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Lesson 12 · Flight Performance & Planning

The ATS Flight Plan & Pre-Flight Briefing

Filing the ICAO flight plan, the pre-flight AIP/NOTAM briefing and choosing your aerodromes — EASA PPL theory

~20 min SEP · VFR EASA Part-FCL

1 — What Is an ATS Flight Plan, and When Must You File One?

An ATS flight plan is the message you send to air traffic services describing the flight you intend to fly — who you are, what you fly, from where to where, when, how high and how long. Its quiet but vital job is alerting and search-and-rescue: if you don’t arrive, the filed plan is what tells someone to come looking.

You must file (under SERA.4001 — covered in Air Law) for, among others:

  • any flight that will cross an international border;
  • any flight that will receive an air traffic control service (e.g. into controlled airspace, IFR);
  • flights to or from designated areas to support alerting and SAR.

File it even when you don’t have to
A local VFR hop in uncontrolled airspace needs no flight plan. But for any cross-country it is good airmanship to file — it costs nothing and buys you the SAR safety net. The classic PPL trigger to remember is crossing a border.

A filed flight plan is valid as filed; if your departure slips, you must update the EOBT (below) or it can be discarded.

2 — Completing the Form, Field by Field

The ICAO flight plan form is the same worldwide; the item numbers are standard. Most fields are codes. For a VFR cross-country you mainly complete items 7, 8, 9, 13, 15, 16 and 19:

The ATS flight plan — the fields you fill
7 Aircraft identification OEABC Registration or the agreed callsign — no hyphen.
8 Flight rules / type V G V = VFR. Type of flight G = general aviation.
9 Number / type / wake 1 C172 L One aircraft, type designator, wake category L (light, < 7 t).
10 Equipment SD / C Radio/nav/approach aids and transponder (S standard, D DME; C = Mode C).
13 Departure / EOBT LOWL 0830 Departure aerodrome + estimated off-block time, UTC.
15 Speed / level / route N0110 VFR ... Cruising TAS, level (or VFR), then the route/waypoints.
16 Destination / EET / altn LOWK 0105 LOWG Destination, total estimated elapsed time, alternate aerodrome(s).
18 Other information DOF/260618 Date of flight, remarks — e.g. RMK/, STS/.
19 Endurance / POB / radio E/0300 P/2 Fuel endurance (hh mm), persons on board, emergency/survival kit — for SAR.

Item numbers are the ICAO standard. For a VFR cross-country you mostly touch 7, 8, 9, 13, 15, 16 and 19.

Read the codes, not the prose
The exam tests the field codes: Item 8 flight rules (V = VFR), Item 9 wake category (L light for our aircraft), Item 10 equipment (transponder C = Mode C, S = Mode S), Item 13 the EOBT in UTC, and Item 19 endurance and persons on board — the SAR data.

3 — Submitting, the EOBT, Delays and Closing

  • How and when to submit. File at the briefing office, by phone, or online — normally at least 60 minutes before departure (and, if filing in the air, in good time before reaching the airspace concerned).
  • EOBT is the estimated off-block time — when you start to taxi, in UTC. ETA is the estimated time of arrival.
  • If you’re delayed, a flight plan whose EOBT is out by more than 30 minutes must be amended or refiled — otherwise it may be deleted.
  • Closing the flight plan. On arrival, close it (an arrival report). If you land at an aerodrome other than the one filed, you must tell ATS.

Forget to close it and SAR launches
An open flight plan with no arrival report makes the system assume you are missing — and if no arrival report reaches ATS within about 30 minutes of your ETA, the alerting and search-and-rescue machinery starts up for an aircraft sitting safely on the apron. Closing the plan is part of finishing the flight.

4 — The Pre-Flight Briefing: AIP and NOTAM

Before you fly you self-brief from two sources. The AIP (Aeronautical Information Publication) is the permanent reference, in three parts:

  • GEN — general (rules, units, addresses);
  • ENR — en-route (airspace, routes, nav aids, hazards);
  • AD — aerodromes (charts, runways, services, procedures).

NOTAMs carry the temporary and time-critical changes the AIP can’t — a closed runway, an unserviceable navaid, a temporary restriction, work in progress. Always read the NOTAMs for departure, destination, alternates and the route.

PPR — Prior Permission Required
Many smaller fields are PPR: you must phone ahead and get permission before you may use them. Check it in the AIP/AD entry — turning up unannounced may mean no fuel, a locked gate, or a closed field. If you rely on GNSS for the route, also check RAIM availability for your time of flight.

