Cross-Country Flight Planning

• IFR en route low-altitude charts — the instrument equivalent of the sectional, revised every 56 days (IFH ch. 1)
• Preferred routes, listed in the Chart Supplement for major terminal and en route environments — filing them means fewer route changes (IFH ch. 10)
• Tower en route control (TEC) — tower-to-tower routing beneath the en route structure between nearby terminal areas (IPH ch. 2)
• Chart Supplement for airport data, VOR receiver checkpoints, FSS and ARTCC frequencies, and special notices (IFH ch. 10)
• NOTAMs and the Terminal Procedures Publication for the procedures at each end

Check the en route chart for SUA along your route:

• Prohibited areas — flight is prohibited; a Federal airway never includes prohibited-area airspace
• Restricted areas — if the area is not active and released to the FAA, ATC lets your IFR clearance operate through it without a specific clearance to do so; if it's active, ATC issues a clearance that keeps you out
• MOAs — nonparticipating IFR traffic is cleared through only if ATC can provide IFR separation from the military activity; otherwise expect a reroute or restriction (IFH ch. 1)

TFRs pop up by NOTAM — one more reason to re-brief NOTAMs close to departure.

• Minimum en route altitude (MEA) — guarantees nav signal reception and obstacle clearance (typically 1,000 ft, 2,000 ft in designated mountainous areas)
• Minimum obstruction clearance altitude (MOCA) (charted with an asterisk, *3400) — same obstacle clearance, but nav signal assured only within 22 NM of the VOR; you may fly it below the MEA when within 22 NM (91.177(a)(1))

The rest of the charted-minimums alphabet — MRA, MCA, MAA, OROCA — is decoded under Task V.B.

Except for takeoff and landing: 1,000 ft above the highest obstacle within 4 NM of the course — 2,000 ft in designated mountainous areas (91.177(a)(2)). Climb to a higher minimum altitude begins immediately after passing the point where it applies, except an intervening obstruction means crossing the fix at or above the MCA (91.177(b)).

• In controlled airspace: whatever ATC assigned — the odd/even rule doesn't apply to you (unless cleared "VFR-on-top," in which case fly the VFR cruising altitudes of 91.159)
• In uncontrolled airspace below 18,000 ft MSL: magnetic course 0–179° — odd thousands; 180–359° — even thousands (91.179)

At cabin pressure altitudes:

• Above 12,500 ft MSL up to and including 14,000 ft — required minimum flight crew uses oxygen for the portion of flight at those altitudes over 30 minutes
• Above 14,000 ft — required crew uses oxygen the entire time
• Above 15,000 ft — every occupant must be provided oxygen (91.211(a))

Considering weather reports, forecasts, and conditions — enough to:

1. Fly to the first airport of intended landing,
2. Fly from there to the alternate (unless the 1-2-3 exception applies), and
3. Fly after that for 45 minutes at normal cruising speed (91.167)

The 45 minutes is a planning floor, not a comfort level — headwinds, holds, and reroutes eat it fast.

At the ETA at the alternate, ceiling and visibility at or above:

• Precision approach: 600-2 — 600 ft ceiling and 2 SM
• Nonprecision approach: 800-2

…unless the airport has nonstandard alternate minimums published in the TPP — flagged by a triangle-A on the approach chart; A-NA means the airport can't be filed as an alternate at all (often an unmonitored NAVAID or no weather reporting) (IPH ch. 1). If the airport has no instrument approach, the forecast must allow descent from the MEA, approach, and landing under basic VFR (91.169(c)(2)).

Depends on your receiver:

• TSO-C129/C196 (non-WAAS): an airport with only GPS approaches can't be used as the alternate unless the specific AIM requirements are met — you can't plan GPS at both destination and alternate
• WAAS (TSO-C145/C146): may plan an RNAV (GPS) approach at the alternate where authorized

And GPS is not a substitute for the DME or ADF required by a conventional approach at the alternate — you need the actual equipment on board (IPH ch. 1).

You must have filed an IFR flight plan and received an ATC clearance (91.173). The plan contains the information required by 91.153(a) — aircraft, equipment, route, altitude, times, fuel, souls — plus an alternate airport unless the 1-2-3 exception applies (91.169(a)). File at least 30 minutes prior to expected departure clearance; you can also file airborne with FSS or directly with ARTCC, workload permitting (IFH ch. 10).

