Today was not a good day to flight under visual conditions: weather has been bad and gave some very low ceiling clouds (500 feet above ground at some point). So in these conditions, there is no way we can fly under Visual Flight Rules only. This is a weather that calls for Instrument use.

We had planned for 2 hours of flight but ended doing only 1 of ground training. We had talked about several days about preparing for the flight to Fort Smith, the first cross country flight. This weather issue is going to give us a break and allow us to prepare the flight properly.

The session would be divided into 2 parts: how to prepare a flight and preparing the flight to Fort Smith.

How to prepare a flight

There is a series of steps that you have to go through which are fairly logic. Here are my original notes. I will have to clean them and type them for reference but they are enough for the moment to prepare the flight.

I’m also using a flight planner form for capturing all the information to be collected. It is a form from ASA. They provide pre-printed notepad with the form. It’s pretty handy and contains all the information required in flight for all types of navigation when flying VFR.

Planning the trip to Fort Smith

So the goal was to plan a trip to go to Forth Smith. After locating the airport on the map, I’ve started to look at the most straight path and realize that not far from the  straight path, were actually Victor Airways. This means that radio navigation systems or VORs are present. Looking properly at the maps, they are actually placed favorably and can be used in this case for the navigation to Fort Smith. I will retain this option to do the planning of the cross country.

Now that I have determined the path I would like to use, I can call the weather briefer to get the information about the weather. Actually, I could have done it with the computer by going to the DUAT web site. It contains all the information to register a flight plan and also to get a weather briefing. Michael wants me to use the traditional over the phone so I’m calling them. The number is easy to remember: 1-800-WX-BRIEF. Here are getting in touch with someone after a series of automated prompt. The briefer asked me what I wanted and I’m telling him that I want a complete briefing for tomorrow between KVBT and KFSM. After providing some information about my plane (registration number, color…), he finally gives me all the information that I wanted. What I was the most concerned was the wind, once we have established that the weather would be most likely ok for a VFR flight.

I did not realize immediately but actually, while I was asking for the weather, the briefer collected enough information to create a flight plan. This means that tomorrow, I should be able to call the FSS and open the flight plan… This concludes my discussion with the briefer and I can continue the planning.

We already have the POH for the plane so it is easy to go pick the information required in it.

The other information that I will need is the compass card from the plane. This gives the magnetic deviation between the magnetic north and the direction indicated by the main compass.

After reporting all the waypoints onto the form, I can start measuring the distance with the plotter and the true north. I’m also putting the altitude. I have the wind information so I can put fill the next two columns. Now that we have the true course and the wind, we can calculate the WCA or Wind Correction Angle. This is giving us where the plane should be pointing at to counteract the drifting effect of the wind. Now we have to correct from the fact that the Earth is not rotating around the North magnetic center, the information is on the map and provide an East or West correction angle (3 East or –3). Finally, I need to incorporate the magnetic deviation to include the limitation of the instrument. This gives our compass heading and therefore the direction we will have to follow. It is reported in the column post the identification of the checkpoints.

The Plan TAS (True Air Speed), this is the POH of the plane that will give it to me. We have established the weight and balance of the plane prior to establishing the plan so we know the weight of the plan full and we will leave with a full tank. This is giving us the speed for each phase of the flight. From take off, cruising and descent and landing. The POH also gives us the fuel consumption expected for taxiing… Nice!

So with the planned true, we need to correct it for wind effect, which give a ground speed. That ground speed and the distance allows us to calculate the time required to go from one checkpoint to the next. this gives us the ETE or Estimated Time En-route. Knowing how much time we are in the air and the amount of fuel consumed, we can determine our fuel burn.

So after doing all the calculation, I’m getting an estimate of 35 minutes to get to Forth Smith and a little over 5 gallons of fuel used.

On the sheet, I’m reporting also some extra information that are in other books but that I will need. That includes the VOR frequency, the Morse code for the identification, the radial that I need to follow and the TO/FROM! But I’m including also information about the airport like the runways, the important frequencies and also the different FSS. One information I’ve forgotten to put are the pattern altitude.