Missing Flight Plan

Depending on the controller and his/her workload, plus how professional you sound on the radio, ATC may offer to fix the problem immediately. A controller can prompt you for enough information to enter your plan into the system directly, without you needing to chase down someone else on the phone or another frequency to re-file. If you can do it with your cell-connected tablet and an EFB app, try it. Otherwise, youll have to figure out a way to contact Flight Service and file all over again. Of course, you can depart VFR instead of IFR. If the weather is good, thats an option, and you can raise Flight Service on the radio once youre airborne and file, then call ATC for the clearance.

Joseph E. (Jeb) Burnside

Thursday, September 15, 2016 at 12:00 AM ET

Verified

Key Takeaways:

If ATC cannot find your IFR flight plan, options include having them re-enter it, re-filing with Flight Service, or departing VFR if conditions are clear, but never launch into Instrument Meteorological Conditions (IMC) without a clearance.
To prevent flight plans from being lost or timing out, use EFB apps for proper formatting, ask Flight Service for readbacks, and notify ATC or inquire if your departure is delayed by an hour or more.
Departing VFR into marginal or IMC conditions without an IFR clearance is extremely dangerous and often leads to spatial disorientation and fatal accidents, as illustrated by the Beechcraft Baron case study.

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Fly enough IFR and it’s inevitable that ATC eventually will lose a flight plan. Maybe it timed out—you got delayed and you’re calling for a clearance much later than your scheduled departure. Maybe it simply got lost, was filed under a different callsign or some other error crept into the mix. It doesn’t matter, since without a clearance, you’re not departing IFR.

Depending on the controller and his/her workload, plus how professional you sound on the radio, ATC may offer to fix the problem immediately. A controller can prompt you for enough information to enter your plan into the system directly, without you needing to chase down someone else on the phone or another frequency to re-file. If you can do it with your cell-connected tablet and an EFB app, try it. Otherwise, you’ll have to figure out a way to contact Flight Service and file all over again. Of course, you can depart VFR instead of IFR. If the weather is good, that’s an option, and you can raise Flight Service on the radio once you’re airborne and file, then call ATC for the clearance. But when the weather is IMC or even if it’s just marginal, that’s usually not a good idea.