Evaluating Flight Progress
Enroute Progress Report
Passing Amherst

Evaluating Flight Progress

When a flight plan is done up, whether VFR or IFR, the pilot should have considered things like fuel burn and estimated time enroute. Such things can be affected greatly by the winds aloft. As mentioned in the IFR Flight Example earlier this year, the winds aloft are forecast for many areas, and many altitudes. These winds affect the groundspeed of an aircraft, and therefore the actual time enroute between departure point and destination. Fuel burn may be critical on longer legs. This flight is a fairly short flight, overall, and is not likely to cause a problem in that respect, but it is still good practice for a pilot to consider this sort of thing. A pilot should never be taken by surprise by his fuel situation. What if weather closed in, and flight to destination became impossible? What if it developed fast, and a distant alternate airport became necessary? How much time would it take before you figured out if you had enough fuel (bearing in mind time is fuel, and you would be burning more of that fuel for each minute you spent thinking about how much fuel you have)?

A pilot who is not familiar with an area should have picked out certain obvious landmarks along his route of flight for use as a gauge for the flight's progress. For example, our flight out of Moncton for Halifax, and this leg specifically to Debert, flies over a couple of small bodies of water that can be used, a few mid-sized communities that can be clearly seen from the air, a range of hills with the tallest up around 1,300 feet, and so on. A good scan of the charts while planning the flight should reveal other useful features as well, such as airfields suitable for the aircraft type, just in case something goes wrong that requires a landing. A precautionary landing is one where continued flight may cause damage to the aircraft that would affect its ability to fly safely, and a landing now would be much more easily controlled. It's always easier to fly an approach if you have power to correct your mistakes, so if your oil pressure or temperature are indicating that a failure is imminent, or of your engine is running rough, you may want to consider the idea of using what power you have left to make a suitable field rather than push on to an area (like the hills mentioned above) where there is no such safe place. A forced landing, on the other hand, is much more critical, and means you have no choice. Your plane is going down (something serious happened, like your engine has failed, your plane is on fire, or you ran out of fuel) and you simply have to find a place to put the aircraft. A situation requiring a forced landing may be avoidable by cutting a flight short with a precautionary landing before such a bad situation develops. Only through positive planning can a pilot be fully aware of what's around him at any given time in his flight.

As mentioned before, use of position reports while enroute is good for alerting services, but the position reports also go hand in hand with evaluating the flight's progress. At the same time as telling officials where to start looking if something goes wrong, they serve as a good reminder to pilots to evaluate their fuel status and the flight's progress in terms of time enroute. During the planning phase, a pilot should be estimating the time enroute to various significant points. Once this list is made of reporting points, this can be cross checked against actual times during the flight to see if you're flying faster to destination than thought (using less fuel than anticipated), or if you're not getting there as quickly as you need to (which might see you running short of fuel by the time you close in on destination). If the fuel situation would go past a reasonable reserve, a pilot should seriously consider landing at a suitable airfield to refuel before proceeding onward. Also, since you're talking to someone (likely FSS in the course of a VFR flight position report), you may want to take the opportunity to ask about other known traffic in your area as well as any changes to the weather at destination, or other airfields enroute.

Enroute Progress Report

Our pilot has chosen Amherst, a community easy to spot on the Nova Scotia side of the New Brunswick-Nova Scotia border. There are a few published helipads there, as well as a grass strip of suitable size for a single engined aircraft. This was chosen because the community is easy to see, the airport may have traffic operating out of or into it, and it makes a good alternate if required. While approaching Amherst, the outside scan for other VFR traffic is intensified a little, since airports have a tendency to attract airplanes. The radio, tuned to 126.7, is a valuable feature for such a flight. Having checked some details about Amherst's airfields, our pilot knows there is an Aerodrome Traffic Frequency (ATF) established here, and it is set up for a 5NM radius, 3,100 feet ASL and below. Since he's flying at 3,500, he's not actually required to report in on it. It might just be good airmanship to do so, since arriving and departing aircraft will be monitoring this frequency both while inside the area, and while leaving or entering it. Our pilot breaks radio silence:

CGOOF on 126.7: "Halifax Radio, Cessna Golf Oscar Oscar Foxtrot, position."
CYHZ_RDO: "Cessna Golf Oscar Oscar Foxtrot, Halifax Radio."
CGOOF: "Oscar Oscar Foxtrot is approaching Amherst, time one size three zero, three thousand five hundred VFR. Destination Halifax. I'm leaving your frequency to report on Amherst ATF. Will return after clearing the area."
CYHZ_RDO: "Oscar Oscar Foxtrot, roger. Possible traffic: A Piper Cherokee was flight planned out of Amherst for Charlottetown at one six one five, five thousand five hundred feet. I haven't received a departure message from him yet. His callsign is Golf Lima Oscar Papa."
CGOOF: "Roger, thanks."

Now, if something were to happen to our pilot and he failed to show at destination, Halifax Radio would have the position report at Amherst to run with, so SAR action could begin there, instead of back at point of departure, which was Moncton. With his attention drawn to the Amherst airport, he now begins to scan the sky more intently for this particular aircraft.

Passing Amherst

CGOOF: "Amherst Traffic, Cessna Golf Oscar Oscar Foxtrot eight miles north at three thousand five hundred enroute to Halifax, will pass three miles east of Amherst airfield."
CGLOP: "Oscar Oscar Foxtrot, Cherokee Golf Lima Oscar Papa, I just departed Amherst runway two six. I'm turning left to head east to Charlottetown, climbing to five thousand five hundred."
CGOOF: "Lima Oscar Papa, roger, I have you in sight. I'll turn to pass behind as you climb out to the east."
CGLOP: "Oscar Oscar Papa, roger."

This is the basis of airmanship around uncontrolled airports: VFR is see and be seen, as traditionally stated. Position reports on common frequencies are made, and pilots determine if they are traffic for one another. If yes, then do something about it. Don't wait for someone else to make a move, just do something yourself. Announcing your intentions will allow everyone else to determine if your new manoeuver will make you traffic for them, even if you weren't before. Coordination is a two way street. You do this, I'll do that, and we won't hit. In our case, our pilot is telling the other to keep on trucking and he'll get out of the other guy's way. Since our guy can already see his traffic, and he's already in a level cruise attitude, it's probably just as easy for him to turn behind the traffic as any other solution could be.

CGOOF: "Amherst Traffic, Oscar Oscar Foxtrot is now six miles southeast of Amherst, switching back to one two six seven."

Followed shortly by...

CGOOF: "Halifax Radio, Oscar Oscar Foxtrot back with you southeast of Amherst at three thousand five hundred. That traffic you mentioned has departed and we're clear of him."
CYHZ_RDO: "Oscar Oscar Foxtrot, Halifax Radio, roger, thanks."

Our pilot has successfully navigated a portion of the first leg. This was merely a demonstration of how a pilot may deal with passing near an airport while enroute, and how a position report may be made on a VFR flight plan. Feel free to write. My e-mail address is moxner@nbnet.nb.ca. Thanks for taking the time to read!