N639DL

So there are some tails that I track on FlightAware occasionally. One of them is a 757 that is listed as stored (N656DL). It last operated a BWI-ATL flight and that's all FlightAware shows.

Also I was glancing around at the 744 fleet. N670US arrived at NRT 2 weeks ago and doesn't show anything else on FlightAware. I know the cabin mods were done already (and IIRC this frame was the first one done) but is this bird in SIN for a check or other maintenance?

I'm just wondering if FlightAware doesn't pick up on ferry flights to another airport when the plane is heading there for MX or storage. I doubt DL would let one 744 sit in NRT for 2 weeks, it would make a lot more sense if they rotated spare a/c out instead of letting one be the special spare.

Cany anyone provide any insight to whether FlightAware picks up ferry for MX trips or when an a/c is heading to storage?

mnbp

Not an expert with FlightAware, but FA had N670US on a direct NRT-QPG (SIN) ferry flight shortly after its last revenue flight into NRT (didn't make a note whether this ferry flight was 13Feb or 14Feb, but it was shortly after its 12Feb arrival in NRT). My observation of FA is that it tends to drop "airport xxx" to "non-US airport" ferry flights several hours after the flight's completion - perhaps if there's no "transaction" from the US FAA, the airline or the airport that FA picks up as "completing" the flight. FA's FAQ describes "primary" and "secondary" service areas:
http://flightaware.com/about/faq#intl
My observation is that ferry flights terminating in FA's "secondary" service area tend to disappear from FA several hours after arrival.

Contrast this with N665US, which operated revenue flight DL 295 NRT-PVG on 24Feb and is still in PVG (taking the place of N675NW which was in PVG from 3Feb to 25Feb). FA has N665US's NRT-PVG flight saved - perhaps because as a revenue flight there was an "Arrived" transaction that FA picked up upon, helping FA to know the flight actually took place.

Flightstats is a cool site to see "transactions" that sites like FA must use to derive their displays - check out the Event Timeline tab, and compare flights arriving in FA's "primary" service area to flights in what FA calls their "secondary" service area - the transaction sources are quite different (compare a DL flight into SIN with a DL flight arriving in a US airport, for example).

skidv25

Generally, FlightAware doesn't pick up on ferry flights to/from storage. I don't know the reasoning behind this. Regarding ship 656, it's stored in MZJ right now. A bunch of the stored 757s are scheduled to be returned to the lessor this year, but I don't think 656 is one of those. Hopefully we will see it fly again...

mnbp

It was interesting to watch N674US on its journey MZJ-PHX-ANC-QPG for the 74S mods via Flightaware. The flights were available during the journey but dropped off of Flightaware a few hours after each flight completed.

...starting at post #542:
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/delta...ng-thread.html