ATC Flight Plan — Page 215, Lesson 213

I want to walk you through the ATC flight plan — the formal document you file with Air Traffic Control before every flight under instrument flight rules or whenever the regulations require it. Let's start with the specimen shown in Figure 12.1. The aircraft in this example plans to join the airway UR14. An airway is a designated air route with a coded designator — here UR14 is the designator. The aircraft will fly along UR14 to the Strumble VOR. VOR stands for VHF Omnidirectional Range, a ground-based navigation beacon. Strumble's call sign is STU. At Strumble, the aircraft changes to airway UG1 and continues to the navigation facility at Woodley, call sign WOD. From Woodley, it plans to fly direct — abbreviated DCT — to Ockham VOR, call sign OCK. So the route is: join UR14, fly to Strumble, switch to UG1, go to Woodley, then direct to Ockham. The destination aerodrome is London Heathrow, whose ICAO four-letter code is EGLL. The total planned flight time is 50 minutes, written as 0050 in the plan. The alternate airfield — the backup airport if you cannot land at the destination — is Birmingham, code EGBB. The aircraft registration is GBGJG. This aircraft requires special handling because it is a Hospital aircraft, abbreviated HOSP. That means it is carrying medical patients or supplies and may need priority. The estimated elapsed time, or EET, to the London FIR boundary is 15 minutes after take-off. FIR stands for Flight Information Region; London FIR has the code EGTT. So 15 minutes after wheels-up, this aircraft will reach the edge of the London FIR, written as 0015. Now let's look at Item 19: Supplementary Information. This is a critical point — this information is not to be transmitted in the FPL message. FPL stands for Flight Plan. Item 19 is only required when an aircraft is overdue and the emergency services have been alerted. So it stays on the ground with the flight planning office until it is needed for search and rescue. The total endurance of the aircraft is 2 hours 30 minutes, written as 0230. Endurance means the total time the aircraft can remain airborne, including reserves. There are 103 persons on board — that's passengers and crew combined. The aircraft is fitted with separate emergency radios: UHF, abbreviated U, and VHF, abbreviated V. It also carries a crash-activated emergency locator beacon, abbreviated E. That beacon automatically activates in a crash to help rescuers find the wreckage. For survival equipment, the aircraft carries maritime survival equipment, code M, and life jackets, code J. Those life jackets are fitted with a sea-activated light, code L, and fluorescent dye, code F. The light helps rescuers see you at night; the dye creates a visible patch on the water. The aircraft also carries 10 inflatable dinghies, code D, whose total capacity is 150 people. The colour of the dinghies' covers, code C, is yellow. So if rescuers see yellow dinghy covers, they know these are from this aircraft. The aircraft has blue and grey markings, and the pilot in command is Yendle — that's the captain's name. Now let's move to Item 15, which the book calls the most complex item on the flight plan. Item 15 requires details of the aircraft's route, changes of route, speed, level, and/or flight rules. Sub-items must be in capital letters and separated by a space. The route details start after an arrow symbol on the form. Here is the aide-memoire for filling in the route details. First, the ATS route entry — that's 2 to 7 characters. You enter the coded designator assigned to the route or route segment, for example UB37 or R14. Where appropriate, you also enter the coded designator for a standard instrument departure route, called a SID, or a standard arrival route, called a STAR. Examples given are OCK 1C and MAY 1J. Next come the points of change, which are 2 to 11 characters. You enter the coded designator assigned to the point — that's 2 to 5 characters. Examples from the book are EX, MAY, LOVEL, PORGY, and SCROD. These are waypoints or navigation fixes where the route changes, such as from one airway to another or from a SID to the en-route structure. So to summarise: Item 15 captures your entire planned route in a coded, capital-letter format, starting with the airway or SID/STAR designator, then listing each point where the route changes, using the standard five-letter or shorter codes for those fixes. This is the information ATC uses to clear you along your intended path.