Flight Planning and Following Is Not Just for Cross-Country

It’s vital for pilots to know these risk management skills.

Meg Godlewski

Tuesday, May 27, 2025 at 11:26 AM ET

Verified

Edited By:

Travis Tingle

IFR flight plans provide important layers of planning and situational awareness to the benefit of everyone in the sky. [Shutterstock]

Key Takeaways:

Despite technological advancements, fundamental VFR skills such as flight planning and flight following remain essential and are required for private pilot check rides, as specified by the Airman Certification Standards (ACS).
Flight following, while workload-dependent for VFR aircraft, is a valuable risk management tool for traffic awareness and serves as a foundational skill for future instrument flying.
Pilots must thoroughly understand VFR flight plan elements, including the ability to create an analog navlog, and be proficient in filing, activating, and critically, diligently closing flight plans via various methods to prevent unnecessary search alerts.

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I don’t think the check ride went very well because the CFI was raising a stink that lingered about the DPE’s insistence that the applicant know how to file and activate a flight plan and know the procedure for obtaining flight following.

The CFI argued that these skills are obsolete because of the technology available now, suggesting that navigational apps, such as ForeFlight and Garmin Pilot, combined with ADS-B make the filing of flight plans and using flight following obsolete. He noted you can track someone via an app like FlightAware.com if you know their tail number and know where they are at all times.