Flight Planning

What the heck is a Q-route?

This is great follow-up question to a previous post, “Can you use a q-route below FL180?”. The question came to me after posting a link to that post on my Twitter profile.
So what the heck is a Q-route?
Well.  There are primarily three types of airways:
1) VOR Federal airways - This is the airway system that [...]

How do I treat VOR courses on a nav log?

Here’s a question from Brandon, who’s working on cross country planning:
When you track a VOR and log the VOR heading, what do I log that as? I know you put it under Course (Route), but what is that called, Magnetic Course? If so, how do I get from Magnetic Course to Magnetic Heading, or are [...]

Special VFR at Night

Here’s the question Paul just sent me:
Special VFR at night requires, amongst other things, that the pilot be IFR-rated. But it strikes me that there is no requirement for the pilot to be IFR-current - is that true? Seems dangerous to me.
Well, Paul (great name by the way).  I agree with you that it would [...]

How to File an ICAO Flight Plan

I am sure you have heard by now but on June 29, 2008 the FAA is mandating that all pilots who plan on using RNAV departures and arrivals must file an ICAO or international flight plan. Now, you don’t HAVE to accept the RNAV arrival or departure. In fact, you can keep using the [...]