PLT053: Flight Plans
What code PLT053 covers, why the FAA tests it, and how to study Flight Plans before your checkride.
Interpret information on a Flight Plan
What this means for your checkride
This is filing and reading a flight plan: aircraft and equipment, route, altitude, true airspeed, departure and estimated times, fuel on board, and alternate. A VFR flight plan is a search-and-rescue tool you open and close with Flight Service; an IFR flight plan is your clearance request.
Filing correctly and closing a VFR plan matter for both clearance and search and rescue, so the FAA tests the fields and the open and close procedure.
Pilots forget that filing a VFR flight plan does not activate it, and it does not close itself. You open it after departure and close it on arrival, or search and rescue may be launched.
Where to study it
A code on your test report is an area of deficiency. An authorized instructor must review it with you and endorse that review before you take the practical test, and the examiner may revisit it during the oral. Study it until you can explain it out loud, not just recognize the answer.