Flight Following?

[CLM2OldTimer]

Old timer here based out of Leamington Ontario (Southern Ontario (CLM2)) and I have only ever flown around locally. Largest airspace I fly into is Windsor but I do that frequently enough to be comfortable.

I want to take a trip up to Collingwood later this summer but have no idea how to get flight following and so on. Any tips? What is involved? Are they decent to work with?

I plan on filing away from any major centers. Basically if I fly a straight line I shouldn't have much to worry about other than local traffic at any airports I go over, but still thinking flight following is a good idea?

[Broken Slinky]

Up to Collingwood may be an issue to keep flight following. You may get dropped once you're out of the busier airspace. Not that the route from Leamington to Collingwood is anything near busy.
When you're in the air, call Cleveland Center to pick up flight following. If you're passed Chatham closer to London, call London Approach and they'll hopefully provide flight following.
Basically call Center or Approach and say your call sign and that you have a request. When you get a response tell them you want flight following with your position, course, destination and altitude. They'll have you change your transponder code and most like squawk it.
Shoot me a message and I can get you the name of a guy in Leamington that would be more than happy to go up with you and help out with flight following. Even pop over to Windsor first and then you'll get a really good handle on how to do flight following.

[photofly]

It's one of those things that sounds much more frightening that it is.

Some phraseology to help you:
According to the one instrument approach plate for CLM2, you should probably contact Detroit on 134.3 in the Leamington area. If that's not the right frequency they will tell you who to contact. Possibly Cleveland Center on 132.25.

Some phraseology to help you:
You: "Detroit Approach, GABC, Cessna 172 VFR"
ATC: "GABC Detroit Approach"
You: "GABC, Leamington, VFR to Collingwood 3500, request radar service"
ATC: "GABC... squawk 1234 and ident"
You: "GABC" <set squawk and press ident>
ATC: "GABC Radar identified, 3500, Detroit altimeter setting is 2987"

...10 minutes passes....

ATC says to you:
"GABC, traffic is a PC12 at 2 o'clock, three miles, 500 above, westbound"

You say:
"GABC looking for traffic"
if/when you see it:
"GABC traffic in sight"

Leaving one controller's area he/she will tell you to contact another:
"GABC contact Toronto Terminal 128.275"

If for example you are at 3500' you would say:
"GABC 128.275"
<you change frequency>
"Toronto Terminal GABC 3500"

If leaving radar coverage ATC would say something like:
"GABC radar contact lost, services terminate, cleared enroute frequencies"
You say:
"GABC"
Then switch to 126.7 or whatever frequency is appropriate to the area.

Do's/don'ts:

Don't hit the IDENT button unless asked to.

When changing frequencies do give a new controller your altitude so he can verify your Mode C is calibrated. Don't tell him anything else unless asked, the information about what aircraft type you are and where you're going is already on his screen.

Do acknowledge an instruction to change frequency on the old frequency before checking in on the new one.

The controller is a professional paid (by you!) to assist you to do what you want to do in the air. They are generally very pleasant people even when you don't sound entirely confident on the radio, and often especially then. Enjoy the service they offer!

[Shiny Side Up]

Don't hit the squawk button unless asked to.

Just for clarity, there is no Squawk button, I assume you're referring to the ident button. I bring this up since while I don't think you're confused, a lot of pilots are confused about the difference between the instruction to "SQUAWK" and the instruction "SQUAWK IDENT" usually assuming that the former means the latter.

in the end if you make that mistake though, its important to realize that its not the end of the world, that plenty of people make mistakes talking to controllers, and if you're on terminal, arrivals or departures for any length of time you will hear the big iron guys do enough screw ups, and the world doesn't end when they do. That said, still endeavor to do stuff right.

I don't know Chewie! Just fly casual!

[photofly]

yes IDENT button, not squawk button :-/

[.Ben]

I've got a noob question regarding flight following, how do you know what frequency to use to request flight following? During training I flew north bay to Ottawa and we called up London Radio on the FISE frequency and said we were VFR CYYB to CYSB and we were looking for a frequency for flight following, they said "alright try xxx.xx or xxx.xx" we did and everything went as described in the previous posts.

Is there a better way to know what Freq to try?

[photofly]

You can look at an approach plate for a nearby airport; they list at the top left the frequency of the controller responsible for the instrument approaches in that area. It would usually be the same person to speak to for flight following.

[5x5]

Is there a better way to know what Freq to try?

.Ben, what you did is pretty much the best/easiest way. As a noob you likely don't have access to approach charts in the first place but you certainly should know the frequency to reach FISE. And it's quite likely if you were to contact a frequency off an approach chart you may well get instructed to use a different centre frequency.

[photofly]

And it's quite likely if you were to contact a frequency off an approach chart you may well get instructed to use a different centre frequency.

That's often true, but the approach controller is going to know the correct frequency and not have to hunt around for it. Sometimes FIC staff can't find any frequency, and when they do you can't reach it, and if you can reach it then it's the wrong frequency. This way you can skip straight to step 3.

[HiLo]

A few things I've done when not knowing what frequency to call up for following:

1. If on airport traffic frequency (and it's not Burlington on a Saturday afternoon): call Unicom and ask or just say "traffic on [frequency], this is C-FXYZ. Does anyone know who to call for flight following out of here?"

Someone is usually happy to help. The same can be done on an FSS frequency/126.7

2. If near a control zone, call up the tower and ask assuming they're not busy.

Some people will chew me out on this for wasting "valuable airtime," but if the frequency isn't busy, who cares? Most people won't mind helping you out.