Rules of the Air — Page 111, Lesson 179

I want to walk you through the next block of the Rules of the Air — the administrative machinery that keeps flight plans and clearances working. We're starting fresh with the Repetitive Flight Plan. A Repetitive Flight Plan, abbreviated RPL, is a flight plan related to a series of frequently recurring, regularly operated flights with identical basic features. The Operator submits it once, and it's retained and used repeatedly by the ATCU — that's the Air Traffic Control Unit. So instead of filing a fresh plan every single day for the same shuttle route, the operator files one master plan and the controller keeps it on file. But there are strict conditions for using an RPL. These flights must be operated on the same day or days of consecutive weeks, and they must be flown on at least 10 occasions. Alternatively, they can be flown every day over a period of at least 10 consecutive days. And there must be a high degree of stability in the elements of the flights — meaning the route, the times, the aircraft type, the whole profile stays essentially the same every time. If the operation isn't that predictable, an RPL isn't appropriate. Now let's look at closing a flight plan — the arrival report. Unless the operator or local procedures say otherwise, a report of arrival is to be made in person, by radio, or via data link, as soon as possible after landing. It goes to the appropriate ATSU — that's the Air Traffic Services Unit — at the arrival aerodrome. This applies to any flight, or portion of a flight, for which a flight plan has been submitted. On receipt of that arrival report at the ATSU, the flight plan shall be closed. That's the formal act of closing it. There's a fallback provision. When communications facilities are known to be inadequate, and alternative message handling facilities don't exist, a message comparable to an arrival report is to be transmitted by the aircraft. So the aircraft itself sends something equivalent. Why does this matter so much? Whenever an arrival report is required, failure to comply may cause serious disruption in the air traffic services and incur great expense in carrying out unnecessary SAR operations — search and rescue. If the controller doesn't know you've landed, they assume you might be down somewhere, and they launch a search. That's expensive and dangerous to other traffic. The arrival report made by an aircraft is to contain five specific items: aircraft identification; departure aerodrome; destination aerodrome; arrival aerodrome; and time of arrival. Note that destination and arrival aerodrome can differ — for example, if you diverted, your filed destination might not be where you actually landed. Next, delays of flight plans. If you've submitted a flight plan and you're delayed, there are thresholds. For a controlled flight, a delay of 30 minutes in excess of estimated off-block time — that's EOBT, the time you expect to push back — triggers action. For an uncontrolled flight, the threshold is a delay of 1 hour. In either case, the flight plan should be either amended, or cancelled and a new flight plan submitted. So you don't just sit on the old plan; you update it or replace it. Now, time. Co-ordinated Universal Time, UTC, is to be used, expressed in hours and minutes of the 24-hour day beginning at midnight. It's used throughout the world in aviation, though you may still find references to Zulu time or GMT — those are older names for essentially the same thing. When ATC passes a time check, it's to the nearest minute. So 0941 and 20 seconds would be given as 0941; 0941 and 40 seconds would be 0942. You round to the nearest whole minute. Finally, clearances. In general, clearances consist of 5 parts. First, aircraft identification. Second, clearance limit — that's the point to which the clearance applies. Third, route. Fourth, levels — the altitudes or flight levels assigned. Fifth, other instructions — things like time or expiry, departure manoeuvres, communications, and so on. Clearances are issued solely for expediting and separating air traffic. They're based on known traffic conditions which affect safety in aircraft operations — not only to aircraft in the air and on the manoeuvring area, but also to vehicular traffic. So a clearance isn't a permission slip for your convenience; it's a traffic-management tool. And that leads into the ATC clearance proper. An ATC clearance is to be obtained before operating a controlled flight, or a portion of a flight as a controlled flight. The clearance should be requested by the submission of a flight plan to an ATCU. And the PIC — the pilot in command — may request an amended clearance if the issued one doesn't work for the situation. That's where the excerpt cuts off, but that's the foundation: file the plan, get the clearance, and if it doesn't fit, you can ask for an amendment.