The FAA calls it “VFR traffic advisories. You and I probably call it “flight following.” In practice, ATC provides traffic information, plus safety alerts, “limited” vectoring when requested and/or sequencing to airport arrivals. In reality, flight following is a situational awareness tool for VFR operations, which also gives you a headstart on entering some airspace and immediate access to ATC in an emergency.
In many ways, it’s just like being IFR in a radar/ADS-B environment. And while that can lull us into a false sense of security, flight following is an additional tool in your quiver of arrows, to mangle a metaphor. While it enhances your situational awareness, it also can be a crutch on a boring flight. The benefits far outweigh the downsides, though. As always, we need to guard against complacency.