Upon canceling or completing the flight, notify FSS or ATC (91.169(d)).

• Towered destination: canceled automatically on landing
• Non-towered destination: canceling is your job — by radio before landing or by phone after
• Airborne cancellation: allowed any time you're in VFR conditions outside Class A — "cancel my IFR flight plan" — but be certain the rest of the flight stays VFR; separation services end immediately (IFH ch. 10)

NOTAMs can eliminate options your plan assumed were available — a NOTAM'd out-of-service localizer removes an approach from consideration, and a closed runway changes both the departure and the performance math (IFH ch. 10). Preflight action for any IFR flight includes all available information, NOTAMs prominently (91.103).

Check:

• FDC NOTAMs for procedure changes
• Field NOTAMs for runway/taxiway closures and lighting
• The TPP's inoperative-components table for raised minimums
• Re-check just before departure

Layer the constraints:

1. Legal floor — MEA/MOCA on airways, 91.177 off them, then the odd/even scheme for direction of flight (91.179)
2. Weather — freezing level and forecast icing (AIRMET Zulu, GFA); cloud tops if you can get on top; winds aloft from the FB for groundspeed
3. Terrain and glide — in a single, altitude is your engine-out option budget over mountains and at night
4. Physiology — the 91.211 oxygen thresholds
5. Performance — the POH true airspeed and fuel flow for the altitude actually attainable at your weight (IFH ch. 10)

Sum each leg's time — leg distance ÷ groundspeed (POH TAS corrected for the FB winds aloft) — plus the climb and descent segments, then add the total time en route to your departure time.

Everything you file runs on Coordinated Universal Time (UTC — "Zulu"). Converting from standard time, add:

• Eastern: 5 hours
• Central: 6 hours
• Mountain: 7 hours
• Pacific: 8 hours

For daylight time, subtract 1 hour from the correction (AIM 4-2-12, TBL 4-2-12). So a 2:45 p.m. CDT departure is 1445 + 5 = 1945Z, and a 1:30 time en route makes the ETA 2115Z.

Recompute from what's actually in the tanks, not the plan:

1. Current fuel on board ÷ current burn = endurance remaining
2. Subtract the hold to the EFC, then fuel to fly the approach, then fuel to the alternate, then the 45-minute reserve (91.167)
3. If the answer goes negative before the reserve does, the decision is made: tell ATC and divert now, while the alternate is still reachable with reserves intact

The point of planning-phase fuel discipline is that in the air this becomes arithmetic, not judgment under pressure.

Ice alters the airfoil shape in three ways:

• Maximum lift can drop 30 percent or more
• Drag can rise 100 percent or more
• The wing stalls at a lower angle of attack

So ice that had little effect in cruise can stall the wing as you slow and increase AOA for approach and landing — which is why any accumulation of ice or frost must be removed before flight (IFH ch. 4). The full aerodynamic picture — horn ice, tailplane icing, roll upset — is covered under Task II.A.

• Pre-takeoff: remove any accumulation of ice or frost before attempting flight — with contamination aboard, the aircraft may not become airborne at all (IFH ch. 4)
• In cruise: act before it builds — leave visible moisture (climb, descend, or turn) or reach above-freezing air; report to ATC and request new routing or altitude; watch small protrusions as your "ice evidence probe," they accrete first
• On approach: anticipate the stall at a lower-than-normal AOA with contaminated surfaces — configuration and speed changes deserve wide margins, and diverting to better weather beats an approach flown with ice aboard (IFH ch. 4, ch. 10)

ATC: separation comes with an IFR clearance in controlled airspace — in uncontrolled airspace no one is sequencing you, radar and radio coverage have floors (the reason void times exist), and controller workload can mean delayed clearances or reroutes (IFH ch. 10). ATC also can't see your ice or feel your turbulence — you have to tell them.

Planning apps: an autorouted plan is only as good as its database currency and the forecast it ingested. Verify chart and database cycles, sanity-check the route against preferred routes and NOTAMs, and be able to defend every altitude and fuel figure yourself — the ACS allows a computer-generated plan, but the explanation is all you.