VFR Cross-country Flight Planning
This chapter provides an introduction to cross-country flying under visual flight rules (VFR). It contains practical information for planning and executing cross-country flights for the beginning pilot.
Air navigation is the process of piloting an aircraft from one geographic position to another while monitoring one’s position as the flight progresses. It introduces the need for planning, which includes plotting the course on an aeronautical chart, selecting checkpoints, measuring distances, obtaining pertinent weather information, and computing flight time, headings, and fuel requirements. The methods used in this chapter include pilotage—navigating by reference to visible landmarks, dead reckoning—computations of direction and distance from a known position, and radio navigation—by use of radio aids.
Course Objectives
- Understand how to implement a plan before a cross-country flight and implement decisions regarding alternative actions to comply with FAR’s.
- Learn the different tasks that apply to cross-country flight, like checkpoints, tools, charts, and procedures associated with pre-flight planning.
- Demonstrate the required knowledge of flight information sources to plan and develop a cross-country flight.
