(ACS) Cross Country Flight Flashcards
(Cross Country)
What altitude is selected for the flight?
you’ll need to know weather and terrain.
- Cloud ceiling will need to be known to stay below it.
- Minimum altitudes are necessary to be known.
- Congested area locations and obstacles places should be known.
- Check the MEF for each quadrangle. It represents the highest obstacle in the quadrangle plus 100-200’
- Understand your gliding distances to see what options emergency situations will give you.
- Winds aloft and temperatures aloft
What airspace are you flying enroute?
Check PIREPS along the route.
If you are flying over 3,000 AGL:
- Magnetic compass 0-179 degrees fly odd thousands plus 500’
- Magnetic compass of 180-359 degrees fly even thousands plus 500’
(Cross Country)
How will you keep track of your flights progress?
Keep track of fuel burn
Keep track of headwind or tailwind
Know the checkpoints that are set and check the times with the estimated times of the flight plan.
(Cross Country)
How much fuel will you need for the cross country?
Daytime: fly to destination at normal cruising speed and have enough fuel to keep flying for 30 more minutes at cruise speed once the destination has been arrived at. (add ten minutes for SUU)
Nighttime: fly to destination at normal cruising speed and have enough fuel to keep flying for 45 more minutes at cruise speed once the destination has been arrived at. (add ten minutes for SUU)
The legal minimums are not the end all be all. Fuel time should take in to account the alternates and emergency procedures plus the performance of the aircraft.
(Cross Country)
Are you filing a VFR flight plan for the cross country flight?
Not required for most VFR operations. However, they are strongly recommended. They only cost time to make and are a way to be located if something bad happens along the planned route of a flight.
(Cross Country)
What are the elements of a VFR flight plan?
- Aircraft identification, color, and type
- True airspeed
- Departure and arrival times
- ETA and time enroute
- Fuel onboard
- Route of flight
- Alternates
- Contact info and the number of souls on board
(Cross Country)
How do you file open and close a flight plan?
you can file a flight plan via phone, internet or EFB of choice.
Can be opened by calling an FSS after departure. Make sure to let the FSS know if the ETA changes. Close the flight plan on arrival either by phone, internet, or radio.
If you don’t make it to the planned destination within 30 minutes of arrival time search and rescue will be contacted.
(Cross Country)
Explain NOTAM’s and describe their categories.
Notice to air missions is a notice containing information essential to personnel concerned with flight operations, but not known far enough in advance to be publicized by other means. NOTAMS are either notices of a fairly temporary nature or notices that are long term or permanent but haven’t yet been incorporated into other sources of information.
NOTAM D: (Distant) NOTAM’s that apply to not only your local area but the entire national airspace system. Give information to changes in navaids and civil public use airports. Can include airport, runway, taxi way closures, airport lighting outages, obstructions, and more.
Flight Data Center or FDC NOTAM’s: List changes to instrument approach procedures, airway changes, and temporary flight restrictions.
Pointer NOTAM’s: don’t necessarily point out NOTAMS that are directly associated with a certain airport or navaid but might be important to pilots using those facilities.
Special Activity Airspace NOTAM’s: issued when special activity/use airspace is active outside of its published times.
Military NOTAM’s: pertain to military operations that don’t pertain to civil operations
GPS NOTAM’s and ADSB NOTAM’s as well as many others can be found.
(Cross Country)
What information does a pilot need to have become familiar with before departing for a flight?
NWKRAFT
NWKRAFT (FAR 91.103)
N- NOTAMS
W- Weather reports and forecasts
K- Known delays published by ATC
R- Runway lengths of intended use
A- Alternate destinations in case the flight cannot be completed as planned
F- Fuel requirements for planned flight
T- Takeoff and landing distances
(Cross Country)
How do you know if there are any runway closures at your destination?
NOTAMs will be a good place to look specifically NOTAM D’s give information relevant to this question. ATC can update you on any NOTAM updates.
(Note: NOTAMs that are more than 30 days old won’t be posted anymore)
(Cross Country)
What is the minimum height that can be flown?
FAR 91.119 the main goal is to protect people, places, and things on the ground. nobody other than the PIC should be put at risk. Anytime you are in the air and not taking off or landing you need to be at an altitude where should your engine fail you can make an emergency landing without risking harm to people and property on the ground.
If you’re flying over a congested area like cities and open air gatherings you need to be 1,000’ above the highest obstacle within 2,000’ horizontally of the plane.
If you are not over a congested are you need to be at least 500’ in height unless over open water or over a sparsely populated area in which case you only need to be 500’ away from persons, property, or vessels.
