Technique: The Life of a Flight Plan

File.
You can file a flight plan with Leidos Flight Service at 800-WX-BRIEF or online, with CSRA DUATS, or through a third-party vendor such as the ForeFlight app or the AOPA Flight Planner. Leidos checks for errors before the flight plan is posted to one of the company’s 58 sectors.

If you're overdue

Activate.
When you activate your flight plan, Leidos moves the plan from the departure sector’s “Proposed” list to another sector’s “Inbound,” or active, list. If you don’t activate your flight plan within two hours of your departure time, the plan is dropped out of the system.

Close.
When you’re flying VFR, the active flight plan sits on the active list until you close it or the estimated time of arrival passes with no word from you. At 20 minutes after your estimated time of arrival, the Leidos system highlights your flight plan for attention. At 30 minutes, the flight plan turns red. The aircraft is officially overdue.

Uncertainty.
The destination facility begins a communications search: checking the destination airport, the flight plan phone number, ATC facilities, and the flight planning provider for information on the flight. Specialists may also check the departure airport and airports near the destination. If the aircraft is not located, the destination flight service station may transmit a message to other facilities. If the aircraft is still missing an hour after its ETA, the destination facility issues a wider INREQ (information request) to facilities such as en route flight service stations and air route traffic control centers.

Alert.
If the replies to the INREQ are negative, or if the aircraft is not located within one hour after transmission of the INREQ, the destination facility issues an ALNOT (alert notice) to a wider swath of facilities within 50 nautical miles of either side of the route from the last reported position.

Distress.
Search missions are launched.

File.
Direct user access terminal service II (DUATS II) providers send an IFR flight plan to the air route traffic control center for the departure airport.

Clearance.
The route you file may not be the route you get, particularly in busy airspace. Air traffic flow management personnel look at how your intended flight will affect the National Airspace System to determine your route. When you receive your clearance, it will include elements summed up in the mnemonic CRAFT: clearance limit, route, altitude, departure frequency, transponder.

Strips.
Once your route is determined, the air route traffic control center sends your flight plan to facilities along the route: centers, terminal radar approach control facilities (tracons), and tower if the destination airport is towered. You’ll talk to these facilities as you progress along your flight, and any changes to your route will come from a controller. Controllers keep track of flights with strips of paper containing information such as aircraft identification, type, altitude, departure, and destination.

Cancellation.
If you land at a towered airport, the tower will automatically close your IFR flight plan for you. You may also close IFR flight plans with approach control, center, or flight service. ATC facilities remove the plan from their tracking systems.