Flight planning is far more than plotting wind triangles and calculating ground speed. Such calculations are an important part of navigation and are one element of flight planning, but flight planning encompasses far more. Choices and preparation are the essence of flight planning. You must choose among the many alternative routes, methods of navigation, altitudes, checkpoints, and other possibilities for your flight, and you must prepare for the demands of the flight, eventualities foreseen and unforeseen. You must understand the terrain and airspace through which you will be flying and you must inform yourself of the sources of assistance available to you in flight. The following is one reasonable model for thinking through those choices and preparing for the tasks that are part of every flight.
Prior to any cross country flight, the student pilot should be competent to fly the airplane within the limits of the WCFC student pilot weather minima; he should have had instruction in airport traffic pattern practices, in radio procedures, in the use of flight following and Flight Service, the reading and use of the sectional chart, in pilotage, reckoning, and basic radio navigation, in control of the airplane on instruments, and probably some experience in night flight. Furthermore, he should be familiar with the function and operation of every control and device in the airplane, including but not limited to basic fuel and engine management, carburetor icing and carburetor heat, the electrical system, the audio panel, the proper adjustment of squelch for the intercom and radios, the heating and vent controls, and all aircraft lighting interior and exterior.
WELL IN ADVANCE OF THE FLIGHT
Assemble charts (sectionals) and check each for currency. The sectional is the basic VFR navigation chart. Other specialized charts have their place, but you will work primarily with the sectional for the area in which you intend to fly. Electronic charts are gradually supplementing and may eventually replace paper charts, but caution suggests that every flight should have aboard the appropriate charts in paper form.
- Consult
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Airport & Facility Directory. The club keeps a desk copy for reference. You may want to purchase your own. These are also available in electronic form.
- Consider
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Other sources of information (AOPA USA, NC DOT chart, flight guides, etc. These are unofficial, but useful, sources of information on airports and facilities.) Online resources would include airnav.com airnav.com, which includes much of the information available in the AFD supplemented by non-regulatory information on FBOs, lodgings, and other resources.
Locate departure and destination airports on the sectional. (You can refer to coordinates or the VOR waypoint in the A/F Directory to locate any airport.)
Make preliminary estimate of time and fuel to check feasibility of flight
No leg may be longer than approximately 1:50 in a Cessna 152 to satisfy club student pilot cross-country fuel minimums. [For licensed pilots, the club requirement of at least one hour reserve fuel would suggest flight planning for no more than approximately 02:45.] Calculate a rough "no-wind" time for your proposed leg to see if it is feasible. Remember that your actual time must allow for wind, climb, descent and imponderables.
Plot proposed or plausible course on the chart, considering navigation and airspace.
Begin with a straight line, direct route, and then consider whether you have reason to select other than a direct route. You might wish to avoid certain airspace or avoid topological features, such as mountains, or a large body of water. You might wish to alter your route to avail yourself of navigational possibilities – a VOR radial, or a prominent route or series of landmarks for pilotage, such as a highway or railroad or river.
AIRPORT PLANNING
Familiarize yourself with departure and destination airport information:
Departure airport
Familiarize yourself with the taxiway and runway layout, the applicable frequencies (including one or more of the following frequencies: ATIS, clearance delivery, ground, tower, departure, FSS), and all procedures for departure. Acquire an airport diagram if necessary. (Sources include the AOPA directory, the NC DOT chart, or an instrument approach chart.)
Be aware of what type of airspace contains the departure airport and what types of airspace you will be traversing as you depart. Understand equipment, qualification, and weather requirements for those airspace types.
Determine how you will open your VFR flightplan when you depart – what frequency will you use and to which Flight Service Station will you address yourself.
Destination airport
Study the airport location. Is it N, S, E, or W of a town or city? Is it on a highway or a river? How will you identify it as you approach? What landmarks will help you pick it out of the murk and what landmarks will uniquely identify it as your destination?
Be aware of what types of airspace surround and include the destination airport and understand the requirements implied by that airspace for equipment, qualifications, and weather.
Is the destination served by an ATC approach facility? Is radar service mandatory? Is the destination a controlled field with a control tower? Is the tower in operation twenty-four hours? If not, will it be in operation when you arrive? If not, what is the CTAF? Study the frequencies for the destination, and rehearse your progress after landing from touchdown to parking, including one or more of the following frequencies: approach, tower, ground, unicom, CTAF.
