Navigation and Flight Planning
The Navigation and Flight Planning domain checks whether you can turn a chart, a wind forecast, and a fuel burn rate into a plan you can actually fly, and then find your way when the plan falls apart.
Reading the sectional
Sectional charts are 1:500,000, about 6.86 nautical miles per inch. Airspace is color-coded: solid blue wedding-cake rings for Class B, solid magenta for Class C, dashed blue for Class D, dashed magenta for Class E surface areas, magenta fading where Class E begins at 700 ft AGL, and blue fading where Class G tops out at 1,200 ft AGL. Maximum elevation figures give the highest obstacle in each quadrangle; isogonic lines show magnetic variation.
True, magnetic, compass
Westerly variation is best, so add it; easterly is least, so subtract it when converting true course to magnetic. Add westerly compass deviation and subtract easterly to get compass heading. Winds aloft are forecast in true direction, so convert before solving the wind triangle.
Planning arithmetic
Time equals distance divided by groundspeed; fuel equals burn rate times time. Add the VFR reserve of 30 minutes by day or 45 minutes at night, plus fuel to an alternate when one is required. A VFR flight plan buys search-and-rescue protection, but it is not activated until you open it with flight service.
Worked example
True course 090°, variation 12°E, deviation 3°W. Magnetic course = 090 − 12 = 078°. Compass heading = 078 + 3 = 081°. For 120 nm at 105 kt groundspeed: 120 ÷ 105 = 1.14 hours, about 1 hour 9 minutes. At 8.5 gallons per hour that is 9.7 gallons, plus a 30-minute reserve of 4.3 gallons, so plan roughly 14 gallons.
Traps
Applying deviation as though it were variation, or reversing "east is least." Using true airspeed instead of groundspeed for time en route, which makes you late and low on fuel. Plotting the course from the wrong end of the plotter. Mistaking the dashed magenta circle of a Class E surface area for Class D, or reading a maximum elevation figure as a minimum safe altitude.