Coming back from Canada

[Doug]

I just flew back from Canada. As required, I filed a Canadian flight
plan and contacted US Customs (I cleared Customs at Sault St. Marie,
Michigan). No one said anything about me having to close my flight plan
with USA flight service (and come to think of it, I never have closed
the other times I've landed). There is no flight service frequency that
I could find at Sault St Marie. Anyway, after clearing customs, I
called FSS. My flight plan had been closed! Does US Customs call US FSS
and close my flight plan? What happens if I don't show up? Will I get
Canadian search and rescue? No one at FSS seems to know. The FSS guy
seemed to think I was responsible for closing my flight plan, yet I've
never done it before either.

Anyone know how this is working?

[Gary Drescher]

"Doug" > wrote in message
oups.com...
>I just flew back from Canada. As required, I filed a Canadian flight
> plan and contacted US Customs (I cleared Customs at Sault St. Marie,
> Michigan). No one said anything about me having to close my flight plan
> with USA flight service (and come to think of it, I never have closed
> the other times I've landed). There is no flight service frequency that
> I could find at Sault St Marie. Anyway, after clearing customs, I
> called FSS. My flight plan had been closed! Does US Customs call US FSS
> and close my flight plan? What happens if I don't show up? Will I get
> Canadian search and rescue? No one at FSS seems to know. The FSS guy
> seemed to think I was responsible for closing my flight plan, yet I've
> never done it before either.
>
> Anyone know how this is working?

As far as I'm aware, you have the usual responsibility to close your VFR
flight plan when you fly from Canada to the US. In general, though, if you
fail to close a flight plan, then the first step in the SAR response will be
to telephone the airport where you landed--the tower (if there is one), or
else the FBO (if any), or conceivably a Customs office (if your flight plan
was international, SAR can deduce that you'd be stopping in there). So
perhaps that's what has been happening after your cross-border trips.

--Gary

[Robert M. Gary]

I've forgotten to close my flight plan coming in from Mexico before
(I've never flown in from Canada VFR). FSS just calls the tower and
closes it. they know that boarder crossers get busy with customs.

-robert

Doug wrote:
> I just flew back from Canada. As required, I filed a Canadian flight
> plan and contacted US Customs (I cleared Customs at Sault St. Marie,
> Michigan). No one said anything about me having to close my flight plan
> with USA flight service (and come to think of it, I never have closed
> the other times I've landed). There is no flight service frequency that
> I could find at Sault St Marie. Anyway, after clearing customs, I
> called FSS. My flight plan had been closed! Does US Customs call US FSS
> and close my flight plan? What happens if I don't show up? Will I get
> Canadian search and rescue? No one at FSS seems to know. The FSS guy
> seemed to think I was responsible for closing my flight plan, yet I've
> never done it before either.
>
> Anyone know how this is working?

[tony roberts]

Hi Doug

In Canada, if you open a flight plan, you have to close it.
When you think about it, closing it is the only way to tell FSS that you
arrived, as opposed to your being spread over a mountain - and if you
are - you want CASARA launching right now - you don't really want them
saying, well maybe he just forgot!

Flying within Canada, if we are arriving at a towered airport we can ask
them to close it. If we are arriving at a non-towered airport we can
close from the air via FSS or we can close by telephone on the ground.

But in all of these scenarios, we cannot just ignore it and assume that
someone closed it for us. That is absolutely our responsibility to do
that and without that the whole system just falls down.

We have heard over the past few weeks that there have been several
instances where US Customs have refused to close flight plans. That
should be a concern to everyone on both sides of the border - the flight
plan only exists to protect you the pilot - but for now the only real
failsafe is for you to make sure that the plan is closed.

That's about all that I can tell you.

HTH

Tony

--

Tony Roberts
PP-ASEL
VFR OTT
Night
Cessna 172H C-GICE



In article . com>,
"Doug" > wrote:

> I just flew back from Canada. As required, I filed a Canadian flight
> plan and contacted US Customs (I cleared Customs at Sault St. Marie,
> Michigan). No one said anything about me having to close my flight plan
> with USA flight service (and come to think of it, I never have closed
> the other times I've landed). There is no flight service frequency that
> I could find at Sault St Marie. Anyway, after clearing customs, I
> called FSS. My flight plan had been closed! Does US Customs call US FSS
> and close my flight plan? What happens if I don't show up? Will I get
> Canadian search and rescue? No one at FSS seems to know. The FSS guy
> seemed to think I was responsible for closing my flight plan, yet I've
> never done it before either.
>
> Anyone know how this is working?

[Jay Somerset]

On Wed, 29 Jun 2005 05:35:25 GMT, tony roberts > wrote:

> Hi Doug
>
> In Canada, if you open a flight plan, you have to close it.
> When you think about it, closing it is the only way to tell FSS that you
> arrived, as opposed to your being spread over a mountain - and if you
> are - you want CASARA launching right now - you don't really want them
> saying, well maybe he just forgot!
>
> Flying within Canada, if we are arriving at a towered airport we can ask
> them to close it. If we are arriving at a non-towered airport we can
> close from the air via FSS or we can close by telephone on the ground.
>
> But in all of these scenarios, we cannot just ignore it and assume that
> someone closed it for us. That is absolutely our responsibility to do
> that and without that the whole system just falls down.
>
> We have heard over the past few weeks that there have been several
> instances where US Customs have refused to close flight plans. That
> should be a concern to everyone on both sides of the border - the flight
> plan only exists to protect you the pilot - but for now the only real
> failsafe is for you to make sure that the plan is closed.
>
> That's about all that I can tell you.

There is an important difference in the way flight plans are opened in
Canada, relative to the US. In the US, a flight plan is not opened until
you take off and contact ATC (IFR plan) or you open it explicitly with FSS
(VFR). In Canada, it seems to be different (or was a few years ago). I
files a VFR plan and was delayed before I could take off. I was unable to
contact FSS (phone line busy and RCO not working) to update my departure
time. I found out later, that the plan was automatically opened at my
estimated departure time, and that SAR procedures were being invoked because
they hadn't heard from me, when I finally was able to contact FSS after I
got airborne.

Closing a flight plan seems to be the same -- if IFR and landing at a
towered airport, it is automatically closed. Otherwise, it must be
explicitly closed with FSS (VFR), or ATC or FSS if IFR.
--
Jay.
(remove dashes for legal email address)