Bit of a n00b nav question [Archive]

Stikman

23rd Aug 2011, 10:03

Hi all..
I'm planning a nav for the first time in 16 years....to say that things have changed is an understatement!
My route will be YMMB-YLTV-YYRM-YLEG-CARR-YMMB. Presumably, I'll be doing a touch-and-go at one or all of the enroute aerodromes. My question is this:
Regarding the flight plan form, I've read the AIP about how to fill it all out. With my particular route, is the "correct" way to fill out Stage 1 as YMMB-YLTV, then stage 2 as YLTV-YYRM, stage 3 as YYRM-YLEG, etc, or to simply put the entire route under stage 1 with appropriate delays in section 18? I couldn't find an answer to this in the AIP, and have had no luck looking for sample flight plans.
I could wait until Saturday and ask my instructor, but I want to get as much prepared as possible beforehand.

Cheers!
Damien

Arm out the window

23rd Aug 2011, 21:04

G'day Damien, good on you for getting back into it.

The new flight plan format can be a bit of a pain, but once you get used to it it's fine. I'm slightly uncurrent myself (about 8 months since I did any flying for work) so apologies in advance if I go astray, hopefully not.

The short answer is that if it's an out and back nav with touch and goes, air work over a navaid or something similar, you can just put it all in Stage 1.

Basically you enter your departure and arrival aerodromes, ETD and total elapsed flight time (including delays) up the top there. With elapsed time, remember that 0130 doesn't mean 130 minutes, it's an hour and thirty minutes.

The system uses your first-entered cruise speed (TAS) and altitude and assumes you'll be doing that until any nominated changes, which go in the 'route' section.

If you're tracking visually, you'd just list the route as you wrote it above, leaving out the departure and arrival points (and the dashes), so DCT YLTV YRM LEG etc. (The DCT is just 'direct', the computer apparently needs it - you have a DCT at the start and end of your route, not counting the departure and arrival points).

If you're tracking to and from navaids, (for example out from the MB NDB), you'd put DCT MB LTV etc, indicating you're departing MB aerodrome, 'going' to the NDB, out from there, to LTV NDB and so on.

You need to enter altitude and speed changes. Altitudes are written A040 for four thousand AMSL, for example, and speeds are in the format N0120 for 120 knots. So if you're out to LTV at 3500 and 120 kt, then changing to 4500 to go to YRM, your route would go: LTV N0120 A045 YYRM and so on.

I'm not sure if you've been using NAIPS yet for met/notams/flight plan submission? Once you've played with that a bit it makes it easy to submit commonly used plans, but it takes a bit of frustration and stuffing around to get used to it - typical computer system, if you don't put something in in exactly the right format, "Computer says no...":)

Anyway mate, keep referring back to the AIP and have a few practices and you'll be right. I came back to it after a few years away and all this automated gear was in, took me a little while to get my arse into gear! All part of the fun...