Cross Country (Part 3): Planning for the flight

A student pilot will sit down the night before a cross-country flight, look at the aviation weather forecasts for the next day with an eye towards the forecasted winds. Information they would like at includes but is not limited to:

• forecasted wind speed and direction,
• fuel capacity of the plane from the airplanes manual (aka pilot operating handbook or POH),
• gallons of gas used per hour (from the POH),
• nautical miles to be traveled (determined using the aeronautical charts),
• information about the destination airport(s) including but not limited to a diagram of the airport, runway information, radio frequencies used, etc., and
• noting all radio frequencies for the flight, including frequencies used by navigation aids.

On the morning of the flight, a student pilot/pilot will check the aviation weather forecast again, and adjust any calculations, if necessary. Finally, they would check for temporary flight restrictions (TFRs) and Notices to Airman (NOTAM) along their planned route.

This is a scenic ride, and I am not a pilot student or otherwise, nor am in flight training. Nevertheless, I did take a look at the weather forecasts the night before and the morning of the scenic ride. I made sure that I had a copy of airport diagrams, and noted radio frequencies that the pilot might use on the flight. I looked for TFRs and NOTAMs that might affect the route of the scenic ride prior to leaving for the airport.

In addition to the experience of a longer flight, I was especially interested in navigation and listening to radio communications. I will continue to write more about what I did before the flight in my next post. I will get to navigation, radio communications, and more in later articles. Stay tuned!