Do you flight plan?

How do you do that? I'm lucky to have the same old one.

{;-)

Jim



Margy Natalie
shared these priceless pearls of wisdom:

I always have at least 20 gals when I
-land.

Jim Weir (A&P/IA, CFI, & other good alphabet soup)
VP Eng RST Pres. Cyberchapter EAA Tech. Counselor
http://www.rst-engr.com

Judah wrote:

Admittedly, I use 10 GPH on a C172 as my rule of thumb - while I do
generally lean, I also can't guarantee that I am going to do better than
10, .....

What engine do you have in there? I burn 8.6 gph with my 160 hp O-320 and flight
plan for 9. My redline is 2700 rpm, IIRC.

George Patterson
Some people think they hear a call to the priesthood when what they really
hear is a tiny voice whispering "It's indoor work with no heavy lifting".

"John Smith" wrote in message . ..

Correct, of course, but if you're not using pilotage, it'll be too rusty to
use when you need it. Something you perhaps should schedule in a few times a
year (a pilotage-only route)?

A few times a year? You must fly IFR a lot. As a VFR guy, I
always have the chart out and follow along, no matter what method of
navigation I'm using. If the nav radio or GPS bites the dust, I'm
already using pilotage.

John Galban=====N4BQ (PA28-180)

The reason we teach all that stuff in your training is so that you
understand the steps to create a complete and thorough flight plan.
Once you gain some experience, you can decide which steps to skip
over. You have to learn the long way first before taking short cuts.

If the flight is VFR, I draw a straight line on the sectional, look
for any airspaces, and then let DUATS figure out the wind corrections
and times etc.. It takes just a few minutes to do this.

I always call FSS immediately prior to the flight to check for any
NOTAMs or TFR. This has become a hot issue recently with all the
airspace incursions.

Just yesterday we witnessed such an airspace violation. It is a class
D airport whose tower normally closed on Sundays (reverts to class G).
But yesterday there was a NOTAM saying the tower will remain open.
Just as we were on final approach, an airplane was landing in front of
us. Tower altered us that that airplane was not talking to anyone.


"Nasir" wrote in message .com...
Having received my PPL recently and been on several cross countries, I was
wondering how extensive of a flight plan do people prepare before the trip?

Do you guys do all the checkpoints on a map, calculate time/distance/fuel to
each leg? Do you just draw the line on the map and mark checkpoints that you
expect to see but not calculate other things? Do you always calculate winds
aloft and fly the appropriate heading?

I have found myself getting lazy and I dont do all that I did when planning
x-countries when I was training. I tend to draw my line and mark
checkpoints, make sure I have plenty of fuel to get to my destination (plus
an hour more) based on 6gal/hr average. But I dont calculate
time/distance/fuel to each leg. I also have a GPS so that makes getting lazy
easier!

How much do you all plan before each x-country? Am I the only slacker?

Nasir

"Jim Weir" wrote in message ...
How do you do that? I'm lucky to have the same old one.

{;-)


Must only be when she is solo, I've never seen them when I was in the plane.

I need to know what the weather is enroute and at destination. I need
to know how far it is. I need to know the headwinds. I need to know
how much fuel. I need to know the restricted airspaces along the way.
I need to know the frequencies I need. If I have that, I am usually
set to go. How I get this information depends on how far it is, and
how familiar I am with the route etc. It all depends. I use
Fligh****ch a lot during my longer flights, and I monitor on shorter
ones. If it is fairly good weather, I can get the enroute and
destination weather from Fligh****ch enroute. The GPS and charts give
me the rest of the information I need. I can also monitor the AWOS's
along the way. If things get dicey, I can file a flight plan enroute
and pick up flight following. If i am above the cloud deck, I can pick
up a "pop-up" for an approach or descent to below the clouds. Good
luck on your training!

Of course as a primary student, you need to do a formal flight plan.
Later on, you will learn how to abbreviate it. We have a lot of flying
freedom in the country, and I like it and respect it. Just don't run
out of gas!

(Gene Seibel) wrote in message . com...
Basically, I download DUATs weather the night before and run my
Flitesoft program to get a time enroute. Then I run my finger across
my route and the charts to look for any special use airspace. The
thing that concerns me most nowadays is the TFR's. I usually look for
them in the DUATs download, the aeroplanner website, or both. In good
weather that's about it. In times of poor weather, I may monitor it
for a couple days before on various internet sites. On longer flight I
check out the cheap fuel on airnav.
--
Gene Seibel
Hangar 131 - http://pad39a.com/gene/plane.html
Because I fly, I envy no one.




