Filing Flight Plans:Where & How

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Hari Pammal

Filing Flight Plan
Joined
May 30, 2018
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hari2000
Hey All,

Student pilot with a few solo hours, preparing for my solo XC. I've done one XC with the instructor & the 2nd one is on saturday.

The first time, he kinda filed the FP via his 'App' & we called flight services on the radio. Everything happened so fast, am still trying to catch up. Filling out the silly antiquated nav-log is stressing me out quite a bit.

What's the best way to file a flight plan ?
Can it be done online (free/paid) ?
Is there an easy way to fill/calculate nav-logs, using the damn slide rule is giving me the shivers.
I have some reservations about coughing up $550 for an Ipad & $100 for Foreflight

Any advice & explanation is much appreciated. (Noob level knowledge)
 
This is something you should really go back,to,your CFI and have him explain the possible ways it can be done. It should be explained to where you understand.
 
A few websites are available for flight planning and filing for free. A couple of them are:
1800wxbrief.com is a portal to the current flight service contractor. Weather info along with flight planning.
Fltplan.com has been around for many years as a flight planing/filing tool with some weather data.

Either website requires registration for log-in. Aircraft performance data is required for flight planning.
 
Clark1961 said:
A few websites are available for flight planning and filing for free. A couple of them are:
1800wxbrief.com is a portal to the current flight service contractor. Weather info along with flight planning.
Fltplan.com has been around for many years as a flight planing/filing tool with some weather data.

Either website requires registration for log-in. Aircraft performance data is required for flight planning.
Click to expand...

Thank you sir, will try them both out.
 
Minus IFR or international ops I don't file, but if you must fltplan.com is probably the most used by the pros who file their own.
 
Learn to do it using "the damn slide rule" since you'll be expected to demonstrate your ability to do it, and your understanding of what you're doing.

When simple math and measurements no longer give you "the shivers" you can move on to other options. In the end, if you don't (or barely) understand the output, it is foolish to trust a digital mumbo jumbo device.

As for filing a flight plan, there is a really easy device you may understand well. It's called a telephone. the number is something like 1-800-WXBRIEF. You are competent in the use of a telephone, right?

Call them and ask for a full briefing and to file the flight plan from xyz to 123. No subscription required.
 
@Hari Pammal
Ravioli said:
Call them and ask for a full briefing and to file the flight plan from xyz to 123. No subscription required.
Click to expand...
When you call, remind the briefer that you are a student pilot. This will get them to slow down a bit and explain things a bit more.
 
Ravioli said:
Learn to do it using "the damn slide rule" since you'll be expected to demonstrate your ability to do it, and your understanding of what you're doing.
Click to expand...

Sitting in planes older than I am along with learning technology that was outdated before I graduated H.S. was frustrating. But learning this way helps when everything else fails and more importantly, helped with raising the level of multi tasking required. Especially when it came to IFR.
 
Remember, even Vulcan science officers knew how to use them.

Mr.%2BSpock.jpg
 
Hari Pammal said:
What's the best way to file a flight plan ?
Can it be done online (free/paid) ?
Is there an easy way to fill/calculate nav-logs, using the damn slide rule is giving me the shivers.
Click to expand...

Many free websites will produce a navlog for you. Skyvector.com is one of them.

As others have noticed, however, this is something that you should learn to do manually. You'll need this skill for your written knowledge test. And you may be asked to demonstrate it during the oral part of your checkride. Also, during the practical test, you will have to fill several boxes on the navlog and maybe even do a few slide-rule calculations.

However you prepare your navlog, do not show up for your checkride with a navlog printout from a website. Find a nice blank form and fill it out yourself. Learning how to do it, is a valuable experience. You get to apply in practice a lot of theoretical knowledge.

As for filling a flight plan, again as others have suggested, you may use the 1000wxbrief.com website. Sign up for it -- it's free. This is also a valid source for weather briefings, which you will also need for your checkride.

Good luck.
 
I always wonder when I see these whining posts about rental avionics why the person didn’t just rent something with a nicer panel. Or buy their own airplane and outfit it exactly how they wanted it.
 
Other benefits to using the 800wxbrief.com website.

