The regulations continue in these words: "This information must include - (a) For a flight under IFR or a flight not in the vicinity of an airport, weather reports and forecasts, fuel requirements, alternatives available if the planned flight cannot be completed, and any known traffic delays of which the pilot in command has been advised by ATC.
"(b) For any flight, runway lengths at airports of intended use...takeoff and landing distance information...other reliable information appropriate to the aircraft...aircraft performance under expected values of airport elevation and runway slope, aircraft gross weight, wind, and temperature."
Failure To Plan Has A Price
Fuel planning is especially critical, and it's just as important for a local flight as for a long one. Check out these abstracts from one recent year's NTSB accident reports. As you read, think about the role flight planning might or might not have played in incident.
October 20: "...no fuel [was] found in the fuel tanks..." of a Cessna 172 that crashed short of the runway when returning from a night round-robin cross-country flight in Arizona.
November 12: A private pilot flying a Cessna 172 from Utah to Wyoming "...lowered the fuel level three inches before takeoff 'to keep from exceeding the airplane's maximum gross weight.'" He was transporting himself, three passengers, and their luggage. The aircraft made a forced landing seven miles short of its destination after losing engine power. The accident report did not mention fuel remaining (or not remaining) in the tanks, but the airplane had been flying for more than three hours.
November 18: "Only unusable fuel..." was found in the tanks of a Cessna 150 that crashed three hours and 48 minutes after initial takeoff on a night flight.
November 19: According to the FAA, the only fuel found in an airplane whose pilot made a forced landing on a city street in Phoenix shortly after nine o'clock one morning "...appeared to be in the airplane manufacturer's specified unusable range...."
December 12: A Piper Tri-Pacer lost power during initial climb and crashed during the ensuing forced landing. An FAA inspector stated, "No fuel was visually found in the airplane's fuel tank or gascolator...there was no evidence of a fuel spill, and no odor or fuel....The pilot reported that both of the airplane's fuel gauges were indicating half full...."
All this in less than two months. And these are only some of the more obvious fuel-related accidents. Certainly, fuel is something we need to consider every time we fly. But a careful fuel calculation isn't the only element of your plan.
A P-L-A-N You Can Count On
Whether you're going on a local VFR flight to your airport's practice area or you're flying IFR all the way across the country, you must have a plan or you can't do what the regulations require. The letters in the word plan itself can serve as a checklist for you. Plan every flight you take. Think through it from beginning to end, reviewing everything you will do. Learn more about every flight than you think you need to know. Always leave yourself an out. Have a backup plan and don't go where you have no options. Never take anything for granted. Check and double-check.
A useful but now out-of-print FAA publication, On Flight Planning, says, "The basic elements of preflight preparation require the use of a current navigational chart on which the pilot can mentally review his intended route of flight...across the face of the map for the location of good check points, restricted areas, obstructions, and other flight hazards." It adds, "Weight and balance data should be computed..."
Zeroing in on fuel problems, it says, "Weather involvement continues to be one of the most relentless causal factors in aircraft accidents....Special attention should be given to fuel requirements..." allowing for adequate reserves.
Are all of these points on your personal flight-planning checklist? Should they be?
Much required by FAR 91.103 is left unwritten. Experts agree that it provides bare minimum planning requirements. Jeppesen's Federal Aviation Regulations Explained notes that, "The FAA may allege that nearly any violation was contributed to by a failure to take all necessary preflight action in accordance with 91.103." So it pays to plan all of your flights, not just cross-countries.
I classify my flights as quickies, marathons, or something in between. Regardless of which kind of flight you make most often, the planning should be essentially the same as for your cross-country flights. Only the areas that you emphasize and the depth of your planning should vary.
For me, marathon flights are usually cross-country flights involving places to which I seldom fly. On these flights, I focus especially on such things as notams, unfamiliar terrain and airspace, extended fuel planning computations, complete routing, potential hazards, alternate airports (even if I'm flying VFR), and unique factors. Many more "what ifs" and other contingency plans come into play in this sort of go-someplace flying.
I always think through the flight from the planning process itself to securing the airplane at the end. For example, if a mountain airport is involved, I know that weight could be a factor. I try to think about every possible circumstance. As a result, I compute climb performance at arrival gross weights for every en-route stop, because I might have to perform a go-around. I want to be certain that I have enough climb performance and runway length to make that a safe option.
Most flights for me, however, are quickies - instructional flights with students and other short hops of three hours or less within 50 miles of my home airport in Colorado Springs. Even so, flying several airplanes with different systems involves continual study. One airplane's normal procedure might start trouble in another.
Maybe you have some standard local area profiles you use for proficiency practice. Do they include the sequence and timing of what you plan to do?
