T01 · Cross-Country Flight Planning: VFR, IFR & Go/No-Go
Trip Definition and Eligibility
Write down the mission, then confirm the pilot and the airplane can actually fly it, before researching a single airport.
Blank — fill in your own values.
The mission
- Purpose of the trip
- Why this flight, in one line.
- Date and time zone
- Local date, and the zone every time on this sheet is stated in.
- Earliest / latest acceptable arrival
- Two times, not one.
- Passengers and baggage
- Who, and what they are carrying.
- Return plan
- Same day, or overnight?
- Latest departure time
- Set before you need it, not decided on the ramp.
- Overnight fallback
- Where, if the trip slips a day.
- Ground-transport fallback
- If the flight does not happen at all.
- Diversion budget
- What you are willing to spend on an unplanned stop.
- Mission features beyond ordinary daytime VFR/IFR
- Night, mountains, overwater, special-use airspace — or "none."
Pilot eligibility
- Certificate and ratings
- As held, from the actual certificate.
- Medical / alternative qualification
- Class and expiration, or BasicMed status.
- Flight review currency
- Date of last review, 24-month check.
- Passenger-carrying currency (day / night)
- Checked separately, from the logbook.
- Instrument currency, if IFR planned
- See Chapter 3 — 61.57(c)/(d).
Aircraft eligibility
- Registration and exact model
- Not "the club 172" — the tail number and full model.
- Documents and operating limitations
- Current and aboard?
- Weight and balance on file
- Current revision?
- Applicable inspections
- Annual, 100-hour if applicable (91.409), ADs.
- Inoperative equipment, if any
- MEL or 91.213(d) determination, recorded in the logbook.
Fill in your own values from current, real sources — never from this course’s own worked examples — for any real flight.