rare for anyone to talk about their fuel availability on an ATC frequency unless theres an emergency in progress and ATC wants to know souls and endurance.

Joseph E. (Jeb) Burnside

Wednesday, May 17, 2017 at 12:00 AM ET

Verified

Key Takeaways:

VFR flight following offers significant safety benefits beyond simple traffic advisories, including critical assistance during emergencies (e.g., engine issues), safety alerts for terrain/obstructions/other aircraft, and limited radar vectoring/sequencing.
Pilots should proactively obtain flight following, ideally by requesting it from ground control at a towered airport or by contacting the appropriate TRACON/ARTCC once airborne from an untowered field.
The service is provided on a workload-permitting basis and can be terminated by ATC; pilots must understand how to manage handoffs to new sectors or re-initiate the service, always retaining ultimate responsibility for safe flight.

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Editor’s note: This article is a companion to the one we ran in last month’s issue on VFR flight following, and attempts to fill in a few gaps in the big picture that space limitations prevented us from filling.

I was motoring home from New Orleans a couple of months ago, sliding eastbound along the shoreline, IFR at 9000 feet. After a controller gave me a frequency change for the next controller, I switched over and listened, which I always do when coming onto a new frequency. The first transmission I heard was a pilot saying something like “…and we have four hours of fuel aboard.” Hmmm. In my experience, it’s rare for anyone to talk about their fuel availability on an ATC frequency unless there’s an emergency in progress and ATC wants to know souls and endurance.