New FSS Policy

I agree.

Am I the only person who filed two flight plans (if I remember the training
drill) for my short and long cross countries in 1962 - then have flown for
the following 43 years without filing a VFR plan?

I wonder how I ever survived.

John


"George Patterson" wrote in message
news:z4gaf.3515$y23.3093@trndny08...
Chris wrote:

here in the UK the way a VFR flight plan works is that the pilot
nominates a responsible person (family member, FBO etc) to make the call
if they are overdue rather than have the ATC make assumptions. The basis
is that no news is good news.

That's the way most of us who don't file flight plans do things over here.

George Patterson
Drink is the curse of the land. It makes you quarrel with your
neighbor.
It makes you shoot at your landlord. And it makes you miss him.

Chris wrote:

here in the UK the way a VFR flight plan works is that the pilot nominates a
responsible person (family member, FBO etc) to make the call if they are
overdue rather than have the ATC make assumptions. The basis is that no news
is good news.

We have something similar in Canada, called a "Flight Itinerary", but
there have been problems with people not understanding how to notify
SAR (or even remembering that they should). In the U.S., the VFR
flight plan is entirely optional, so Americans can do things the U.K.
way if they want; however, it's nice to have a professional system in
place to respond quickly if you go missing. Most U.S. control towers
don't get involved with VFR flight plans -- you deal directly with
flight services.

In Canada, the VFR flight plan *or* flight itinerary (as in the U.K.)
is required for any trip over 25 nautical miles from the starting
point, and control towers do deal with VFR flight plans quite
efficiently.

Both Canada and the U.S. require VFR flight plans for cross-border
flights.


All the best,


David

Jay Beckman wrote:

So, welcome to the new Lockheed/Martin world order...

I don't know if it's because of the change to Lockheed-Martin -- I had
the same thing happen to me once in the U.S. a year or so ago (I think
it was at Teterboro), before the switch. I imagine that the specialist
has a big list of calls to make and just wants to get through them
early sometimes.

In defense of FSS, I have accidentally made them call around for real
in the U.S. In Canada, towered airports (almost always) will close a
VFR flight plan for you automatically, since tower will automatically
have a copy of any incoming VFR flight plans; as a result, it's easy
for a Canadian pilot to forget to close a flight plan when landing at a
towered field in the U.S. I'm pretty good at remembering now, but it
took some practice, and caused U.S. FSS some bother (it's easier to
remember at untowered airports).


All the best,


David

You're first mistake. Filing a flight plan. I fly in and out of Sedona all
the time, and other areas around Arizona/New Mexico/Nevada and California.
The Gov knows too much about us VFR's already without complicating our lives
with pointless useless flight plans.

The argument that "someone will know where to look" doesn't wash.

John

"Jay Beckman" wrote in message
newsU8af.564$bo.388@fed1read01...
FSS has a new trick, calling the contact number on your flightplan at or
BEFORE your ETA...

Landed at Sedona this morning, called 800-WX-Brief to close VFR flight
plan, walked into the terminal building and the guy behind the FBO desk
says Prescott FSS just called looking for me. Huh!?!?! I filed for
0730MST departure with an ETE of 50 minutes. Opened the flight plan with
a wheels up time of 0755MST and landed at 0850MST...five minutes off
(probably because we stayed under the PHX Class Bravo longer than usual so
my buddy could see his house.)

So, I called Precott and the gentleman to whom I spoke said he had no idea
why they called looking for me so quick. Excused himself for a moment to
ask around, then came back on the line to explain that this is now their
policy and they will be calling pilots instead of waiting for pilots to
call them. They will be calling At or BEFORE your ETA (his words...)

Same thing on the return trip. Filed for an ETE of 1H05M and landed at
1H06M ... as I'm on the phone with ABQ (phone system shunted me there) my
call waiting beeps and it's Prescott calling me to check and see if I'm on
the ground.

So, welcome to the new Lockheed/Martin world order...

Jay Beckman
PP-ASEL
AZ Cloudbusters
Chandler, AZ
(Now adding 10 minutes to all ETE calculations!)

Tom wrote:

The Gov knows too much about us VFR's already without complicating our lives
with pointless useless flight plans.

But yet you will gladly accept VFR flight following (assumption based on
you agreeing with Jay)?

Those gov't types will certainly know about you then, right?

--
Peter
























----== Posted via Newsfeeds.Com - Unlimited-Unrestricted-Secure Usenet News==----
http://www.newsfeeds.com The #1 Newsgroup Service in the World! 120,000+ Newsgroups
----= East and West-Coast Server Farms - Total Privacy via Encryption =----