Instrument Student Pilot Filing IFR

Guys I appreciate all the input, no one asked me why I posed the thread
question.

But as you will all realize, I started this thread because of a personnel
experience.
I am a few hours away from my instrument check ride.

In the recent past my instructor had been asking me to plan & file weekly
IFR training flights to specified satelite airports within Class B airspace.
He looked over my planning, but never changed my routings, so I could learn
from either being "cleared as filed" or struggle with an entirely different
clearance.
I filed the IFR plans in my own name, but added "Instrument Training Flight"
in the comments section on my own inititive.
I was hoping that I might be given an easier time by ATC by declaring the
flight plan as a training flight.
Also I frequently advised clearance delivery that I was a student instrument
pilot.
At first my CFII would listen in while I gained my clearance but as the
flights accumulated and I gained proficiency he just made sure that I had
the clearance with no missing data. He also encouraged me to file at
altitudes which would put us in actual IMC as much as possible.
In fact he would chastise me if my filed height was between layers. I had
not studied the weather properly !
I felt very fortunate to be getting real IFR experience, flying well and
truly in the system, before getting the rating.

Alas, my instructor is no more and his replacement, a very decent and young
enthusiastic CFII, is astounded that I was filing and getting my own
clearances.
Now he does the planning, file the plans and gets the clearances. I fly the
plane while he talks to ATC. He is PIC and may as well take the left seat.
However, as I said, he is a nice guy and he is giving me the final few
hours that I need to log before being eligable for the checkride.
Ok I have arguably bust the FAR's, but I know which guy I would prefer in my
right seat !

Roy

Roy,
You pose an interesting question! When I did my instrument training I
always filed under my instructors name (neither of my two instructors
ever commented on this).

So to add to your question, I'm now wondering:
I usually only file my last name, and have never received a single
question by the briefer about it. Do any of you know if you are
supposed to file first and last name? Also I had always assumed (as
mentioned by some of you) that the name only ever mattered if there was
an incident. Barring any incidents, do any of you know if ATC/FAA ever
even looks at the name on any flightplan? What if we all filed as
"Smith" one day to see if they pay attention.....

By the way, good luck on your checkride. I hope that you can work out
the issues with your new instructor. Maybe he/she doesn't realize that
they are doing things "differently"?
-Jamie

"Cirrus" wrote:
I usually only file my last name, and have never received a single
question by the briefer about it. Do any of you know if you are
supposed to file first and last name?

I don't know of any regulation which requires you to put down two names in
the PIC box. Some things are left to common sense. It's also not the
briefer's job to enforce regulations. If you tell him the PIC's name is
Zaphod Beeblebrox, he'll type Zaphod Beeblebrox into the box on the screen.
Maybe your name is "The student pilot formerly known as Prince"?

Also I had always assumed (as
mentioned by some of you) that the name only ever mattered if there was
an incident. Barring any incidents, do any of you know if ATC/FAA ever
even looks at the name on any flightplan?

ATC only sees some subset of the fields you file in your flight plan. I
don't remember exactly which ones they get (everything up to the REMARKS
section?), but the PIC's name isn't one of them. All that stuff about home
base, souls on board, paint color, etc, is purely for SAR and accident
investigation purposes.

Trillian?



"Roy Smith" wrote in message
...
| "Cirrus" wrote:
| I usually only file my last name, and have never
received a single
| question by the briefer about it. Do any of you know if
you are
| supposed to file first and last name?
|
| I don't know of any regulation which requires you to put
down two names in
| the PIC box. Some things are left to common sense. It's
also not the
| briefer's job to enforce regulations. If you tell him the
PIC's name is
| Zaphod Beeblebrox, he'll type Zaphod Beeblebrox into the
box on the screen.
| Maybe your name is "The student pilot formerly known as
Prince"?
|
| Also I had always assumed (as
| mentioned by some of you) that the name only ever
mattered if there was
| an incident. Barring any incidents, do any of you know
if ATC/FAA ever
| even looks at the name on any flightplan?
|
| ATC only sees some subset of the fields you file in your
flight plan. I
| don't remember exactly which ones they get (everything up
to the REMARKS
| section?), but the PIC's name isn't one of them. All that
stuff about home
| base, souls on board, paint color, etc, is purely for SAR
and accident
| investigation purposes.

Brain the size of a planet and here I am reading Usenet ;0

On Tue, 28 Nov 2006 23:14:35 -0600, "Jim Macklin"
wrote:

Trillian?

Roy Smith wrote:
"Cirrus" wrote:
I usually only file my last name, and have never received a single
question by the briefer about it. Do any of you know if you are
supposed to file first and last name?

I don't know of any regulation which requires you to put down two names in
the PIC box.

How about 91.153 which requires the "FULL NAME OF THE PILOT IN COMMAND"?

Roy Smith wrote:

ATC only sees some subset of the fields you file in your flight plan. I
don't remember exactly which ones they get (everything up to the REMARKS
section?), but the PIC's name isn't one of them. All that stuff about home
base, souls on board, paint color, etc, is purely for SAR and accident
investigation purposes.

ATC sees the first few characters of the REMARKS, but the string length
is limited. I forget how many characters they see. e.g. if I remark "PLA
FAY", ATC knows I plan to do practice low approaches at Fayetteville.

Dave Butler wrote:

*****
ATC sees the first few characters of the REMARKS, but the string length
is limited. I forget how many characters they see. e.g. if I remark
"PLA FAY", ATC knows I plan to do practice low approaches at
Fayetteville.
*****

I don't know offhand the number of characters that are passed to us at
center, but it is far more than a few. Some military flight plans have
extensive remarks that I imagine can exceed 100 characters.

There's not much need to abbreviate if it's only a few words. It can
cause confusion if it's not a common abbreviation (even if it is used
extensively elsewhere). I remember the first time someone abbreviated
"pick up airborne" as PUP AIRBORNE. I asked them if they'd be
descending slowly to protect the dog's ears. ;-)


Chad Speer
PP-ASEL, IA
ATCS, Kansas City ARTCC

"Roy N5804F" wrote:
Alas, my instructor is no more and his replacement, a very decent and young
enthusiastic CFII, is astounded that I was filing and getting my own
clearances.
Now he does the planning, file the plans and gets the clearances. I fly the
plane while he talks to ATC. He is PIC and may as well take the left seat.
However, as I said, he is a nice guy and he is giving me the final few
hours that I need to log before being eligable for the checkride.
Ok I have arguably bust the FAR's, but I know which guy I would prefer in my
right seat !

One of the hardest things about learning to be an instructor is learning to
shut up and sit on your hands. It sounds like your guy hasn't learned this
yet.

He's cheating you by doing all that stuff for you. Tell him you want to do
it all yourself (just like you used to).

On the other hand, if you're really just a few hours away from the
checkride, and you feel confident about your skills, he really is just
there for the ride and to give you some signatures when you need them.

If he really is doing all the talking on the radio, take advantage of the
workload reduction and concentrate that much more on flying perfectly. See
if you can hold altitude to +/- 20 feet and heading to +/- 1 degree.
Concentrate on flying the ILS to +/- 1 dot deflection on either needle.
This is far more accurately than you'll ever have to do on the checkride
(or in real life).