LiveATC Discussion Forums
Aviation => Pilot/Controller Forum => Topic started by: sbalmos on August 15, 2011, 04:52:40 PM
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Hi all,
Finishing up my XCs, starting night work tonight (woo). During my XCs, I've always gone to at least one towered airport. Recently, down at Louisville-Bowman, when I was ready to leave, I asked ground whether they preferred that I request flight following on their frequency, or on the clearance frequency. The controller noted he could take it on the ground freq during my taxiing.
So my question is, and I imagine it is also affected by ground control workload... Do you have a preference to whether flight following is requested on the ground vs clearance frequency? Is it affected by workload? I always figured clearance was for IFR flight plan work, but can imagine that flight following might show up there.
Thanks for the input!
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This is an FAA Knowledge Test question for the PPL. The answer is Ground Control is supposed to receive that information. From a practical standpoint, requesting that with Clearance Delivery isn't a big deal.
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It doesn't really matter unless the ground controller is too busy moving airplanes. Also if you plan on flying a certain route along the way or delaying at a certain fix or airport, then I would definitely make the request with Clearance Delivery.
The Flight Data position (which is combined with clearance delivery at most towers) has an FDIO computer on the position, which is required to make flight plan entries into the ATC Host computer system. All control positions at radar-equipped facilities can enter a simple VFR flight plan into the system from point A to point B, but only FDIO-equipped positions can enter more complicated flight plans.