For the FlightSpan™ Flight Following features to function, your aircraft must be equipped with the v2track asset monitoring and communication system.
Before the First Flight
Prior to the first flight, authorize the iPad to connect with the v2 tracker.
Before Takeoff
The v2 tracker requires a couple of minutes to boot up after powering on. Once boot up is complete, connect your iPad to the tracker via Bluetooth.
Open iPad Settings/Bluetooth and tap on the appropriate v2 tracker. The first time you pair an iPad with a v2track unit, you will have to enter the Bluetooth pairing code of 0000.
If the FlightSpan™ aircraft and the installed v2 tracker’s ID’s don’t match, you will get a warning. Change aircraft on the DFR tab to match; otherwise your weight and balance calculations and flight following information will be wrong.
Note: Only one iPad at a time can connect to the v2 tracker.
On the Depart – Flight Following tab, the Trip Manifest will be prefilled with aircraft weight, center of gravity, passenger count, and fuel data from the W&B tab, and altitude from the Nav tab for the current flight leg.
Note that the passenger count reads the number of seats with occupants on the W&B tab and does not account for lap children—adjust the POB as necessary for lap children.
Tap Send to send the trip manifest via the connected v2 tracker.
The app will automatically switch to the TakeOff Performance tab. The Flight Following status will change to Manifest SENT when the Trip Manifest has been successfully transmitted to the v2Track servers.
On the Flight Following tab, the blue Send button will change to a green Resend button.
If you need to cancel the takeoff, tap the blue (Cancel Flight) link. If you select Yes, a v2Track cancellation message will be sent.
In Flight
From the Map tab, tap the Send ETAs button to send your ETAs via the v2 tracker.
Note that the v2track web interface will have ETAs for your aircraft immediately after departure, but they are purely time-speed-distance computations and will be inaccurate while your aircraft is still in a climb. Using the Send ETAs button will send your Smart ETAs to the flight follower monitoring the v2track website.
A confirmation message will pop up. If you tap Yes, the ETAs will be sent, and the message recorded on the Message tab.
After Landing
FlightSpan™ will automatically switch to the Arrival – Post Landing tab when it senses that the aircraft has landed.
Tap the On The Ground button to send the on the ground report via the v2 tracker.
The calculator will open with the estimated landing fuel prefilled. Enter the actual fuel remaining and tap Done.
The On the Ground button will change to yellow Sending, then to green OTG Sent when confirmation is received from the tracker that the message was successfully received by the v2Track servers.
Flight Monitoring Advisory Alerts
Automatic Monitor
This v2track feature checks the aircraft’s speed and location in relation to your v2track runway database.
It sends alerts if:
- The aircraft lands at a location not in your runway database, or
- If the last transmission was received while traveling at speed between runways
In this example, the alert on the v2track website indicates that NPC6E landed 9 miles southeast of the Eipomek runway.
Note: The Automatic Monitor feature is not available in the USA or New Zealand.
Manual FlightWatch
Manual FlightWatch is manually activated and generates loss-of-tracking alerts if the tracker stops sending data for a specified period (e.g. 10 minutes) when Manual FlightWatch is active. If you desire flight monitoring advisory alerts in the USA or New Zealand, you must use Manual FlightWatch.
Manual FlightWatch is generally more comprehensive alerting than the Automatic Monitor, as it can detect incidents on takeoff and landing (if power is lost to the tracker), and is recommended for use in all countries. However, it does require pilot activation and deactivation. (When using FlightSpan™, activation and deactivation is integrated into the normal workflow and is accomplished automatically when sending trip manifests and on the ground reports.)
For manual activation of FlightWatch through FlightSpan™, set the Company EFB Preference to Yes.
Manual FlightWatch will be activated by sending the FlightSpan™ trip manifest, and will be deactivated by reporting on the ground.
- When Manual FlightWatch is active and FlightSpan™ is connected to the v2 tracker, the v2 status cluster and the box will be green
- When Manual FlightWatch is active and FlightSpan™ is attempting to connect to the v2 tracker the v2 status cluster and the box will be yellow
- When Manual FlightWatch is active and FlightSpan™ initially loses connection to the v2 tracker the box is gray (FlightSpan™ will automatically try to reconnect to the tracker and when it does the box will turn yellow)
- When Manual FlightWatch is deactivated, the box disappears
Manual FlightWatch alerts will be visible to anyone logged into the v2track website.
Note: It’s important to properly configure alerts on the v2track website. See the v2track Use With FlightSpan™ documentation for details.