Your flight school, through its aircraft rental agreement or other published policies, may require that you file a flight plan for every cross-country flight. Have you ever known anyone who got lost because they hadn't planned the flight very well - or landed gear up because they didn't "need" a checklist? They'd say, "It's all right up here," while pointing at their heads. We've all known pilots who let us know in no uncertain terms that they didn't need a checklist (or a flight plan). It ticks off most of the important things that have to be considered for any flight. View a flight plan as the most significant checklist you ever ran. Those few extra minutes could be the difference between a good outcome and one that isn't so good. It's also your assurance that if something goes amiss, somebody will be looking for you within 30 minutes if you don't show up where and when you said you would. It could also have a significant payout.Ī good flight plan is your ticket to a smooth flight, with no glitches that haven't been at least considered few surprises a way to check your progress and a guarantee that someone will be looking over your shoulder as you fly, taking into account all the details of your route. It's an insurance policy that indicates you've done your homework. What you put down on that form is far more than just more paperwork. It is shown in Figure 5-1-2 of the current Aeronautical Information Manual (AIM) and can be found in the members-only section of AOPA Online. As a pilot, you are required to do all those things before every flight.Īfter you've gone to all that trouble, why not finish the job, and complete that final piece of paperwork? FAA Form 7233-1 is better known as the FAA Flight Plan form, and it hasn't changed for more than 20 years now. The only way that you can really comply with these requirements is to do your homework, develop a plan, and carefully execute what you've planned. "(a) For a flight under IFR or a flight not in the vicinity of an airport, weather reports and forecasts, fuel requirements, alternatives available if the flight cannot be completed, and any known traffic delays of which the pilot in command has been advised by ATC."įAR 91.103 says that the PIC also needs to be familiar with winds, temperatures, takeoff and landing distances, aircraft performance, airport elevations, runway length and slopes, gross weight, etc. "Each pilot in command shall, before beginning a flight, become familiar with all available information concerning that flight. PIC responsibility Paragraph 91.103 of the federal aviation regulations says this under the heading of Preflight Action: It's called FAA Form 7233-1, dated August 1982. There's one more form you should fill out - and it may be the most important of all. Like it or not, there is a lot of paperwork.Īdd to that your own pilot's flight log, stuff on the Internet, weather briefing notes, weight and balance calculations, airport radio frequencies, elevations and diagrams, sectional charts - throw in the en route charts and terminal publications required for flight under instrument flight rules (IFR), and you're probably justified in screaming, "Enough!" Can we go flying now? Is it an almost full-time task to keep track of all the student policies, syllabi, lesson plans, and other government-required training records? Never mind the actual flying. If you're learning to fly at an FAR Part 141 flight school, it may not seem much better. Then there are bid sheets and all the other documentation needed for crews to arrange schedules. For the airlines, there are manifests, schedules, training records, and reports, just on the pilot side. There is a lot of paperwork associated with modern flying. I wonder if they are the same pilots who don't bother to get a weather briefing of any kind before they fly. Recent statistics indicate that more than half of the pilots involved in mishaps did not file a flight plan before the accident flight.
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