Hello! In my attempts to get more familiar with ATC and using the radios, I want to try and get a better picture of everything to expect on a typical flight.
My idea is to go on flightaware, find a flight that's getting ready to push back and listen to their every correspondence with ATC starting with clearance delivery, ground, tower -- etc. I would listen and when they get handed off, start listening to the next frequency that they were told to switch to so I can get the whole picture of that flight and a better idea of how it all works. I think an idea of the "big picture" will be better for me during my IFR training instead of living through it all in the moment which tends to overwhelm me a bit.
Is this possible to do on Live ATC? I'm hoping all the feeds I need are there.
If so, how can I plan ahead and know who they are going to be handed off to in advance so I can load up all the streams and have them all set to go?
Thanks!!
Here's one thing that needs to be thought about when it comes to LiveATC. LiveATC isn't relative to the flight (meaning, following the entire flight in the air), but is more relative to ATC (meaning, the controllers), and those are static, as you are listening to the frequencies the controllers use, not what the pilot changes to throughout the course of the pilot's flight.
With that said, yes, you can cover an entire flight from start to finish, depending on two conditions:
- the departing and arriving airports are covered by LiveATC, with all appropriate frequencies (DEL, Ground, TWR, APP/DEP).
- the en-route sectors between the airports are covered by LiveATC, with all appropriate frequencies between those sectors.
For example, take the KLAS-KLAX run, and we'll go both ways. From Vegas:
ATIS: 132.4.
Covered by LiveATC.Clearance Delivery: 118.0.
Covered by LiveATC.Ground: 121.1 (east of runways 19L/R), and 121.9 (west of runways 19L/R).
Covered by LiveATC.Tower: 119.9, 118.75.
Covered by LiveATC.Approach/Departure: 125.9, 133.95, 125.6, 125.02, 118.4, 119.4, 135.0.
Covered by LiveATC.LA Center, Barstow sector Low: 134.65.
Not covered by LiveATC.LA Center, BARSTOW sector High: 133.55.
Not covered by LiveATC.SOCAL Approach, Feeder sector: 124.05.
Covered by LiveATC.SoCal Approach, LAX: 124.9, 128.5.
Covered by LiveATC.LAX Tower: 120.95, 133.9.
Covered by LiveATC.LAX Ground: 121.65, 121.75, 121.4.
Covered by LiveATC.LAX Delivery: 120.35.
covered by LiveATC.LAX ATIS: 133.8, 135.65.
Covered by LiveATC.For what you are asking, you're not going to get a full flight, start to finish, on this flight, because some of the en-route frequencies are not covered. The reason for this is that a provider must be able to host their feed with line of sight to the transmitter for that frequency to get communications between the controller and pilot. By nature of flights being in the air, it's going to be easier to have line of sight with the flight, but not with the transmitter. In this case, the transmitter for this is somewhere in the desert between Las Vegas and Baker, CA, as it is on the other side of the mountains from Las Vegas.
So for what you're looking for, you'll need to be sure that every sector is covered between the departing airport and destination airport to get what you need.
BL.