| Who Should I Call? / Rose Marie Kern |
Hi Rose Marie, Thanks for writing those very beneficial articles for us pilots. I could surely use an article about how to best use AFSS and what services they afford us. For instance, I decide to fly from my home base at KALM to Angel Fire or Taos, NM. What is the best way to decide who to talk to on my trip? (Richard Finch, EAA Chapter 251, AOPA , asmel, inst, com, cfi.)
One of the things that seems to be confusing the pilots is the fact that their Preflight calls are now being routed to facilities that may be far away from the airport they are departing. Since Albuquerque (ABQ) AFSS takes a high percentage of Prescott AFSS’s preflight calls, they ask if this means that they have to activate their flight plan with ABQ.
The answer is no. It does not matter which AFSS or Duats vendor you file your flight plan with, an hour prior to your flight, your proposal will be sent to the AFSS which monitors the airport you will be departing from.
In Richard’s scenario, he will be departing from Alamogordo Airport in southern New Mexico. When he calls flight service, for some reason his preflight call is routed to San Angelo AFSS. After he receives his briefing, he files a flight plan. If it is VFR, the flight plan will transmit to ABQ AFSS, if it is IFR it will transmit to Albuquerque ARTCC (Center) and to Holloman Air Force Base Approach Control.
From here let’s separate IFR from VFR responsibilities.
Alamogordo is inside Holloman’s airspace, so Richard will contact them for an IFR clearance, and then simply change frequencies as he is directed to by Approach and by ABQ Center. If Holloman is closed when he wishes to depart, he can call Radio on the ground at Alamogordo and have his clearance relayed, or he can call the AFSS Clearance Delivery phone number.
As he heads north to Taos, he may see some lightning in the distance at his 10 o’clock position, so he could contact Flight Watch for an update. Let’s pretend he doesn’t know which Flight Watch is covering this area. He should call “Flight Watch, N123 over Corona VOR”. By giving his position up front, Flight Watch knows exactly which of his transmitters to select, and knows that the aircraft is in his airspace.
As he lands at Taos, he can cancel IFR with Center, or he may land and realize that he has not cancelled yet. Center does not have a transceiver on the ground there, but the AFSS does, so he can call ABQ Radio to cancel his IFR, just the same as he would cancel VFR. Radio will call the Center on the hotline.
If the pilot gets out of the aircraft before canceling, he can go into the FBO and cancel his IFR flight plan by calling the 1-888-766-8267 IFR clearance delivery and cancellation phone number.
Again, he may get Denver AFSS or some other AFSS – don’t sweat it, any of us can take the cancellation. Whatever AFSS that you speak to is responsible for transmitting the cancellation to Albuquerque Center. Just make sure that you specify that it is an IFR cancellation, or we may be knocking on the wrong door!
Now let’s go VFR. Again, San Angelo has transmitted the proposal to ABQ AFSS, which has responsibility for Alamogordo. Richard will call ABQ Radio on 122.15 to activate the flight plan. Radio keys the activation into the computer. The FS21 computer linking all the flight services will now have the data ready for any flight service you call enroute to modify or cancel the flight plan.
Let’s say that Richard decides to change his destination enroute. He calls ABQ Radio over the Corona VOR Voice and says he wishes to change his destination to Amarillo. When using a VOR voice Richard calls Radio on 122.1, but LISTENS to the VOR frequency 115.5. He needs to give Radio the following information: Departure Point, Current position, Previous Destination, New Destination and ETA.
Radio modifies the information on the flight plan. Richard calls Amarillo Approach on his way into the airport and lands. Now when Richard lands in Amarillo, Richard contacts Fort Worth (FTW) AFSS to cancel his VFR flight plan either on frequency, or by calling the 1-800-992-7433 briefing phone number.
Do not make the mistake of thinking that the Air Traffic Control Towers (ATCT) will automatically cancel a VFR flight plan. They only cancel IFR flight plans. If you ask them to relay a VFR cancellation to radio they will, but they do get busy and may not be able to before you go overdue, so call AFSS if you can.
When you file your flight plan, be sure to remember if you filed with AFSS, Fast File or DUATS vendor you have filed with. If later on you want to make changes to that flight plan you will need to contact that entity – no one else will have the flight plan information until 1 hour prior to your proposed departure time.
The computers can send messages to each other, but the basic data is only held by the computer into which it was initially keyed. The AFSS cannot access a DUATS flight plan directly, the same holds true for flight plans filed with a military Baseops.
Flight Plans are held in the departure facility’s computer for two hours past the ETD. If you have not activated by then, or altered the ETD to a later time, the flight plan is automatically removed.
Lastly I would like to mention the Fast File system. This is where you can call into Flight Service and leave your flight plan on a recording. If you intend to use this system, PLEASE speak slowly and clearly and have all your information ready, including a phone number that we can call you back at if there is anything that is questionable. Though it is called FAST file, it takes at least 10 to 15 minutes for the flight plan to be filed.
I hope this answers Richard’s question, anyone else wanting some clarification – just send me an email.
Rose Marie Kern works at Lockheed Martin’s ABQ AFSS. If you’d like to ask Rose a question concerning ATC and the Lockheed Martin AFSS’s, send her an email at solarranch@ispwest.com.
|
|
| |
| Article Rating
|
Average Score: 5
Votes: 2
|
 |
|
