1 — From Four Skills to One Plan
Every lesson in the Planning block solved one piece. The capstone joins them into the single product a pilot actually carries to the aeroplane: a flight plan that says you can make the trip safely, legally and with fuel to spare. The pieces go together in a sensible order:
- 1 Mass & balanceLesson 6Load within the CG envelope and under the maximum takeoff mass.
- 2 PerformanceLessons 2 & 5Check takeoff and landing distances against the runways you’ll use.
- 3 Route & cruising levelLesson 8Draw the legs; pick a VFR cruising level for each magnetic track.
- 4 Navigation logLesson 9Wind triangle → heading, groundspeed and time for every leg.
- 5 FuelLesson 7Trip + contingency + alternate + final reserve, checked against usable fuel.
- 6 Final checksPre-flightWeather, NOTAM, landing mass — then a clear go / no-go decision.
Nothing here is new — it’s weight & balance (Lesson 6), performance (Lessons 2 & 5), cruising levels (Lesson 8), the navigation log (Lesson 9) and fuel (Lesson 7), run in sequence and then sanity-checked as a whole.
2 — The Route and Its Cruising Levels
Draw the route on the chart: departure, turning points, destination, and an alternate in case the destination is unusable. Measure each leg’s magnetic track and distance, then choose a VFR cruising level for each track using the semicircular rule (Lesson 8).
Schematic. Tracks are magnetic and distances in NM, as measured on the chart. The alternate leg (D→E) is flown only if the destination is unusable.
Our example runs A → B → C → D with D → E as the alternate. Every leg here is eastbound (000–179°), so each takes an odd-thousands + 500 ft level — we’ll plan 5 500 ft for the whole route. A westbound leg would have taken an even-thousands + 500 ft level instead.
3 — Compute the Whole Trip
Now run the navigation log for every leg and roll it into a fuel plan. The wind triangle gives each leg its heading, groundspeed, time and fuel; the legs sum into trip fuel; then the Part-NCO blocks — contingency, alternate and final reserve — stack on top to give the block fuel you must have on board. Compare that to your usable fuel and you have a margin:
| Leg | Track | Dist | Mag hdg | GS | Time | Fuel |
|---|
Fixed route (variation 2°E, taxi 3 L, 120 L usable). Wind triangle per leg → magnetic heading, groundspeed, time and fuel; legs summed into trip fuel, then the Part-NCO reserves. Illustrative figures — your POH and current charts are the only ones that count.
4 — The Go / No-Go Decision
The plan is only finished when you decide. Fuel is the headline check, but it isn’t the only one:
- Fuel — block fuel must fit inside usable fuel with margin. No margin, or a negative one, means reduce load, add fuel, or replan (a slower power setting, a closer alternate, a fuel stop).
- Mass at landing — you burn fuel off in flight, so check the CG and mass at both takeoff and zero-fuel/landing (Lesson 6). Both must sit in the envelope.
- Performance — takeoff and landing distances must fit the runways at the day’s density altitude (Lessons 1, 2, 5).
- The day — weather, NOTAM, daylight, airspace. Any one of these can turn a numerically valid plan into a no-go.