Opening a FlightPlan in the air?

[djrisc]

I was watching this video, and was wondering why someone would open a VFR flight plan in the air and not before departure?

You can see him open the flightplan while in route here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=pl ... Vew0#t=548

Just curious?

Brett

[Keith Smith]

I don't file VFR flight plans any more, but when I was doing it during flight training, I never once opened a flight plan before departure...it was always in the air. You check in with Flight Service and give them your actual departure time. Otherwise, prior to the bluetooth era, you'd be calling from inside the FBO on your cell phone or a land line without an accurate time of departure. By calling in the air, you can give a super accurate time of departure since it's already taken place.

[djrisc]

Thanks for the explanation Keith!

Brett

[Brazen]

Some twenty odd years ago when I was at a flight school, the practice was to call up for WX and filing flight plans (VFR/IFR). After that, I always filed in the air.

[Keith Smith]

Absolutely agree with the practice of FILING ahead of time. However, OPENING the VFR flight plan is a subsequent step.

[Vincent Meier]

I don't file VFR flight plans any more, but when I was doing it during flight training, I never once opened a flight plan before departure...it was always in the air. You check in with Flight Service and give them your actual departure time. Otherwise, prior to the bluetooth era, you'd be calling from inside the FBO on your cell phone or a land line without an accurate time of departure. By calling in the air, you can give a super accurate time of departure since it's already taken place.

Just wanted to note that I purchased a Blulink for my sim and it works like a charm. Now when flying I can hear music thru my David Clark's and make and answer a phone call if necessary.
The Blulink has Auto mute for when ATC is talking to you. The music fades out, ATC speaks, music fades back in.

[dc8flightdeck]

Absolutely agree with the practice of FILING ahead of time. However, OPENING the VFR flight plan is a subsequent step.

If take off is from an airport with no tower, what is the PE process of opening a flightplan without the use of flight service stations?

thanks,
justin

[Keith Smith]

We don't support flight service, so you can't open/close a VFR flight plan on PE at the moment. The demand for this has been close to zero (as suspected), so we haven't implemented Flight Service.

However, you can open IFR flight plans in the air on PE, since that's a function of ATC, not Flight Service.