VFR Guide - Royal Institute of Navigation

More documents

Recommendations

Info

1. General preparation Good planning is the basis of safe and easy navigation. First of all, information on the maps and charts to be used must be up-to-date. The AIP, AICs and NOTAMs may change the information on a map, and pilots must know how and where to find information in these documents. NATS publishes these, and chart amendments, free on the AIS web site. Using the most recently published charts reduces the work load considerably. 2. Choosing the route The basic route can be chosen well in advance, and flown when conditions are suitable. a. Refer to the AIP and AICs, commercial flight guides and aerodrome web sites to check for procedures and any restrictions at your destination. Telephone for permission to land and useful additional information; advisable even if the aerodrome is not published as PPR. Note radio frequencies and the times they are manned, and plan your arrival to make a standard „overhead‟ join unless special procedures are published. Possible problems b. Choose a start point you can guarantee finding from any runway at your departure airfield. Study the most direct route to the destination. Check the chart, AICs and nav warnings for any hazards which might affect your route. Plan turning points to avoid flying close to these, and to restricted and controlled airspace (if you intend to fly through controlled airspace, plan a back-up route which avoids it). Look to stay away from unlandable terrain. Adjust turning points to simplify the choice and visibility of good fixes. Try to avoid flying over aerodromes, gliding sites etc; you may be forced to fly low because of weather and avoiding their traffic would increase your workload. Mark any remaining hazards and/or places you may need to make appropriate radio calls. Select suitable fixes along the route, and draw drift lines or other guidelines if desired. www.rin.org.uk 1 Mar 2012
Select turning points and fixes, plan radio calls c. Select a suitable altitude to fly. Decide what minimum altitude you are prepared to fly at (a safe margin above the highest obstacle near the route), and what minimum cloudbase you can accept, dividing the route into sectors if you wish. Controlled airspace may determine a maximum altitude also. Identify areas of possible bad weather, and safe routes to suitable diversion aerodromes if the weather or aircraft unserviceability makes that advisable. Check these aerodromes are available. Study your selected turning points and fix points to ensure you can identify them early from your direction of travel and can use them to avoid hazards. Remind yourself of the in-flight procedures you will use – refer to the RIN guide on “Visual Navigation Techniques”. d. Identify information (such as aerodrome and instrument traffic) you should get by radio, and plan when to ask for it. Practise making the relevant transmissions. e. Obtain a preliminary weather forecast (perhaps from TV or internet). Make an initial estimate of the time needed for the route in the probable wind conditions. Add a safety margin of at least half an hour (or 20% if greater) at this stage. Calculate the fuel required for that time. Check the times of darkness. f. Fill in the navigation log/flight planning form with all the information available. Tracks, distances, safe altitudes, variation, TAS (probably) and fuel consumption rates can be written down. Identify areas of probably high traffic density, such as „funnels‟ through controlled airspace or terrain, or instrument approaches. List the radio frequencies of radar units, aerodromes, controlled airspace, and danger area services which you may need along the route or in case of diversion (check with NOTAMs and the NATS web site for amendments). List navigation aid frequencies, identification (you may wish to write down the morse dots and dashes), and protected ranges from the AIP and NOTAMs. Note any „listening squawks‟ near controlled airspace. www.rin.org.uk 2 Mar 2012
Page 1: VFR ROUTE PLANNING for General Avia
Page 5 and 6: 3. Preliminary aircraft preparation
Page 7 and 8: 6. Aircraft completion a. Check the

VFR Guide - Royal Institute of Navigation

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

Delete template?

Save as template?