Lately, I have seen an excess amount of pilots in Center (FIR) and Approach frequencies requesting flight following whilst doing IFR flights with commercial aircraft. Just to clear things up, flight following is a service that ATC provides in Class E and G airspace to VFR AIRCRAFT. This service entails giving ongoing surveillance information to VFR flights that are usually with General Aviation aircraft. This service is only provided when controllers don’t have an excess of traffic. So please next time use Flight Following ONLY if you are a VFR flight that wants provided information in Class E and G airspaces. Thanks for reading, I hope this helps create a more realistic environment.
-AviatorNikola
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To add on to this, if you check in, you do NOT need to request flight following. This just clutters the frequency and increases controller workload.
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If you read the user guide, you can see that in IF the FF is used for ifr flights as well
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Hi there! In Infinite Flight, we also have IFR Flight Following which can be requested by the pilot if they have filed a flight plan. This is to be used if the pilot wishes to follow their flight plan all the way to their destination without receiving an approach. The pilot should keep in mind that the service may be upgraded based on current traffic levels.
For more information, please see section 6.5 of the Infinite Flight User Guide below:
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To add on to this some more, do NOT check-in on OR request descent via upon contact with Approach. Just request your approach
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Yes I realize that it is a feature present in Infinite Flight and IFATC members need to train to handle IFR FF. However, it is not a realistic procedure and those seeking as much realism as possible should not use IFR Flight Following.
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Oh yeah for sure, I was just referencing when it’s simply Approach. Should’ve clarified that lol
Sorry typo, I meant Approach.
Wait, didn’t they revise the manual to say just request the desired approach?
Yup also when you have already been cleared for approach, do not contact tower and announce inbound, just state your position. I have recently made this mistake but I learned from it.
Flight following can be given in any airspace and is typically needed to enter airspace’s like bravos. I can tell you that IRL although it’s traffic dependent, it is not limited to only class E and G airspace.
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Oh wow thanks for the clarification when I looked it up it said only E and G.
Sorry again, I misread what you said. NVM
Not sure that is correct. If for example you are cleared for the ILS RWY22, you should contact tower with “inbound on the ILS runway 22”, shouldn’t you?
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Haha, all good, Trio!
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Yes, you should be doing that.
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Oh really, that’s what I thought too but I was scolded for doing that on EGKK tower.
If App/Center (whoever is acting as approach) clears you for a certain type of approach, you call inbound on that approach. Don’t report your position and leave it at that. State your intentions clearly.
Okay that makes sense, I was told it was considered repetitive. Thank you!
Yeah, no, that’s incorrect. More often than not at a busy hub, I won’t even have the time to look at your progress strip and check your previous comm logs to figure out what approach you were cleared for. Do the local controller a favor, and just state what your inbound is so we can handle you appropriately. Otherwise, why would we even have the inbound on the ILS/GPS/Visual option?