PLT225: Flight Plan Requirements
What code PLT225 covers, why the FAA tests it, and how to study Flight Plan Requirements before your checkride.
Recall flight plan - requirements
What this means for your checkride
Flight plan requirements cover when a plan must be filed and what it must contain. An IFR flight plan is required to operate IFR in controlled airspace; a VFR flight plan is optional but recommended because it starts search and rescue if you fail to close it.
Knowing when a flight plan is required, and the difference between the IFR and VFR cases, is a regulatory basic, so the FAA tests the requirement and the search-and-rescue role of a VFR plan.
A VFR flight plan is not tracked by ATC and provides no separation; it exists for search and rescue, and you must remember to close it on landing or an alert is triggered.
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.