5 — Choosing Departure, Destination and Alternate

A usable aerodrome is one whose runway, services, hours and procedures fit your aircraft and your flight — confirmed from the AIP and current NOTAMs. For VFR you don’t always need an alternate, but you plan one whenever the destination might not be usable (weather, PPR hours, a single runway out of wind) — and you must carry the fuel to reach it (Lesson 8).

The briefing in one line
Before a cross-country: file the plan (who/what/where/when, EOBT in UTC), brief from AIP + NOTAM (is everything open and serviceable, any PPR?), pick a usable destination and alternate, and on landing close the plan. That is the paperwork that wraps around the numbers from Lessons 6–11.

6 — Practice: Read a NOTAM, Fill the Form

The exam doesn’t only ask what a NOTAM or a flight-plan field is — it shows you one and asks you to read it. NOTAMs follow a fixed layout: a Q-line summary, then A) aerodrome, B) start and C) end times (UTC), and E) the plain-language message.

Decode a NOTAM — Graz (LOWG)
A0573/26 NOTAMN series A, number 0573, year 2026 A NEW notam (NOTAMN; R = replaces, C = cancels a previous one).
Q) LOVV/QMRLC/... FIR LOVV (Wien); Q-code QMRLC Subject MR = runway, status LC = closed. The Q-line is the machine summary.
A) LOWG aerodrome Applies to Graz (ICAO LOWG).
B) 2606180600 valid from From 18 Jun 2026, 06:00 UTC.
C) 2606201800 EST valid until Until 20 Jun 2026, 18:00 UTC. EST = estimated end.
E) RWY 17/35 CLSD DUE WIP plain-language item Runway 17/35 closed due to work in progress — the operational message.

Read the Q-code and the E) line first: this one says runway 17/35 is closed for two days. Always check the B)/C) validity against your time of flight.

Always check it against your flight
This NOTAM closes Graz’s only runway for two days. Planning to land at LOWG inside that window? It is not usable — pick another destination or alternate. A NOTAM only matters once you compare its B)/C) validity with your time over that place.

Now the other direction — turn a flight into form entries. OE-ABC, a Cessna 172, LOWL → LOWK, alternate LOWG, off-block 08:30 UTC, 2 on board, 3 h fuel:

  • Item 7 OEABC · Item 8 V G (VFR, general aviation) · Item 9 1 C172 L (one light aircraft)
  • Item 13 LOWL0830 (departure + EOBT in UTC) · Item 16 LOWK ... LOWG (destination, EET, alternate)
  • Item 19 E/0300 P/2 (3 h endurance, 2 persons on board — the SAR data)

You read these field values straight off your operational flight plan — the endurance from your fuel plan (Lesson 8), the route and times from the navigation log (Lesson 11). The flight plan form is just the planning numbers, re-packaged for ATS.

7 — The Go/No-Go: Daylight, Ice and Equipment

Three pre-flight checks decide whether the flight may legally and safely be made at all:

Day or night?
A VFR flight by day must be finished in daylight. Night begins at the end of evening civil twilight (ECET) and ends at the beginning of morning civil twilight (BCMT) — read the times for your date and position from the AIP/almanac tables. It changes the rules: night needs a night rating and a 45-minute final reserve (versus 30 by day).

Known icing
A typical light SEP carries no ice protection and is not certified for flight into known or forecast icing. If icing is reported or forecast on your route and levels, the flight can’t be flown as planned — change the level, the route, or the day.

Minimum equipment
The aircraft must carry the instruments and equipment required for the flight: the basic VFR-day set, more for night; and a serviceable radio and transponder wherever the airspace (controlled, RMZ/TMZ) demands them. If a required item is unserviceable, the flight cannot go — or must be re-routed to airspace that doesn’t need it.

Knowledge Check

Question 1
Which flight most clearly requires an ATS flight plan to be filed?
Question 2
On the ICAO flight plan, 'EOBT' in Item 13 is:
Question 3
In Item 8, the flight-rules code for a VFR flight is:
Question 4
Item 19 of the flight plan carries endurance and persons on board mainly so that:
Question 5
Temporary, time-critical information such as a closed runway or an unserviceable navaid is found in:
Question 6
A field marked 'PPR' in the AIP means you must:
Question 7
A NOTAM reads: A) LOWG B) 2606180600 C) 2606201800 E) RWY 17/35 CLSD DUE WIP. You plan to land at Graz (LOWG) on 19 June at 1000 UTC. This means:
Question 8
For OE-ABC, a C172 departing LOWL at 08:30 UTC, the correct Item 7 and Item 13 entries are:
Question 9
For VFR operations, night is defined as the period between:
Question 10
Icing is forecast along your planned route and levels in a light SEP with no ice protection. You should:

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