Don ’ t Let ICAO Sneak Up on You ! By Rose Marie Kern 2016
For years now the FAA has been moving towards changing all flight plans , both VFR and IFR filed within the U . S . border to ICAO . A few years ago ICAO Flight Plans were required for IFR flights requesting RVSM handling , then it was required of all aircraft crossing the ADIZ . As of the end of January 2017 , ALL flight plans will be required to use the ICAO form .
But it doesn ’ t have to be painful . For GA aircraft doing VFR flights , most of the information entered into the current domestic flight plans is the same , it just looks a little different . If you call flight service , you give all the same information for all but three fields of the flight plan . What ’ s new is the type of flight field , the wake turbulence category and the equipment field . There are a lot of extra fields in the bottom half of the flight plan – but they are not required for domestic flights .
Say you are going to travel from home to Oshkosh . You have a nice little one prop aircraft . Right now your flight plan looks like this :
VFR , N12345 , C210 / A , 145kts , Departing RWF , at 1300z , altitude 095 , Route , Destination , ETE , Fuel , POB , Pilot Contact Info , and color of aircraft .
The ICAO form uses the same information in a different order , and adds fields for type of flight ( G is General Aviation ) and Wake Turbulence ( in this case L for Light Aircraft ) and Surveillance Equipment ( usually Mode A or C ).
N12334 , VFR , G- ( General ), C210 , L ( light ), SD , A , Departing KRWF , 1300z , N0145 , A095 , Route , KOSH , ETE , FUEL , POB , Acft Color and Pilot contact information .
Again , most of it is the same . The speed adds “ N ” for Knots and is 4 digits . The Departure and Destination airports include the “ K ” indicating these are airports inside the U . S . The Altitude begins with “ A ” if it is below the flight levels .
The departure , destination and alternate airports must use the K to identify them as U . S . airports . Smaller alphanumeric airports will not be picked up in those fields so you must use ZZZZ and then place the actual airport identifier in the OTHER INFORMATION field . (/ DEP 5V5 ). Airports in the route field just use the domestic 3 letter ID .
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