2-Student Questions

[flygirl39]

Couple of quick questions:

1. If i decide to make a flight say from my home airport to just go out and do some sight seeing would/should you open a flight plan? There would be no stops inbetween. The distance would be say 20 to 30 NM away from the home airport.

2. Using the same numbers above can I get Flight Following for this or is Flight Following just for when you are going from one airport to your destination airport. I am not sure if they will help if a pilot is just going out to see some sights.

Thank you again for everyone's help

[sopdan]

Originally Posted by flygirl39

Couple of quick questions:

1. If i decide to make a flight say from my home airport to just go out and do some sight seeing would/should you open a flight plan? There would be no stops inbetween. The distance would be say 20 to 30 NM away from the home airport.

2. Using the same numbers above can I get Flight Following for this or is Flight Following just for when you are going from one airport to your destination airport. I am not sure if they will help if a pilot is just going out to see some sights.

Thank you again for everyone's help

I'm not sure if you're a student pilot vs. private pilot, for my answers I'll assume private. If you're a student, be sure to do things with approval from your CFI.

1. I personally would not file, though there's nothing wrong with opening a flight plan. Where I teach/fly, for every flight you tell dispatch where you're going and when you'll be back, so there's not much of a need for a flight plan for a local flight.

2. Yes, you can get flight following. Remember that flight following is workload permitting, so the controller can refuse or dump you at anytime; however, in my experience ATC is usually very accommodating, just tell them where you are and what you want to do and they'll help you out.

[BrianNC]

Another thing, and I realize this more as I am going for my commercial, if you are going to be getting other ratings, or need x-cntry hours for your private, always try to kill two birds with one stone. If I was going to fly out 30 miles, I would just add another 20 and land somewhere to get x-ctry hours that can be used for other ratings. I would make every dollar count.

When I did my solo long x-cnty for my private back when it had to be 300 miles, if I would have been thinking about the commercial at the time, I would have gone 250 miles from my original starting point to satisfy the requirement for the commercial solo long x-cntry at the same time. I went over 200 miles from my original starting point, but not 250. I would have put the extra miles in and now wouldn't have to be spending the money for a solo x-cntry with one point 250 miles straight line distance from my starting point.

I know this isn't what you asked but just thought I would throw it in due to the nature of your post.

[DMBinHBurg]

I would not file a flight plan but I WOULD ask for flight following. I do this a lot. Just give ATC an idea of where you will be flying and at what altitude. You can even tell them it is for just sight seeing or photography. Haven't been turned down ever. They are usually more than happy to help.

T

[towhook]

Originally Posted by flygirl39

Couple of quick questions:

1. If i decide to make a flight say from my home airport to just go out and do some sight seeing would/should you open a flight plan? There would be no stops inbetween. The distance would be say 20 to 30 NM away from the home airport.

2. Using the same numbers above can I get Flight Following for this or is Flight Following just for when you are going from one airport to your destination airport. I am not sure if they will help if a pilot is just going out to see some sights.

Thank you again for everyone's help

1. There is no specific 'should' to opening a flight plan. The idea is that if you are laying out in the wilderness with some broken legs and no cell reception you can have the peace of mind that they are going to come looking for you (and hey, you even told them where to look). Distance from the airport doesn't really matter to me. How far you are from civilization is probably a more important factor. Your call. Flight plans also help you manage fuel, analyze wx, look at routing, find out about notam/tfr's, etc.

2. ATC is great. They will really try hard to help you get whatever you want, but they have their priorities. Mostly they fit everyone in though.

It's not so different then if you were going out camping or hiking. Sometimes it feels good to set off into the wilderness alone, with the intent of being self sufficient. Knowing you are on your own can add some excitement to the journey. Of course, tell that to the guy who had to cut off his own arm when he got stuck canyoneering in southern Utah... never hurts to let someone know where you are going and when to expect your return, even if it is just a buddy.

Personally, for that flight I prob wouldn't do 1 or 2, but I am lazy.

[flygirl39]

Awesome, thanx for your advise everyone!!

[aviatorrbt]

Flight following is the greatest help any outsider could give to a VFR pilot. I even use it when I am within 15 nm of an airport for safety reasons... if they are willing to keep a radar eye out it keeps everyone safer.