VFR Charts and Route Selection - ATPL 033 — Flight Planning and Monitoring

Choosing the route

Five criteria pull at the pencil, and the syllabus names them all:

Airspace classification — every class boundary on the chart is a decision: can the flight enter at all under VFR, does it need a clearance, is a transponder or radio mandatory? A route through class D costs a call; a route around it costs miles.

Restricted areas — prohibited, restricted and danger areas are drawn with their identifier and vertical limits. A restricted or danger area can be worked: route around it, under its floor, over its ceiling, or through it when it is genuinely not active. A prohibited area is avoided within its published limits, full stop; no activity check opens it.

VFR semicircular rules — the cruising-level table binds VFR cruising flight above 3,000 ft above the ground or water (or the datum the authority prescribes): a magnetic track of 000° to 179° takes an odd thousand plus 500 ft and a track of 180° to 359° an even thousand plus 500 ft, so the chosen track already narrows the usable levels.

Visually conspicuous points — the route is bent to pass features a pilot can actually find, because a leg that ends nowhere recognisable is a leg that ends in doubt.

Radio-navigation aids — a leg that rides a VOR radial or passes overhead a beacon carries its own cross-check, and the aids' positions are worth a small detour.

Reading the boxes

The chart publishes the radio side of the plan in its boxes. Every radio-navigation aid carries a box with its name, frequency and identifier (with the Morse code printed for the ident check), so the planner lifts them straight into the navigation plan. The communication side is gathered the same way, and the syllabus lists exactly whose numbers to collect:

Control agencies and service facilities — the tower, approach or information frequencies of the aerodromes and the airspace the route touches, each with its call sign.
Flight information service (FIS) — the en-route frequency VFR traffic relies on for information and alerting outside controlled airspace.
Weather information stations — VOLMET and similar broadcast frequencies for weather en route.
ATIS — the automatic terminal information service of the bigger aerodromes, listened to before the first call.

The aerodrome pages

The chart shows where an aerodrome is; the aerodrome charts and directory say how it works. The visual departure and approach procedures are studied before flight for a plain reason: many aerodromes prescribe mandatory VFR routings, entry and exit points, circuit directions and noise-abatement tracks, and a pilot who has not studied them cannot comply with them, or recognise which arrival to expect. The study covers the departure, destination and alternate aerodromes alike, because the alternate's procedures are needed exactly when there is the least time to learn them.

Beyond the procedures, the directory carries the aeronautical and regulatory information the VFR plan needs: operating hours, runway dimensions and surface, circuit altitude and direction, fuel availability, customs and PPR requirements, and local restrictions. None of it is decoration; an aerodrome that closes at sunset or demands prior permission reshapes the plan as surely as a restricted area does.

Choosing the route

Check you understood

Reading the boxes

The aerodrome pages