Prior Proper Planning Prevents…

Before you venture off on a cross-country flight, what is your pre-flight planning routine?

Do you watch the local weather, add just enough fuel to legally reach your destination then blast

off? Or do you call Flight Service for a standard briefing, analyze the weather yourself, and go

through all of the steps you were taught in initial flight training? Most people would probably

fall somewhere in the middle of these two scenarios. What follows is a discussion about how our

pre-flight preparations can mitigate the chances for an accident before we leave the ground.

Let’s use a cross-country scenario as an example. If I decide to fly in my Bonanza from

Fairmont, MN to Wichita, KS three days from now, I’m going to start planning today. Initially

I’ll look at the Prognostic Chart on http://www.aviationweather.gov. It’s a good idea to look at the

forecasted trend in frontal movement and precipitation.

Then about a day before the flight I’ll start going through the NWKRAFT (NOTAMS, Weather, Known ATC delays, Runway lengths, Alternates, Fuel requirements, and Takeoff and landing distances) checklist.

Even if not required, I almost always have an alternate when flying IFR. When VFR, I still make a note of airports I could land at along the way if something goes wrong. For fuel

requirements, if VFR I really prefer having one hour fuel reserve and for IFR instead of the 45

minute fuel reserve requirement I like to have an hour’s worth left in the tanks. If that means

that I have to make an extra fuel stop I’m okay with that. I never want the embarrassment or

danger of running out of fuel while in the air. Regarding NOTAMS, now that the weather is

improving more, airports will have construction happening so it’s important to check on runway

and taxiway closures ahead of time.

The day of my flight to Wichita, I am going to use the PAVE (Pilot, Aircraft, enVironment, and External pressures) IMSAFE (Illness, Medication, Stress, Alcohol, Fatigue, and Emotion) checklists, making sure that I’ve accounted for all of the variables involved. For the weather briefing, I don’t always call a briefer but I will get a complete weather briefing whether it’s calling Flight Service, using 800WXBRIEF.com, or getting a briefing from ForeFlight. If calling a briefer I like to have a prognostic chart or current observations in front of me so that I can see what they’re seeing. If the weather looks questionable at my destination or along the route, I am going to have an out. I’ll decide on an airport to turn back to or wait out the weather at.

Having a thorough plan in place can help prevent a host of bad scenarios and give you a

fun and rewarding flight.