Quote:
Originally Posted by crazynut52  We had a pilot fly into our airport last week, who was on flight following and lost contact with center before landing. He then called them on the phone to tell them he was landed, and they said there was no need to call. It was my understanding that you must cancel flight following once you either have the airport in sight or land? So if Center lost you from radar and radio, would they send search parties after 1/2 hour, or is that only with a flight plan. |
If it's just flight following, 99% of controllers won't even bat an eye at you going off freq or off the scope. Flight plan, however, different story.
E time plus 30 minues and the phones start ringing all over the place wondering where you are. They don't automatically send out search parties though. That takes a bit longer. First they call every place along your route. Towers, tracons, centers, etc where you could have/should have flown through/by. Then they might call any additional phone numbers they have for maybe the FBO you flew out of/in to. Then they send out an ALNOT, then things could get more serious.
A little light reading for you:
http://www.faa.gov/ATPubs/ATC/Chp10/atc1003.html