Acquire and study a taxiway and runway layout for the destination airport, if necessary. If it is a simple uncontrolled field with a straightforward runway layout, at least visualize the airport and runway orientation and layout so it will seem familiar as you approach and after you land.
Assess available runways at your destination airport, including length, width, grade, obstructions, lighting, and glidepath guidance such as PAPI or VASI. Make a preliminary assessment of takeoff and landing distances at your departure and destination airports. Actual calculations will require wind conditions at times of departure and arrival. (required by 91.103)
Consider where you will go when you land. At a controlled field, ground control will want to know your destination on the field after you land. Consider which FBO you will use and where it is located on the field. (If you have no idea, simply tell ground that you want to taxi to “the general aviation ramp.”) At a simple uncontrolled field, you will simply taxi to the ramp area.
Consider how you will close your VFR flight plan after you land – on the radio as you approach or by telephone after you land. Note before departure with which Flight Service Stations you will both open and close your VFR flight plan and on what frequencies. If you have any doubt, ask the Flight Service Briefer when you file your flight plan.
ENROUTE PLANNING
Choose your primary method of navigation for each leg (dead reckoning, pilotage, or radio navigation). Plot a route, whether via pilotage route (river, highway, railway, etc.), direct via ded reckoning, or via airways, or VOR radials. Choose and mark checkpoints along the route. (Ideal checkpoints will be separated by 10-25 miles and will be visually distinct, with corroborating landmarks.)
Determine the true course of each leg if appropriate for your means of navigation. Further calculations of true heading, magnetic heading, and compass heading must wait until just prior to the flight when forecast winds aloft become available.
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Study enroute airspace
Identify class B, C, D, MOA, restricted, prohibited, military routes, etc. and plan how you will transit the airspace.
For planning and emergency reference, note the maximum elevation of obstacles along your route and maximum elevation figures within the latitude/longitude grids along your route.
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Choose a range of suitable altitudes, based on:
VFR East/West altitudes, obstacle and terrain clearance, terrain considerations (higher over water, mountains, cities, at night), likely winds (higher for favorable winds, lower for unfavorable), communication, distance (time to climb). These factors will remain constant and can be evaluated in advance. Your final selection will be a compromise of all those factors with the weather prevailing at the time of your flight.
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Assemble sources of WX information available to you in the airplane:
FSS, EFAS, Atis at terminals and en route, HIWAS
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Assemble sources of advisories and emergency navigation assistance along route and at terminals:
TRACON frequencies, Center frequencies (source IFR charts, IAP, A/F Directory), FSS frequencies
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Alternate airport
Select one or more alternate airports. These should be suitable airports to which you can divert in event of fuel shortage, weather, or personal concern. Note, at minimum, for these airports communication frequencies, runways, locations, and useful navaids. Be able to locate them quickly on your chart.
Review emergency procedures, particularly sources of assistance. Review the five C’s for lost procedures: confess (to yourself) / climb / communicate / comply / conserve.
THE DAY BEFORE (in advance of) THE FLIGHT
Obtain an outlook WX briefing, including notams. Reconsider the practicality of the flight in terms of winds, route, altitudes, surface winds at departure and destination, time and fuel planning.
ON THE DAY OF THE FLIGHT
Use a flight planning form of your choice or simply a sheet of paper to record the following flight planning information . . .
Obtain a standard WX briefing. (See WX briefing instructions.)
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Record the weather for:
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departure airport (current and forecast weather)
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en route (forecast)
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destination airport(s) (current and forecast)
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winds aloft (and temperatures) for 3-6-9 thousand feet (forecast)
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large-scale weather systems (the synopsis, aka "big picture")
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For each leg of the flight:
Choose an altitude, based on winds aloft and weather, as well as prior concerns.
Calculate true airspeed. Use the performance chart or graph in the POH or use a realistic estimate based on experience.
For each ded reckoning leg, perform the necessary calculations of compass heading and groundspeed.
Calculate your compass heading according to the following formula and explanation. True course plus or minus wind correction angle gives true heading; true heading plus or minus magnetic variation gives magnetic heading; magnetic heading plus or minus compass deviation gives compass heading, which is the heading you will want to see on your compass and heading indicator as you actually fly the course.
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True course +/- wind correction angle = true heading +/- magnetic variation = magnetic heading +/- compass deviation = compass heading
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TC +/- WCA = TH +/- MV = MH +/- CD = CH
From your true course and your forecast winds aloft, calculate your true heading.
