ATC Flight Plan — Page 227, Lesson 229

I want to walk you through the ATC flight plan chapter. We're starting with an important distinction about what happens after you submit a flight plan, depending on what service you're asking for. If you submit a flight plan to obtain air traffic control service — that's the full ATC service with clearances and separation — your aircraft is required to wait for an air traffic control clearance before you proceed under conditions that require compliance with ATC procedures. In other words, you file the plan, then you sit and wait for a specific clearance from ATC before you move. On the other hand, if you submit a flight plan to obtain air traffic advisory service — which is a less formal service, typically used in advisory airspace — your aircraft is required to wait for acknowledgement of receipt from the unit providing that service. So instead of a clearance, you're waiting for them to say "we've got your plan." That's a different threshold. Now let's look at what happens when a flight plan is accepted. The first air traffic services unit that receives your flight plan — or any change to it — has four specific jobs. First, they check it for compliance with the format and data conventions — so they make sure you've filled it out correctly according to the standard template. Second, they check it for completeness and, to the extent possible, for accuracy. Third, if necessary, they take action to make it acceptable to the air traffic services. And fourth, they indicate acceptance of the flight plan — or the change — back to you, the originator. Then we move into the general section on RPLs — that stands for Repetitive Flight Plans. These are not for every flight. RPLs shall not be used for flights other than IFR flights — instrument flight rules — that are operated regularly on the same day or days of consecutive weeks, and on at least ten consecutive occasions, or every day over a period of at least ten consecutive days. So it's for a repeating pattern of IFR operations. The elements of each flight plan must have a high degree of stability — meaning the route, timing, aircraft type, and so on don't change much from one occurrence to the next. There's an important note here: permissible incidental changes to RPL data that affect the operation for one particular day are not intended to be a modification of the listed RPL. So if you need to tweak something for just one day, that doesn't permanently alter the repetitive plan itself. RPLs must cover the entire flight from the departure aerodrome to the destination aerodrome. And RPL procedures shall be applied only when all ATS authorities concerned with the flights have agreed to accept RPLs. So every air traffic service unit along the route has to be on board. For international flights, the use of RPLs by States is subject to the provision that the affected adjacent States either already use RPLs or will use them at the same time. The procedures for use between States shall be the subject of bilateral, multilateral, or regional air navigation agreements as appropriate. So you can't just start using RPLs across a border without coordination. Now let's talk about changes to RPL listings. There are two categories: permanent and temporary. Changes of a permanent nature — these involve including new flights, or deleting or modifying currently listed flights. They must be submitted in the form of amendment listings. And these listings shall reach the air traffic services agency concerned at least seven days prior to the change becoming effective. So you need to give a week's notice for permanent changes. Changes of a temporary nature — these are temporary, non-recurring changes relating to RPLs. They concern the aircraft type and wake turbulence category, speed, and/or cruising level. These must be notified for each individual flight as early as possible and not later than 30 minutes before departure to the ATS reporting office responsible for the departure aerodrome. So you've got a 30-minute deadline for temporary changes. There's a special provision: a change of cruising level only may be notified by radio-telephony on initial contact with the ATS unit. So if all you're changing is the altitude, you can just call it in on the radio when you first talk to ATC. But here's the critical rule: in the case of an incidental change in the aircraft identification, the departure aerodrome, the route, and/or the destination aerodrome, the RPL shall be cancelled for the day concerned and an individual flight plan shall be submitted. So if any of those four key elements change — who you are, where you're leaving from, where you're going, or how you're getting there — the repetitive plan is dead for that day, and you must file a standard one-off flight plan instead.