Can A PPL Holder File A Flight Plan?

[Easy226]

Hi everyone,just a few questions i thought i would ask:

1) Can a PPL holder file a flight plan to fly in controlled airspace (i.e. class D) if the weather is classed as VMC

2) How and when do you file a flight plan?? Also, how are they constructed, i.e. is there a procedure for constructing one??

3) From my Air Law manual it states as an example:
D129/1.75 indicates between 51 degrees north and 52 degrees north from sfc-1,750ft AMSL. I understand the altitude part, but i dont understand how Danger area 129 can represent an area between 51 and 52 degrees north??

Thanks,
DAN

[5milesbaby]

From the NATS Air Traffic Manual part 1:

"A pilot may file a flight plan for any flight.

A pilot is required to file a flight plan:
(a) for all flights within controlled airspace, Class A-E, which are conducted in accordance with IFR;
(b) for flights within Class B, C, and D airspace conducted in accordance with VFR;
(c) when he wishes to receive an air traffic advisory service (Class F airspace);
(d) for all flights which will cross a United Kingdom international FIR boundary;
(e) for any flight where the destination is more than 40km from the aerodrome of departure and the aircraft's maximum total weight authorised exceeds 5700kg.

A pilot is advised to file a flight plan:
(a) if his flight involves flying over the sea more than 10 miles from the UK coast or flying over sparsely populated areas where search and rescue operations would be difficult, or;
(b) if he intends to fly into an area in which search and rescue operations are in progress. The flight plan should include the expected times of entering and leaving the area and the details must also be passed to the parent ACC. The ACC is to notify the ARCC concerned."


Hope that answers the first couple of bits, and filing a plan is done normally by completing an official form and sending it to the relevant ATC centres/aerodromes via the AFTN telephone network. Alternatively, plans can be filed by telephone directly, in an ATC tower (called booking out) or even just over the RTF by calling the relevant agency.

As for the danger area bit, I haven't a clue!!!!!!!!!

[fireflybob]

Ref the Danger Area Query:

The figure "1" of D129 denotes that the danger area lies in the band between 51 N and 52N.

D229 would lie between 52 N and 53N, D329 between 53 N and 54N.

Hope this helps.

[Easy226]

Thanks a lot for the replies, improved my knowledge again! So what happends if you predict you'll be at a certain navigation aid at a certain time and your not there?

I now understand the danger area section, but what does the last two nubers in D229 mean if the first represents a danger area between 52 and 53N??

Thanks

[Hippy]

Last two numbers are just numbers! Danger areas are general numbered sequencially, West to East within their 10 degree band, but not a hard & fast rule.

[Spitoon]

Just being a bit pedantic here, but 5mb says that 'booking out' and filing a flight plan are much the same thing. This is not the case. I'm not sure whether booking out is an idiosyncratic thing we Brits do but it means telling someone in authority at an aerodrome that we're going somewhere or that we've just come from somewhere. And, if we said we were coming but changed our minds, let the aerodrome know. (See Rule 20 for the full incomprehensible text)

Filing a flight plan is a little more formal than that and brings with it all sort of rules. The key thing though is that if you file a flight plan but down turn up, people will start looking for you (sometimes lots and lots of people). Regardless of the fact that you may have given your destination aerodrome a 'phone call to say you're coming to vist, the only way you are guaranteed search and rescue action it by filing a flight plan.

The waters got a little muddied a few years ago when we in the UK started using the term 'current flight plan' which simply means enough information to permit an air traffic service unit to manage a flight. If you're flying VFR this may well amount to little more than FROM, TO, POSITION and LEVEL .

[FlyingForFun]

I have to admit I still find the whole flight-plan thing very easy from a practical point of view, but near-impossible from a legal point of view.

I was very confused when I re-read some of my air-law notes and discovered I needed to file a flight plan to fly VFR in Class D. I've flown VFR in Class D many times, and never completed a flight plan! Then I discovered that, by calling up ATC on the R/T and passing them your flight details, you're deemed to have filed a flight plan. But the same procedure isn't sufficient for filing a flight-plan for an international flight.

My advice to you would be as follows: for your Air Law exam, just learn what the text book says, regurgitate it if asked, then forget it. Then you can go and learn what you actually have to do in practice. I wouldn't recommend this technique normally, but I think it's good advice for filing flight plans.

FFF
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[1261]

If you're in the air, you only need to pass those elements of the flight plan which ATC require in order to issue you with a clearance (for Class D). This is true for both IFR and VFR.

You need to file a flight plan to operate IFR (including operating under IFR as a VFR flight) in Class D - but booking out should be sufficient for light aircraft VFR departures (subject to the distance/weight/international rules).

[Spitoon]

Sorry 1261, but what exactly does "including operating under IFR as a VFR flight" mean? :confused: :confused: :confused:

[1261]

Aircraft commander says something like "requesting a VFR join but we'd like a radar vectored ILS" for example. In other words, the pilot is happy to accept vectors but still has to stick to VFR minima for his licence.

Much the same concept as flying at night in Class G: PPL minima (Schedule 8) apply - but you have to be operating under IFR.

[eyeinthesky]

1261: You are clouding the issue. You cannot operate under two different flight RULES at the same time.

You are either flying under INSTRUMENT Flight Rules (IFR) or VISUAL flight rules (VFR).

You may be operating in either Visual METEOROLOGICAL Conditions (VMC) or Instrument METEOROLOGICAL Conditions (IMC), and I think that is to what you refer in your example. If you are flying an ILS you are IFR (because you cannot fly by sole reference to instruments AND look out) but you may be VMC or IMC. If you are VFR you must be VMC.

At night with no IMC rating you must be VMC but you are operating under IFR.

[1261]

Yep, ok. Perhaps I should have said VMC rather than VFR!

But my point is that you'd need to file a flight plan for such a flight.

[canberra]

flights departing uk airspace are only required to file flight plans if they're not under air defence control., this also includes sar.