Flight Planning and Monitoring
Flight Planning and Monitoring tests your ability to build a legal, fuel-safe plan and then monitor it in flight. The exam uses ICAO flight-plan content, mass and balance, performance, fuel policy and in-flight replanning.
Plan content
- Route, levels, alternate, fuel, mass and balance, performance and emergency data. The ICAO flight plan uses standard item numbers; AIP Israel and the CAAI publish local filing rules.
- Mass and balance: compute take-off mass, zero-fuel mass and centre of gravity; check against the envelope. Performance must satisfy take-off, climb, landing and obstacle requirements.
Fuel policy
- For IFR: taxi, trip, contingency (typically 5% of trip, or 3% with an isolated destination), alternate, final reserve (45 minutes), and any additional fuel.
- For VFR: final reserve of 30 minutes day or 45 minutes night, plus alternate when required.
Worked example
Trip fuel 120 kg, taxi 10 kg, contingency 5% of trip = 6 kg, alternate 30 kg, final reserve 45 min at 40 kg/h = 30 kg. Minimum fuel = 10 + 120 + 6 + 30 + 30 = 196 kg. If actual fuel is 210 kg, the extra 14 kg is additional fuel, not reserve.
Monitoring
Compare fuel against plan at waypoints, check ground speed and drift, and revise the alternate decision before the point of no return. Record actual times and fuel.
Traps
Using final reserve as holding fuel; forgetting taxi fuel; applying a percentage contingency to total fuel instead of trip fuel; ignoring a centre-of-gravity shift after loading; not updating the plan when clearance changes.