Having received my PPL recently and been on several cross countries, I was
wondering how extensive of a flight plan do people prepare before the trip?

Do you guys do all the checkpoints on a map, calculate time/distance/fuel to
each leg? Do you just draw the line on the map and mark checkpoints that you
expect to see but not calculate other things? Do you always calculate winds
aloft and fly the appropriate heading?

I have found myself getting lazy and I dont do all that I did when planning
x-countries when I was training. I tend to draw my line and mark
checkpoints, make sure I have plenty of fuel to get to my destination (plus
an hour more) based on 6gal/hr average. But I dont calculate
time/distance/fuel to each leg. I also have a GPS so that makes getting lazy
easier!

How much do you all plan before each x-country? Am I the only slacker?

Nasir

All my non-local flights (25nm) are conducted IFR. If the flight is more than
2 hours, I will carry a written flight log for time and fuel consumption
checks.

G. Lee

On Mon, 08 Dec 2003 13:34:25 GMT, EDR wrote:

Any patch of ground without trees or wires is a potential landing area.

Well, yes, but those patches are very rare when I fly.

all the best -- Dan Ford
email:

see the Warbird's Forum at www.warbirdforum.com
and the Piper Cub Forum at www.pipercubforum.com

I rent out of Panorama at HPN. They have all late-model C172S's - SP's,
Millenium Editions, etc... They have O-360, 180HP engines in there, and I
think the redline is also 2700. IIRC, they're supposed to get around 8.6
at 65%, and up to either 9.2 or 9.5 at 75%, depending on density altitude
and temp and all that... I could look it up for you if you want...

The planes are really nice - I like them a lot. And like I said, an extra
gallon/hr is going to work out longer than TMTBPS (Total Mean Time
Between Pee Stops) anyway. So I generally figure on 10gph and am happy to
have an extra few minutes to be sure.

That said, now that I have started my IFR training, I might have to be
more precise, since fuel planning is more critical, or should I say,
somewhat more restrictive...



"G.R. Patterson III" wrote in
:



Judah wrote:

Admittedly, I use 10 GPH on a C172 as my rule of thumb - while I do
generally lean, I also can't guarantee that I am going to do better
than 10, .....

What engine do you have in there? I burn 8.6 gph with my 160 hp O-320
and flight plan for 9. My redline is 2700 rpm, IIRC.

George Patterson
Some people think they hear a call to the priesthood when what
they really hear is a tiny voice whispering "It's indoor work with
no heavy lifting".

On Mon, 8 Dec 2003 09:33:21 -0500, "Dennis O'Connor"
wrote:

Like Dennis, I take a rather relaxed approach to flight planning, be
it VFR or IFR. That is not to say I skip any thing important, but I
check out the *initially* planned route and take a look at the weather
for the full route. Generally I do watch the weather enough to know
the trends. (The Weather Channel is the most watched channel in our
house)

Well, a cross country is just a series of one hour flights strung end to
end... To go for a one hour flight I simply check the weather and notams,
and if there are no show stoppers we get into the plane and launch in the
general direction of where we want to be... To go from one end of the
country to the other, I do exactly the same - wx / notams / fuel / go...

IE...be flexible. Like battle plans, it's a rare one that survives
the first encounter with the enemy. I don't think I've flown a long
cross county yet where I didn't have to detour a bit and often by
quite a bit. I'm not at all hesitant to swing 300 or more miles to
one side or the other to avoid something (weather, TFRs...what ever)

Fuel stops are usually not preplanned, about two and a half hours out I
start looking ahead an hour for the fuel stop... I try to go to a different
airport for fuel on every trip even if it is the twentieth time I've flown
the route.. I do avoid the jet ports simply because they have high fuel
prices, though...

My fuels stops are kinda, sorta planned. I want an hours worth in the
tanks when I set down. As soon as I reach my assigned altitude and
have a stabilized cruise I can almost pick where I will need to stop
with my comfort factor with just a glance at the GPS. The same would
be true from watching the scenery. I do not use formal check points,
but I know where I am and how far this town is from that town and it
looks like I may have about a 40 knot head wind...I think accordingly.
If you fly the same airplane all the time you start thinking in terms
of no wind distance and adjust accordingly for real world conditions..
You won't even need a calculator.


