ICAO Flight Plan, Again

Tuesday, February 23, 2021 at 11:33 AM ET

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Before standardizing on the ICAO form, the FAA still used its domestic form. This led to the confusion of calling the ICAO form “International,” suggesting it was only for international flights, when today it is all we use for any flight.

Key Takeaways:

The ICAO Flight Plan introduces complexity in Item 10 (Equipment) and Item 18 (Other Information) codes, requiring pilots to understand a shift from installed equipment to "capabilities" with modern avionics.
These codes detail aircraft features such as transponder and ADS-B Out types (Item 10) and Performance Based Navigation (PBN) capabilities like RNAV and RNP (Item 18).
ATC uses these codes, particularly PBN for IFR flights, to determine an aircraft's eligibility for specific airspace and procedures, making accurate code entry critical for safe and compliant operations.

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August 2019, marked the end of the FAA Domestic Flight Plan. The ICAO Flight Plan form is required in the U.S. for all VFR and IFR flights. Yet, there are two areas that still create confusion: Item 10. Equipment, and Item 18, Other Information.

Many pilots struggle with these codes and ask: 1.) Does ATC care about the codes? 2.) Are some codes redundant and/or superfluous? 3.) Is there “nesting” (something that is included in a bigger part)? 4.) Who are the customers of the ICAO flight plan?