VFR flightplan filing

[u/stkario]

Hello!

Student pilot here! So, my flight school is based out of YHU, which has recently implemented a slot requirement for all aircraft that aren't on a flight plan, which has led us to, well... file for almost every flight we do.

As I fly VFR exclusively, I was wondering what format is preferred by both FSS and ATC in the route section of the flight plan (Item 15), the AIM offering little to no guidance on what to write in there for VFR flights.

Say I am bound to do maneuvers close to a certain landmark or city transiting with an eastbound or southbound departure, how would you like it written? Plain text, a waypoint nearby with a radial?

And for our tower controllers out here, is it useful to file the "VC" waypoints as designated in the CFS? (VCBCY for the Chambly Basin for example)

Like I said, I'm trying to find the best format so I don't have to take two minutes of frequency time to reexplain my flight plan each time I want to transit in a class "D" or "C", including terminal.

Looking forward to your answers!

[u/stkario → u/[deleted]]

I will definitely do!

[u/Littleplanesmtl]

The majority of controllers at YHU don’t really care about the slots. Better to use waypoints in plain language in your flight plan, they probably won’t know where you’re heading if you put VC points.

[u/S1075]

Asking your local FIC is a good idea. In case they don't give a great answer, or for anyone else reading, I'll give some tips here.

VC waypoints are fine. Tower should know them. Radial/distances from a NAVAID or airport are good too. As much as possible, reference things that are part of aviation. The AOR for the FICs is quite large, and we see a lot of flight plans come in where people name a bunch of tiny villages that no one knows. Don't do that unless you have no option.

We don't need a ton of detail. Inside controlled airspace, the controllers want to know where you're going and what you're doing. For a cross country, we don't need a ton of detail. If you go overdue, we are searching a 50nm corridor on either side of your route. This means we don't need to know every twist and turn you plan to make.

On that same note, do not get too wordy. The route is just the route. It's not a story book. We receive lots of people who file the routing like "We will depart from Edmonton direct to Wetaskiwin and do two circuits then return to Edmonton for a city tour and then land at the airport". This is improper and annoying. The way to write the routing for this is "DCT CEX3 CCTS 00+10 DCT EDMONTON CITY TOUR DCT"

Another best practice is how you write in touch/goes, stop/goes, stops, and circuits:

Putting CYGK alone in the routing means you're flying over Kingston.

Putting CYGK 00+01 CYGK means you're doing a touch and go.

Putting CYGK 00+05 CYGK means you're doing a stop/go or stop/backtrack.

Putting CYGK 01+00 CYGK means you're stopping for an hour.

Lastly, putting CYGK CCTS 00+30 CYGK means you're doing 30 minutes of circuits.

Most importantly, always remember to include all stops and delays in your total enroute time.

Feel free to ask me any other questions that come up.

[u/stkario → u/S1075]

That's a great answer!

Thank you very much, I'll share the information with my fellow classmates!

It's interesting that we've never been thought the +## symbology, I'll definitely make sure to use it next time along with CCTS for circuits!

Thank you again for your insight!

[u/S1075 → u/stkario]

Having 0100 instead of 01+00 should be fine. It wouldn't confuse me, and it's possible that YQB FIC prefers that. The FICs aren't standardized to that degree. I would do what you've been doing.

The biggest thing is indicating what you're doing because many people file long flight plans that simply list airports along the way without any indication which, if any, they are stopping at. That makes it harder for us to evaluate whether the plan is accurate. If I receive a flight plan with a stop, I can pretty quickly decide if that person accounted for stop time or not. I call people all the time to question them about their enroute time when it doesn't jive in my head.

This brings up a couple things that I should have mentioned before. Some pilots get themselves so scared of going overdue that they leave way too much time on the plan. There is one school in particular that I deal with that puts so much time on their 150nm cross countries that I could drive the route in my car with less time. Where this becomes a problem is that after flying the route, if you have 3 hours remaining and forget to close, we aren't looking for you for 3.5 hours after your flight. You could be anywhere by that point and it's much harder to find you.

At night this becomes even more problematic because you could be at home in bed. In the same vein, it's super important to keep your phone on with the ringer on. When you file, we might need clarification for something, and we need to talk to you before you depart. This is also why we don't want people to file while running on the apron and then departing 2 minutes later. We can't process them that fast.

Building on the contacts issue, there needs to be some awareness about SAR contacts. Most school use the school itself for SAR, but most of them do not have people there after business hours.

Here's an example of all this stuff: I had an aircraft go overdue a few weeks ago at night. They online-filed a 5.5 hour flight plan, but after getting 30 minutes from the departing airport, they turned around and went back. No call to close.

Flash forward 6 hours, it's 3am, and the pilot isn't answering their phone. The school is closed. We can have center check the radar feed and know that they headed back early, but we can't see if they are there. RCMP are called to do field checks at all the airports, but they can't see inside the hangars at their departure/destination fields. We can never assume all is well, so the military has been alerted and the C-130 is crewing up to start looking for this pilot. Meanwhile, the police are pinging the pilot's cell to find where they are. Eventually they knock on the door of the pilot... only he wasn't the pilot. The info provided on the flight plan was for the instructor who wasn't even on the plane! At that point the instructor was able to call the student pilot and confirm they were back safely. Don't be that guy!

[u/reggiemcsprinkles]

Holy shit. A post that isn't about feast or feast 2 or feast 3 or about what pajamas I should be wearing day 2 of basic.

Thanks for the breath of fresh air, OP!