The Howie Keith Charts are the easiest I've found and I have used them off
and on for decades... The GPS195 keeps me from blundering into controlled /
restricted airspace, and the airport database makes it easy to look an hour
ahead for an airport with fuel.. Out west where the airports are further
apart I do a smidgen more preplanning on the fuel stop, but that's all...

So, my flight planning is the absolute minimum possible in todays
airspace... The reality over most of the country is that you are within ten
minutes of an airport... Relax and look at this beautiful country instead of
sweating over check points and being exactly on time with your flight
plan...

I do carry both VFR and IFR charts. I have the one handy for where
ever I happen to be located. I normally don't fly airways in the mid
west and even most of the area to the east of the Rockies (if I'm high
enough) Most of the time I pick a nav aid, or airport in each ATC
area and go direct from one to the next. When I do fly airways I find
that I can expect to be diverted off airways when in or near busy
areas and end up with vectors, or "direct when able" so some nav aid.
Typically I can at that point request direct to something even more
direct.

Like Dennis, "I think" a lot of the flight planning we do is mental.
We know our planes well. We know the fuel burn very well. Even with
two engines on "Fat Albert" I think it and the Deb are pretty close in
fuel consumption.

In any case, we've gone through all the fine points of detailed flight
planning and enjoy plain old fashioned pilotage. OTOH we can file and
go on days where we'd otherwise have to stay on the ground. Still,
there are many days up here in the north where we are still ground
bound due to ice, thunderstorms, or wind.

Roger (K8RI)


Denny


"Jay Honeck" wrote in message
news:r4SAb.459877$Tr4.1276545@attbi_s03...
Having received my PPL recently and been on several cross countries, I
was
wondering how extensive of a flight plan do people prepare before the
trip?

Last spring we flew from Iowa to Florida, with a stop in Alabama, with
less
formal flight planning then when I prepared for my first few 50-mile
student
cross country flights.

We subscribe to Aeroplanner, an on-line flight planning service, and
create
Sectional Chart "Trip Tiks" in .pdf format upon request, printing them on
my
color laser printer at work. This pretty much wraps up our "flight
planning" in the traditional sense, except for programming everything into
our AvMap GPS. Aeroplanner literally does everything for you, including
drawing the line on the charts, right down to the 10 nm "ticks"... (It
also
creates sectionals on 8.5 x 11 inch sheets, in flip-chart form, so you
don't
have the "octopus arms" of charts in the cockpit.)

That said, it's the weather prep that really matters on a long cross
country
flight -- and, if anything, this has gotten MORE extensive over the years.
For several days before a flight, we'll study the weather patterns on The
Weather Channel. I'll get a really thorough outlook briefing the night
before a flight, and then a standard weather briefing the morning of the
flight.

I'll virtually live on ADDS and a host of other weather websites, tracking
the METARS and TAFS along our route of flight. I'll try to be aware of
trends and anomalies in the weather pattern. If they're predicting crap
weather the day before a flight, and it's sunny, I'll be very aware that
the
NWS has no clue what's happening.

Finally, for vacations we always plan at least three flights. If the
weather is socked in to the North, we'll choose our "Southern Option". If
it looks bad that way, too, we'll choose our Western Option. We always
leave our options open, and we always leave at least one "contingency day"
in our flight plans.

This procedure has worked well for almost ten years, and almost 900 hours.
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"
"Nasir" wrote in message
news

Do you guys do all the checkpoints on a map, calculate
time/distance/fuel
to
each leg? Do you just draw the line on the map and mark checkpoints that
you
expect to see but not calculate other things? Do you always calculate
winds
aloft and fly the appropriate heading?

I have found myself getting lazy and I dont do all that I did when
planning
x-countries when I was training. I tend to draw my line and mark
checkpoints, make sure I have plenty of fuel to get to my destination
(plus
an hour more) based on 6gal/hr average. But I dont calculate
time/distance/fuel to each leg. I also have a GPS so that makes getting
lazy
easier!

How much do you all plan before each x-country? Am I the only slacker?

Nasir






Roger Halstead (K8RI & ARRL life member)
(N833R, S# CD-2 Worlds oldest Debonair?)
www.rogerhalstead.com
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