Flight Training - July 2020 - 41

This is what you trained for: At 3,000 feet your
instructor reaches over and pulls the throttle back to
idle, announcing, "Your engine just failed." You
establish best glide speed, pantomime trying to
restart the engine, and pull out your emergency
checklist. While you scan the terrain around you for
the best landing spot-hmm... the farmer's field or the
country road?-you pretend to change the radio to
121.5 MHz and, without pressing the mic of course,
make your Mayday call. Then you simulate entering
7700 into your transponder to alert air traffic control
to your location.
But at remote airfields, an engine failure after
takeoff or landing accident may leave you seconds, not
minutes, to react. There isn't time to activate the PLB,
and it doesn't activate automatically as an ELT should.
GPS TRACKERS

A technology related to the PLB, but one that's
always on the job, is a GPS tracker such as the Spot
satellite GPS messenger. These devices have a button
that can be pressed to send a mayday signal like a
PLB, but the trackers also automatically broadcast
their location as often as every two and a half minutes. Without manually activating the mayday signal,
however, someone outside the airplane needs to
know when the flight is supposed to arrive at its destination; if it's delayed, look up the track info online;
and then report that information to the authorities.
Sort of a friends and family flight plan.
Unless, of course, you filed a flight plan online
through Leidos' Flight Service website (1800wxbrief.
com), and you have registered your Spot with Leidos.
In that case, search and rescue is activated when
your tracker stops moving, rather than when your
flight plan is overdue. (Leidos also supports GPS
trackers from Spidertracks and other systems such
as Garmin InReach.)
Still, even without a flight plan, a GPS tracker
provides a good first place to look once an emergency is suspected. In fact, Spot manufacturer
Globalstar counts hundreds of aviation-related saves
among their more than 7,069-and counting-rescues
(most of which are hiking and boating incidents).
SMARTPHONES

Everyone, it seems, has a smartphone. But like the
PLB and the emergency button on a GPS tracker,
calling for help requires either time before a crash,
or a conscious and lucid pilot after the crash-
assuming a signal is available.
While driving America's highways, it might
seem that there's cell service everywhere, but away
from populated areas there are huge swaths of the
country where cell service is, well, no bars. No one
can hear you now.

Approved OMB No. 2120-0026
Exp. 7/31/2020

International Flight Plan

U S Department of Transportation
Federal Aviation Administration

PRIORITY

ADDRESSEE(S)

<=FF

FILING TIME

ORIGINATOR

SPECIFIC IDENTIFICATION OF ADDRESSEE(S) AND / OR ORIGINATOR
7 AIRCRAFT IDENTIFICATION

3 MESSAGE TYPE

<=(FPL

9 NUMBER

TYPE OF AIRCRAFT
TIME

13 DEPARTURE AERODROME
15 CRUISING SPEED

LEVEL

ROUTE

TYPE OF FLIGHT

8 FLIGHT RULES

10 EQUIPMENT

WAKE TURBULENCE CAT.

TOTAL EET
16 DESTINATION AERODROME

MIN

ALTN AERODROME

2ND ALTN AERODROME

18 OTHER INFORMATION

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION (NOT TO BE TRANSMITTED IN FPL MESSAGES)
ENDURANCE
EMERGENCY RADIO
HR MIN
VHF
ELT
PERSONS ON BOARD
UHF

SURVIVAL EQUIPMENT
POLAR DESERT MARITIME JUNGLE

D /
A/
N /
C/

DINGHIES
NUMBER CAPACITY COVER

J
COLOR

JACKETS

LIGHT FLUORES

V
UHF

E
VHF

AIRCRAFT COLOR AND MARKINGS
REMARKS

PILOT-IN-COMMAND
FILED BY

)<=
ACCEPTED BY

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

FAA Form 7233-4 (7/15)

THE FAA FLIGHT PLAN FORM
FAA Form 7233-4-sometimes called the
international flight plan or the ICAO form
because it's based on an International
Civil Aviation Organization document-is
more complex than its predecessor, and
flight-planning apps or websites can be a
big help.
In addition to your departure airport and
time, route of flight, altitude, and destination,
it asks for your aircraft ID and flight rules
(VFR for almost all student flights). For field
9, Type of Aircraft, find the two- to four-character code for your model in FAA Order
7360, Aircraft Type Designators.

Codes also populate field 10,
Equipment, indicating navigation and
communication capabilities of your
aircraft. Additional data may need to be
entered in field 18, Other Information. Many
flight schools will provide this information
for each aircraft in their fleet; most flight
planning websites or apps let you save the
information for subsequent flights.
Additional helpful information is
found in the Aeronautical Information
Manual, Paragraph 5-1-9, and FAA flight
planning resources are available online
(www.faa.gov/ato?k=fpl). -Mike Collins

AOPA.ORG/FT 41

http://www.faa.gov/ato?k=fpl http://www.AOPA.ORG/FT

Flight Training - July 2020

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Flight Training - July 2020