Originally Posted by
A Squared
If you're going VFR, why would you file an ATC flight plan? Even if you were intending to receive radar flight following and traffic advisories with ATC, filing a flight plan isn't necessary and doesn't do anything. A VFR flight plan has no ATC function*, it's simply a request for Search and Rescue if you don't arrive at your appointed time.
*within an ADIZ, aircraft are required to file a DVFR flight plan for identification purposes, which is forwarded to ATC ... but I don't think they were going anywhere near an ADIZ
Some possible reasons: FF is a workload based service and may be unavailable (unlikely but possible). You may not want to be on the radio as much as you would with FF but still might want the S&R backup of having filed a VFR flight plan.