NAT Tracks

coa787

coa787

Unknown Member
Hello everyone. I usually check the daily NAT Tracks online so that I can use them in flight simulator and I've noticed that for some reason, the westbound tracks are not being displayed. If you google search "daily nat tracks", the first and second link should lead you to the same page where it displays the current eastbound and westbound tracks issued by Gander and Shanwick centers. I am not seeing the westbound tracks, only the eastbound. The westbounds for the next day should have been issued by now.

I would really appreciate it if you guys could check those links and tell me if you're having the same problem, or if anyone knows why this is happening, that would be great too. Thanks.
 
Depending on the winds and proposed volume there may not have been any westbound tracks the last day or so. It does happen from time to time, I work tomorrow night, I'll take a look and see what the story is.
 
Thanks a lot. Let me know what's going on with the tracks.

I do have a question, however. If there are no westbound tracks, how would aircraft fly back to North America?
 
athomeinthesky said:
They would have to go east
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On flightaware.com, they show flights coming in from Europe flying over the Atlantic. There were westbound Trans-Atlantic flights earlier today, but there were no westbound tracks.:confused:

...And before anyone says that flightaware may have shown false information, I saw some of those flights overflying my house.
 
coa787 said:
On flightaware.com, they show flights coming in from Europe flying over the Atlantic. There were westbound Trans-Atlantic flights earlier today, but there were no westbound tracks.:confused:

...And before anyone says that flightaware may have shown false information, I saw some of those flights overflying my house.
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I believe he was joking. Europe to North America via Asia and the Pacific Ocean would be the long way don't you think? ;)
 
Nick said:
I believe he was joking. Europe to North America via Asia and the Pacific Ocean would be the long way don't you think? ;)
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Well, I suppose. Maybe they just picked a waypoint in North America and flew directly to it?
 
Sorry I was joking

If I had to take a guess I would say that unlike America, Europe really does shut down for Christmas. If you take alot of the westbound (America) flights away you probably could let the airlines pick direct to where they want (just a guess)
 
athomeinthesky said:
Sorry I was joking

If I had to take a guess I would say that unlike America, Europe really does shut down for Christmas. If you take alot of the westbound (America) flights away you probably could let the airlines pick direct to where they want (just a guess)
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I understand. Maybe you're right. The last westbound track issued by Shanwick was for the 24th.
 
All flights may have used a "random routing", which would be planned by dispatch and given to the crew. I.e. its not so random. These are used daily by aircraft not flying on one of the 5 issued tracks for some reason. This may be because the destination does not go well with the tracks, this is the case for the Iberian Peninsula (BCN, MAD, LIS) as the tracks terminate at 10 west near the UK. The eastbound "daylight flights" also use random routings as they fly against the predominate flow. A random routing is given coordinates every 10 degrees of longitude just like the tracks.
 
OldTownPilot said:
All flights may have used a "random routing", which would be planned by dispatch and given to the crew. I.e. its not so random. These are used daily by aircraft not flying on one of the 5 issued tracks for some reason. This may be because the destination does not go well with the tracks, this is the case for the Iberian Peninsula (BCN, MAD, LIS) as the tracks terminate at 10 west near the UK. The eastbound "daylight flights" also use random routings as they fly against the predominate flow. A random routing is given coordinates every 10 degrees of longitude just like the tracks.
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I think you're right. I've noticed on flightaware that for aircraft using the tracks, it would say "NATY" or "NATX" in their route, but for aircraft using a "random routing", it would just give the coordinates like "4800N 05000W".
 
We use random routes to cross if we're going against the flow of traffic for that time of day (doing charters at odd hours, we do that A LOT). Can't say I've seen a day where a Track message wasn't generated...kinda weird, not sure I can explain that, but you don't need to be on an NAT track to cross the Atlantic.

As a side note, if you're gonna use a random route on MS flight sim, don't forget to give a virtual mid-point wx report to virtual ATC :-)
 
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