Add or subtract magnetic variation, determined by the isogonic line nearest your route, to or from your true heading to calculate your magnetic heading.
If you know which airplane you will be flying and can observe its compass correction card, you can add or subtract compass deviation to or from your magnetic heading to calculate your compass heading – the direction you will actually fly as indicated on your compass and heading indicator. You may also make this final adjustment to your magnetic heading as you fly.
Calculate ground speed.
Calculate flight time and fuel burn.
The most precise calculations will be obtained by considering the climb, cruise, and descent segments of the flight as separate calculations and summing the resulting times and fuel burns – but this is overkill for a simple, Part 91 flight in a training airplane at low altitudes.
For a rule of thumb, figure the time from point A to point B at cruise speed, then add 1 minute for each 500 feet of climb to cruise (assumes a 500 fpm climb). Calculate fuel burn at cruise rate. (This works for the fuel burn because it is so conservative in the climb. You are adding the time it takes to climb to cruise, but you are discounting the forward motion made in that time — since you have already included it in the Point A to B time.)
Or, suggested by Kershner: calculate cruise time from Point A to Point B and add 2/3 minute per thousand feet for fixed gear and 1/2 minute per thousand feet for single retractable or light twin. This will give you a reasonable estimate of the time — but you must add something to the fuel burn for the higher fuel consumption burned in the climb.
Subject your calculations to the reasonableness test.
Knowing your expected time of arrival (ETA) calculate landing and takeoff distances for the expected runways at your departure and destination airports using the forecast surface winds.
Fill out a flight plan form and have it ready when you call Flight Service.
Call FSS for an abbreviated (update) briefing on WX and file your flight plan. When you file, ask with whom should you open and on what frequency.
Assemble your charts and fold them for best use. Have handy a pencil for writing on charts and a pen, if you prefer, for other work. Have handy a clipboard, lapboard, kneepad, or some sort of writing pad on which to record frequencies, weather or other information. Assemble other necessary gear: a flashlight, AFD, other charts, where you can reach it. Make certain you have the WCFC telephone number and your instructor’s telephone number.
On the flight:
Open your flight plan as soon as reasonable.
It is imperative early in the flight to get an accurate ground speed check. Confirming planned ground speed early on will alert you to be psychologically prepared for a possible fuel stop if your ground speed is slower than planned. The discipline of using your prepared flight log form will assist in speed and fuel burn awareness. Remember: if there is any reason to suspect low fuel, do not press on into your reserve, but land at the nearest airport regardless of whether the FBO may have closed and do not take off until you have fueled the airplane.
Update your WX information with FSS if the weather is at all fluid or of concern, particularly if you are not availing yourself of flight following. Use flight following even if you have filed a VFR flight plan, particularly around Class B and C airspace, at night, where navigation is uncertain, where visibility is reduced, or where traffic is heavy. Try to use it on at least one leg of your flight if only to practice working with ATC and improve your radio skills and professionalism.
Close your flight plan
Refuel at every stop. Get a new weather briefing at every stop. Recalculate magnetic heading if necessary. Feel free to call the club or call your instructor if you have any uncertainty about the airplane or the weather or procedures.
Relax. Have a great time. This is why you wanted to fly. Enjoy it. You are an Emperor of the Air. Don’t forget to look at the river and the highways and the valleys and the horses and cows and the pigs and the chickens now and then. Pet the airport dog.
Cross country preparation checklist:
- Charts
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sectional(s); facility directory; destination airport diagrams
- Weather
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departure, destination & enroute (current and forecast); clouds and visibility; surface winds; winds aloft; alternate airports; notams
- Airspace
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departure, en route, destination
- Route planning
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magnetic heading or radio navigation checked for plausibility; appropriate altitude; time en route; fuel consumption
- Destination
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airport diagram; FBO or ramp location; availability of fuel
- VFR Flight Plan
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Filed; with which FSS to open and on what frequency; how to close Sources of en route weather information: Flight Service Station frequencies; Flight Watch; ATIS and AWOS/ASOS frequencies VFR Flight Following and sources of navigational assistance: ATC agencies serving departure, en route, and destination
- Required endorsements
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Solo endorsement (current in previous ninety days); specific cross country endorsement, night endorsement if applicable
- Required documents
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Aircraft documents and pilot documents (student pilot and medical certificate; logbook)
| This article was written by George Scheer (george.scheer@gmail.com) and is reproduced here with his permission. |