As filed, flight plans are not flown. VFR might well be
just as simple as telling FSS VFR, Washington DC ,
Indianapolis, St. Louis, Destination Kansas City [the phrase
close enough for government work comes to mind.]
My actual plan would have many points for visual and radio
navigation.

An IFR plan is more detailed, but might only have a
departure airport, a SID and airway and a STAR and might
only have the airway, the feds will assign the SID and STAR
anyway.




"B A R R Y" wrote in message
. net...
| Mxsmanic wrote:
|
| The reason for asking is that I'm wondering if a VFR
flight plan with
| detailed routing that lists specific waypoints and fixes
can be easily
| converted to IFR without changing the routing, should
weather or other
| factors mandate a switch to IFR for the flight.
|
| You use IFR chart features on an IFR plan. Items like
VOR, NDB, and
| airports with instrument approaches are on IFR Charts.
Another
| document, known as the AF/D, or "Airport Facility
Directory", lists
| "preferred routes", which ATC will usually put you on
regardless of what
| you try to file.
|
| AF/D's are free he
| http://www.naco.faa.gov/index.asp?xml=naco/online/d_afd
|
| The "supplemental" section has the IFR routes 40 or so
pages in. You
| can also look up restricted airspace, noise abatement
corridors, etc...
| so you can keep the simulated Baron out of simulated
trouble and prevent
| ****ing off the simulated noise-sensitive residents
(simulated Skylune?
| G) you're flying over.
|
| It is possible to file a flight plan that uses both IFR
and VFR
| portions. This is known as a "composite" flight plan.
|
| I just thought of an "freebie" that might be of interest
to you in your
| sim realism, "Sporty's Study Buddy":
| http://sportys.com/faatest/study/ Sporty's Study
Buddy is more of a
| "learn the answers to the questions" system than a true
course, but it's
| free.
|
| I was also going to suggest an online ground school, like
King's:
| http://www.kingschools.com/, but I remember money is
tight. Since you
| have no interest in actually flying, and won't actually
have to pass a
| current written / oral exam, watching eBay for an outdated
ground school
| video course (cheap, of course! G) might be worthwhile.