Who does flight plans?

I'm kind of curious - does anyone with more than 100 hours do a flight plan,
with winds and all, before they fly cross country? Most of my planning is of
the fuel stop, or occasionally detour for weather variety - but it is rare
for me to include more than one or two waypoints in my "plan", and I almost
never file an airway, even when I file ifr. Maybe it's because I live in the
west. A typical flight plan will be Longmont - Amarillo - Austin, or if the
winds are good, Longmont - Austin. What do others do?

Michael

Michael 182 wrote:
I'm kind of curious - does anyone with more than 100 hours do a flight plan,
with winds and all, before they fly cross country?

I plan each flight on my computer. I tend to navigate by LORAN. Given that I'm
in an area with perhaps more areas of protected airspace than any other in the
States, my plans tend to have a fair number of waypoints at this end of the
flight. This is especially true if I'm headed towards the DC ADIZ. I tend to
swag the winds because, by the time I can get a decent forecast from the FAA,
it's usually too late to crank up the computer and add them to the plan -- I'm
heading out the door.

Of course, if I've made a particular flight before, I already have it planned.
All I have to do is bring it up and check it with a current chart to make sure
there's nothing new in my way.

George Patterson
Why do men's hearts beat faster, knees get weak, throats become dry,
and they think irrationally when a woman wears leather clothing?
Because she smells like a new truck.

Here in Canada if we fly more than 25 miles from our home base we must
be on a flight plan or flight itinerary. I have no problem at all with
that.
i live and fly in the mountains - and if I go down I really do want
people to know exactly what my route was. Downside is that it is
difficult (but not impossible) to change plans halfway through the
flight - it can be done - we just have to make contact via radio and
advise of the change

Tony
C-GICE.

In article ,
"Michael 182" wrote:

I'm kind of curious - does anyone with more than 100 hours do a flight plan,
with winds and all, before they fly cross country? Most of my planning is of
the fuel stop, or occasionally detour for weather variety - but it is rare
for me to include more than one or two waypoints in my "plan", and I almost
never file an airway, even when I file ifr. Maybe it's because I live in the
west. A typical flight plan will be Longmont - Amarillo - Austin, or if the
winds are good, Longmont - Austin. What do others do?

Michael




--

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

On Thu, 2 Jun 2005 22:24:29 -0600, Michael 182 wrote:

I'm kind of curious - does anyone with more than 100 hours do a flight plan,
with winds and all, before they fly cross country?

I always do a flight plan. No, not with the ole EB6, but with DUATS or
AOPA flight planner. I always print out my briefings to take with me. I
still always call FSS before departure.

I do this so the person at my destination will know my arrival time. For
those flights that I don't have flight following or that I filed IFR, at
least they know to start worrying if I am overdue by more then 20 minutes.

I generally pad 10 minutes to my expected ETA for ATC deviations around JAN
approach and weather considerations.

Since getting my IA rating, it's either IFR or no ATC contact. I have not
filed a VFR flight plan pretty much since my initial training.

So far, my IFR flights, I have filed direct even though I file /A on the
flight plan.

The majority of my cross country trips are greater then 100 NM which I do
at minimum 2 times a month. Anything shorter, I find that my commute to
the airport, flight and then airport to my destination negates the time it
takes to drive from point A to B anyway.

Allen

"A Lieberman" wrote in message
.. .
On Thu, 2 Jun 2005 22:24:29 -0600, Michael 182 wrote:

I'm kind of curious - does anyone with more than 100 hours do a flight
plan,
with winds and all, before they fly cross country?

I always do a flight plan. No, not with the ole EB6, but with DUATS or
AOPA flight planner. I always print out my briefings to take with me. I
still always call FSS before departure.

Yeah - I always call as well. The briefings have changed my route, advised
me on TFRs or given me cause not to go at all (usually ice) many times. I
hate to think we may lose this service to computers someday. I really
appreciate good briefers.


I do this so the person at my destination will know my arrival time. For
those flights that I don't have flight following or that I filed IFR, at
least they know to start worrying if I am overdue by more then 20 minutes.