Once registered and your pilot profile properly filled out, their caller ID system will recognize you are calling and use that data to provide much of the initial data the briefer needs to know.

If you have the standard our outlook brief on your screen when you call, tell the briefer that. They are looking at the same detail as they talk to you. Plus, If you get a friendly briefer, they will tell you which tab they are viewing and walk you through how they are interpreting the info.
 
@Hari Pammal ... some of the different textbooks for private pilot have really good write ups on accomplishing what you want to do.

Rod Machado's Private Pilot handbook is one.

Bob Gardner's The Complete Private Pilot is another.
 
denverpilot said:
I always wonder when I see these whining posts about rental avionics why the person didn’t just rent something with a nicer panel. Or buy their own airplane and outfit it exactly how they wanted it.
Click to expand...
Nate might be on to something... instead of telling prospective students they can obtain their PPL for 8.5 to 9.5 AMUs, I'll change it to 145 AMU's and the deal includes a decent airplane with current gen Nav-comm and some other glass items:cool::cool::rolleyes:
 
AggieMike88 said:
Nate might be on to something... instead of telling prospective students they can obtain their PPL for 8.5 to 9.5 AMUs, I'll change it to 145 AMU's and the deal includes a decent airplane with current gen Nav-comm and some other glass items:cool::cool::rolleyes:
Click to expand...

It’s what the Cirrus certified instructors do! LOL.

I can’t think of an instructor who wouldn’t happily fly in the nicest whiz bang paneled airplane anyone wants to rent... and cover up most of the panel on them anyway.

Evil bastards we all are, and all. Making the poor dears use a compass and a stopwatch. Horrible people We should be shunned. :) :) :)
 
denverpilot said:
Evil bastards we all are, and all. Making the poor dears use a compass and a stopwatch. Horrible people We should be shunned. :) :) :)
Click to expand...
Careful, else your rejoinder to me my reply of "Luxury! My instructor mad me figure it all out with a stopped up hourglass and an uncalibrated sundial with a bent prong" will start sounding like a certain MP routine.

TJ: Well we had it tough. We used to have to get up out of the shoebox at twelve o'clock at night, and LICK the road clean with our tongues. We had half a handful of freezing cold gravel, worked twenty-four hours a day at the mill for fourpence every six years, and when we got home, our Dad would slice us in two with a bread knife.

EI: Right. I had to get up in the morning at ten o'clock at night, half an hour before I went to bed, (pause for laughter), drink a cup of sulphuric acid, work twenty-nine hours a day down mill, and pay mill owner for permission to come to work, and when we got home, our Dad and our mother would kill us, and dance about on our graves singing 'Hallelujah.'

MP: But you try and tell the young people today that... and they won't believe ya'.​

ALL: Nope, nope..​
 
At the end of my private pilot oral exam, the DPE had me call 1-800-WX-BRIEF for a briefing for the cross-country flight that I had planned. In the middle of the route, the briefer told me that VFR flight was not advised, so I explained that it was for a check ride and we would not actually get anywhere near that far. From that point forward he mostly gave me a pep talk for the check ride. Thinking back on that, I should go back to filing my IFR flight plans by telephone. I've never had a bad experience when I've spoken with Flight Service, in the air or on the ground.

As others have said, develop the skills to plan a flight without using any electronic device other than those necessary to obtain weather information along your route (winds aloft, surface winds, and cloud conditions to ensure you can complete the flight VFR). No matter your level of confidence in technology, I doubt that you would be comfortable entrusting your life to a black box algorithm that you have no way to cross-check. Once you learn how to do these things by yourself, you will be equipped to catch flight planning errors either made by the algorithm or resulting from data entry errors on your part.

Non-flying analogy: Put your destination into the maps app on your phone and ask it for driving directions. Now imagine that it directs you to turn left when you know you need to go right or it sends you down a dark alley that is too narrow for your vehicle. Your ability to navigate the car without the app allows you to understand when you put in the wrong address or the app misinterpreted the address or had incorrect street data. Without that ability, you would have to choose between trusting the app and getting lost or distrusting it but having fear instead of knowledge and a solution.

