On Thu, 14 Aug 2003 21:52:30 -0400, wrote:

On Wed, 13 Aug 2003 22:12:54 -0400, vincent p. norris wrote:

That applies to Canadian VFR flight plans as well -- they are opened
automatically unless you cancel them.

On several trips through Canada to Alaska, we would receive a radio
call from the wx briefer after we took off, saying our flight plan
had been opened.

He wouldn't have opened it, would he, had we not taken off?

Yes, it will be automatically opened at the estimated departure time. I had
this happen to me, when i was delayed on the ground at CYEE, and was unable
to contact the Canadian FSS. By the time I finally got airborne, when I
established contact, they were just about ready to start SAR procedures.

Taken to the other extreme here in the states...I flew down to Lee
Gilmer (LGM) in Gainsville GA some years ago around Christmas time. I
was on a VFR flight plan with flight following.

Atlanta Center kept me wayyyy up high until we were past the mountains
and then we circled to get down to land at LGM. Of course we could
not copy Atlanta all the way down. We landed some where between 11 and
12 (midnight). I could not find a working phone. Not even at our
hotel. I kept driving around looking for pay phones till I finally
found one something like 4 hours after our scheduled arrival time. We
actually landed quite a bit after the ETA.

I finally got through to FSS and apologized for taking so long, but
couldn't find a phone. As FSS was in the area they knew what the
phone service was like and understood. When the briefer looked it up
he sounded a bit surprised but unconcerned..."Oh, yah...you are a bit
over due". Quite unlike having the tower chew me out at BJC for not
updating my ETA "with them" even though I'd been talking to Denver App
for nearly an hour as we zig zagged around some monstrous
thunderstorms which were the biggest ones I'd ever seen.

Roger Halstead (K8RI EN73 & ARRL Life Member)
www.rogerhalstead.com
N833R World's oldest Debonair? (S# CD-2)




Were you speaking of airports without wx briefers? (E.g., on landing
at Stephenville, a field at the western edge of Newfoundland, we
discovered the voice we were talking to belonged to a guy in St.
John's. Obviously he'd have trouble seeing us take off.)

vince norris