Wed Jan 19, 2022 6:18 pm
#1894442
In Canuckland you must file a flight plan if you go more than 25NM from your departure field. This doesn’t always happen as pilots fly more than 25NM for pie.
The alternative is to do a ‘flight itinerary’ with a responsible person.
Flying schools monitor their aircraft as part of the ‘Operational Control’ requirement.
Devices such as Spot report their positions and so it is easy to track an aeroplane.
If you fail to close a flight plan in Canada, the FIC officers will phone and then alert if the aircraft is not confirmed to have arrived.
A couple of years ago a friend in Canada asked me to call him when I arrived back there.
He didn’t close his flight plan through the mountains... They haven’t found him yet.
406 ELTs are not as reliable as 121.5 ones. The 406 aerial often has a plastic base, and this often breaks in a crash.
In my early days here, all stations along your route were advised when you filed a flight plan, and failure to arrive was acted upon.
In France I filed a flight plan to Basle from Le Touquet as the radio had failed and I was nordo. I was late, and Basle ATC was about to start SAR.
Bad time for me was when JCY crashed. Redhill closed at 20:00 and my T67A had not returned.
I phoned around, and eventually called D&D and found out about it’s fatal demise over two hours before.
A month later a Condor failed to return, and that caused me huge anxiety until I found out after nightfall that although booked out to Redhill from the IOW the pilot, who was the registered owner, had decided to repossess it thinking I would not be able to complete its purchase. It was dirty business.
Go where you’re booked out to go, and if you have to divert, let someone know.
Here in England you’re likely to crash with witnesses.
In sparsely populated areas using a responsible person to file a flight itinerary is a good idea in the same way someone hiking in the winter, or caving should.
MichaelP
Wandering the World