Local flights at first might seem inherently less complicated because you think you have planned them in detail many, many times. In truth, they require just as much thought as longer flights. You still need to plan, but your planning will have a different focus.
Every flight - no matter how brief - must begin with a thorough preflight. For me, a good preflight is a constant, whether I plan to stay in the pattern or travel 1,000 miles. That preflight is part of the planning process, and what I find during the preflight can completely change the rest of my plan. Though I am already familiar with the local area, notams and weather are high on the list of preflight checks I always make. Get a weather briefing before every flight. Even though fuel consumption is not usually a problem on a local flight, you still need to think about it. Don't forget takeoff and landing data, either. The regulations require nothing less.
Even when you're flying locally, make sure you cover performance, preflight, timing and sequencing of events or maneuvers, checkpoints, maps and charts, fuel reserves, new or changed procedures, notams, weather, and anything else you can think of in your preflight planning. Each of these items is quick and easy to do, and doing them consistently can help to keep you out of trouble. If you're so complacent that you think you don't need to take the time to get a handle on the big picture for your flight, you are setting yourself up for trouble.
Learn More Than You Think You Need To Know
When you think you have your flight fully planned, step back and take one more look. Dig into areas about which you still have even the smallest questions. You need all the answers before you launch.
Undoubtedly, you've used current IFR charts for IFR cross-country planning. But what happens if you lose an engine en route while you're in instrument meteorological conditions? Have you taken the time to get the appropriate VFR sectional charts and draw IFR course lines on them to see what kind of terrain lies under your route? That's where you'll have to land, so it's a good idea to know what you're getting into before you give up any altitude.
Especially on route segments where the terrain may be hostile, have you taken time to look at possible diversion fields in the Airport/Facility Directory for your route? It might be too late if you develop a sudden in-flight problem.
The first rule of flight planning has to be: Never take anything for granted. That includes the weather, and remember that wind is weather too. Regardless of how clear the sky is when you wake up, get a good weather briefing before you fly - and I don't mean check the TV! That's not a bad place to start, but it's definitely not enough. Even if you're flying locally several times during the day, check out the weather. That goes for every en route cross-country stop, too. The flight service specialists at 800/WX-BRIEF are as close as your phone.
While you're talking to your local flight service station, check notams as well as weather. More than once, I've intended to use nontowered airports in our local area, only to discover unexpected runway construction, glider operations or some other cautionary - sometimes prohibitive - notam. One brief call is all it takes, and my students appreciate it. It's a big waste of their money to show up at some field that is closed if you need to do touch-and-go landings.
Always Leave Yourself An Out
What would you do if, while you were airborne, the winds unexpectedly exceeded the crosswind limits of you or your airplane? How about discovering that some unlucky pilot made a gear-up landing and is stuck in the middle of the only runway suitable for existing winds?
Hopefully your preflight thinking includes the orientation of nearby runways so that you can choose a landing site better aligned with a strong wind. Part 91.103 of the federal aviation regulations requires you to have "alternatives available if the planned flight cannot be completed."
When it comes to considering alternatives, expand your thinking. Try to anticipate a few of the off-the-wall things that might happen and preplan your way out of them. The more unusual the situation, the more important your planning will be if it does happen.
Never Take Details For Granted
Some pilots habitually skip the preflight weather briefing. Many of these pilots seem to think that since they can see the sky, they know what the weather is doing. This is a big mistake - and it's where details come in. Sure, looking out your window can tell you part of what the weather is doing right now in the area you can see. But an airplane will quickly take you out of that area into places you can't see. Besides, there is plenty of important but invisible weather all around you like winds and temperatures aloft and dewpoints.
More than half of the pilots who have had accidents didn't bother to get a weather briefing before they took off. Don't become part of that statistic as this pilot did:
A Cessna 172 touched down in trees while attempting a precautionary landing in Florida. According to the NTSB, the pilot's weather briefing came from the Weather Channel that morning.
The private pilot had launched from Geneva, Alabama, and headed to Elba, Alabama, where he intended to refuel. Arriving at Elba, however, he found the field fogged in. He continued to Enterprise, Alabama, which was also fogged in. He then returned to Geneva, only to discover that it had also become fogged in. After making distress calls, the pilot found a clear area, attempted a downwind landing, overshot, and crashed. Weather was a detail this pilot omitted when planning for his local flight.
That's not the only detail pilots overlook. Some consider current charts an unimportant detail, others can't be bothered to visually check fuel and oil levels before takeoff. Develop your own list of details. Include items that you want to be sure to cover and those tasks you'd rather avoid, because those are the easiest details to overlook.
There's a lot more to consider and, at best, these ideas about planning are nuggets of information for you to think about. Remember, better planning means fewer surprises.
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