Flight performance, planning and VFR navigation (VFR-guide)
Flight performance, planning and VFR navigation (VFR-guide) tests whether you can turn weather, wind, aircraft performance and airspace into a safe, legal VFR flight. The exam favours practical PLOG calculations, fuel reserves, chart reading and recognition of controlled airspace.
Planning sequence
Start with current METAR/TAF, NOTAM, AIP/VFR Guide, airspace and terrain. Check mass and balance, take-off/landing distance, climb performance, and alternate. Build a PLOG: leg, true track, TAS, wind, ground speed, time, fuel. Convert true track to magnetic using chart variation: easterly variation is subtracted from true to obtain magnetic; westerly variation is added. Then apply compass deviation.
Fuel and reserves
For day VFR, plan trip fuel plus taxi, climb, contingency and a 30-minute final reserve (45 minutes at night). Do not plan to land with less than the reserve. Fuel units matter: litres, imperial gallons and US gallons are not interchangeable.
Worked example
Leg 120 NM, TAS 100 kt, wind 270/20, true track 090. The wind is a direct headwind, so ground speed is 80 kt. Time = 120/80 = 1.5 h. Fuel burn 30 L/h gives 45 L trip fuel. Add 15 L for a 30-minute day reserve and 3 L taxi: 63 L required. With 80 L usable, the margin is 17 L. If the headwind increases to 25 kt, GS becomes 75 kt, time 1.6 h, trip fuel 48 L, so the margin shrinks: recalculate before departing.
Traps
Using TAS as ground speed; reversing the variation sign; omitting reserve or climb fuel; mixing fuel units; and treating a CTR/TMA boundary as available without clearance.