Since getting my IA rating, it's either IFR or no ATC contact. I have not
filed a VFR flight plan pretty much since my initial training.


If I'm IFR I'm talking and, 99% of the time, on radar, so if something comes
up ATC will know about it. If I'm VFR I'm usually listening to the iPod. No
flight plans - hope the ELT is good and loud if something happens
(called the Aron Ralston approach)

So far, my IFR flights, I have filed direct even though I file /A on the
flight plan.

I thought you had to have a navigation aid in your suffix to file direct -
like /G or /R. Aren't you setting yourself up for a problem filing /A and
direct?


The majority of my cross country trips are greater then 100 NM which I do
at minimum 2 times a month. Anything shorter, I find that my commute to
the airport, flight and then airport to my destination negates the time it
takes to drive from point A to B anyway.

Unless you are flying Longmont to Colorado Springs and looking down on the
I-25 parking lot...

Michael


Allen

On Thu, 2 Jun 2005 23:01:36 -0600, Michael 182 wrote:

I thought you had to have a navigation aid in your suffix to file direct -
like /G or /R. Aren't you setting yourself up for a problem filing /A and
direct?

Hi Michael,

So far, I have had no problems. Probably, location has a lot to do with
it, as I have always received "cleared as filed".

Unless you are flying Longmont to Colorado Springs and looking down on the
I-25 parking lot...

Yeah, I'd imagine that you have more on that I-25 parking lot, then we have
in the state of Mississippi :-)

Rush hour here means speeds slow down from 90 mph down to the speed limit
of 60 mph.

Allen

Flight plans? You betcha! Altho the cherokee is IFR legal, I'm not. So any
trip more than 60 min or so I've got Plan B, Plan C, Plan D, etc. I don't
worry so much about winds but mountains, MOAs, TFRs, etc. are big time
issues out here in the Timezone-Everyone-Forgets-About (mountain). I don't
want to be fiddling with charts and such if something happens.
So I've got the list of airport freqs that I'll be flying over on a sheet
clipped to the yoke. And the charts for any airport that I may
need in an emergency really handy. Much easier to monitor local traffic
that way. It means changing freqs all the time, but that's good practice.
One radio stays tuned to 121.5, of course....

Flight planning with winds, times, fuel, etc? Not really. Since the
body really doesn't like being in the seat more than a couple hours or
so, I'm not worried about that stuff. Hence my flight planning is more
emergency planning rather than flight planning.

And FSS for weather, NOTAMs and TFRs, of course. Unfortunately, the
local newspaper is more current with TFRs and NOTAMs - not official
ones, of course. For example, publicity about VP or Pres trips starts
long before the official TFR is published.

On Thu, 2 Jun 2005 23:01:36 -0600, "Michael 182"
wrote in
::

I thought you had to have a navigation aid in your suffix to file direct -
like /G or /R. Aren't you setting yourself up for a problem filing /A and
direct?

You can go direct via dead reckoning with /A.

Michael 182 wrote:


Yeah - I always call as well. The briefings have changed my route, advised
me on TFRs or given me cause not to go at all (usually ice) many times. I
hate to think we may lose this service to computers someday. I really
appreciate good briefers.


For sure. When I was a student working on my PLL, and I'd call fora
briefing, the guys I talked with around here were extremely helpful,
patient, and informative. That would be gone with computerization.


--
Saville

Replicas of 15th-19th century nautical navigational instruments:

http://home.comcast.net/~saville/backstaffhome.html

Restoration of my 82 year old Herreshoff S-Boat sailboat:

http://home.comcast.net/~saville/SBOATrestore.htm

Steambending FAQ with photos:

http://home.comcast.net/~saville/Steambend.htm

Still do the plans the old fashioned way.
Ruler, map, piece of paper and my E6B.
Most waypoints are about 10NM apart.
The nice thing is that it works every time and that without power or
batteries.
And it is still fun to do.

-Kees