In article ,
says...


Not sure whether you are referring to a flight plan with ATC or a the
kind of plan you do to estimate headings, times, and fuel for planning
purposes.

I never file VFR. Often file IFR.



Yes - I think I also answered off-topic a bit. I thought we were talking about
flight plans, when reading more carefully I realize we were talking more about
flight planning. As I said before, I think VFR flight plans are frequently a
bother, and do not enhance safety that much, particularly if you plan to use
flight following.

I do not feel the same about flight planning. I did my PPL some years ago, but
I still make up a log sheet for long flights, and I measure the distaznce
between waypoints. Nothing like 10nm waypoints - frequently 25 or 30nm, but I
do feel better prepared if I've studied the map. With a GPS *AND* DME it's
pretty hard to justify doing all the calcuations and wind corrections, except
that it gives you something to do - If you're in a Skyhawk, screaming along at
110KTAS but with an ultra-modern panel, it's like the extra capabilities of
the latter help to compensate the shortcomings of the former!

My detailed, annotated course lines have been reduced to little more than a
light pencil trace on the sectional, and a sheet with mostly frequencies on
it, but some waypoints, distances and altitude changes as well.

Recently, I had a radio problem, on a day with a pretty strong wind, and
marginal visibility. In dealing with the problem I let myself get off course a
few nm. I ended up west of an airfield I had planned to fly east of, and
getting close to another class "D". OK, this was nowhere close to anything
really untoward happening - but it was useful to have all sorts of pertinent
info right in front of me on my "cheat sheet". I jot down (type out, actually)
anything I think may be useful along the way - mostly contact frequencies, and
some VOR crossing radials. Of course it would only take a minute to look any
of this up - but it was nice to have everything right there on one
kneeboard-sized page.

There's also an "administrative" justification. With pilots being responsible
to have accumulated "all pertinent information" about the flight, you always
wonder just how far an over-zealous inspector might go in insinuating you were
not fully prepared. What if my class D had been a class B, and I actually
violated it. I could easily find myself trying to explain to some unfriendly
folks once on the ground, and in that case it wouldn't hurt to be able to show
I had the weather and all "pertinent" data .

G Faris