Real-life flying example: A pilot flying a twin on a cross-country trip stopped for fuel in Flagstaff, AZ. He or his copilot (one passenger was a certificated pilot) had a new portable GPS unit that they were using for navigation. Among many, many other mistakes that day, they looked at their destination airport on the sectional (KTDW, near Amarillo, TX) and saw that it has lighting and its longest runway is 5100 feet long, indicated by "*L 51" next to the other airport information presented on the sectional chart. They put "L51" into the GPS as their destination, then blindly followed the GPS's instructions to turn North toward the tiny Heller airport in northern Montana. Next thing you know, they crashed into the side of a mountain in Colorado because they were flying at an altitude appropriate for the trip from Flagstaff to Amarillo, well below the terrain in western Colorado.

The lesson I take from that is to know how to plan everything by hand and then to use electronic tools to assist me in my planning, rather than blindly trusting an electronic tool to catch data entry errors or to have both all of the available information and an algorithm to utilize all of the available information to make good decisions for me. And I try to keep those skills sharp by (a) constantly doing at least a little flight planning for trips I may never take and (b) occasionally planning and executing a cross-country flight without using any electronic tools (other than to obtain weather information).
 
I'm going to share with you how I do it, so in the future, after you have your ticket, this will make your life easier. But for the meantime, you NEED to learn to use the phone/radio/paper nav log for these things.

Some DPEs allow students to do everything on their electronics. My DPE, however, (in April of this year) told me to do the nav log on paper. Good thing I practiced this a lot with my CFI so I nailed it on the CR.
Ever since I've been using the gadgets, but I would not panic if sh*t hit the fan and all my electronics were dead and I had to do it the old fashion way. You need every single tool you can have in your toolbox when it comes to aviation.

I log in online for 1800wxbrief and fill out the new flight plan, then I click on request briefing. You can select if you want the briefing now or if the trip is in a few days, you can schedule the briefing to be emailed to you prior to your trip. Also, this website allows you to register your phone and on the day of your trip, about 30 minutes prior to your scheduled departure time, the system sends you a text message. During run-up, when I am certain that the trip is a go, I click on the link in the text message and that activates my flight plan (this way I don't need to change frequency to call FS to activate the plan). Upon landing, I get another text message that reminds me to close the flight plan. In addition, you can select to receive text alerts of any Airmets or TFRs that may pop up on the day of your trip.

Prior to my trip, I always call flight service. Since I have a plan on file, I don't need to give the briefer lots of info, I just give him/her the tail number and they can pull up my current flight plan. Even though I get the wx briefing via email, I like to listen to them give me the briefing and if something is not clear they can explain. (besides, this way I will be on record that I requested the briefing, so if anything happens (I'm paranoid this way) one more thing to cover my a$$ and show the FAA how safe and sensible a pilot I am by requesting a briefing... :p

BUT, like others have said, you need to learn to use the less-technical way of doing things 'cause one day you may end up at an airport with spotty cell reception or with your phone battery dead and you need to know how to use the radio to call flight service to activate/close the plan.

If you use Fltplan, you need to give Fltplan authorization (via email) so they can file the plan on your behalf. Extra steps that you don't need to worry about right now... and I am not sure that flight service will have access to this plan, so you may still end up giving all the info to the briefer (date, time, ac color, fuel on board, SOB, etc, etc...)
 
Hari Pammal said:
Hey All,

Student pilot with a few solo hours, preparing for my solo XC. I've done one XC with the instructor & the 2nd one is on saturday.

The first time, he kinda filed the FP via his 'App' & we called flight services on the radio. Everything happened so fast, am still trying to catch up. Filling out the silly antiquated nav-log is stressing me out quite a bit.

What's the best way to file a flight plan ?
Can it be done online (free/paid) ?
Is there an easy way to fill/calculate nav-logs, using the damn slide rule is giving me the shivers.
I have some reservations about coughing up $550 for an Ipad & $100 for Foreflight

Any advice & explanation is much appreciated. (Noob level knowledge)
Click to expand...
Hey there, welcome to POA. Like others have said, several ways to file a flight plan. Some advice though, don't shy away from things that seem "silly and antiquated". While it might seem that way, having a good knowledge base of the "old way" will make you a stronger and more well rounded pilot. Don't let it rattle you. And for the love of God, please to do allow yourself to become one of the "children of the magenta line"
 
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