[Nomex Maximus]

...or else they may send out someone who looks like this to find you. Scary.

 

[Bob Axsom]

Yes and...

Don't think that if you are confronted with IMC and air file an IFR flight plan that your VFR flight plan is closed. We had it happen to one of our guys on a fly-in to Bryce Canyon. I happened to call Flight Service to check on his arrival back at Las Vegas. They informed me that he had been declared missing and the telephone search was already complete and they were ready to activate the next step which our fellow flier was going to have to pay for. I told them that he had filed an IFR flight plan back to Las Vegas and that his VFR flight plan should be cancelled. I was informed that only the pilot can cancel his flight plan. I said OK but start the search at McCarren to minimize the cost. I have never filed a VFR flight plan since then except for border crossing.

Bob Axsom

 

[rzbill]

Me No File VFR, IFR yah, VFR Nah.

I was a teenage passenger with my dad and his best friend (also PPL) coming back from OSH '71. We had a communication misunderstanding with FSS that resulted in failure to close VFR too. By the time we found out there was a problem the next morning (we had done a 180 over a solid undercast and landed at Aurora, Ill for the night), the local NC newscasters were claiming we were crashed and burned. If my mom had heard it, she would have "ended it all" due to other bad things that had happened recently. We escaped paying for the whole ordeal by the skin of our teeth. Not a pretty experience.

 

[PCHunt]

Flight following is much better than a VFR flight plan, IMHO.

 

[ksouthar]

Flight Plans

Do Both! FF doesn't guarantee someone is watching!

Flight following is much better than a VFR flight plan, IMHO.

 

[aerovin]

They informed me that he had been declared missing and the telephone search was already complete and they were ready to activate the next step which our fellow flier was going to have to pay for.

Bob Axsom

Sound's like the old telephone search didn't go too well. They routinely call the air traffic facilities so it should have been a very simple matter to find the fate of the airplane.

I have never filed a VFR flight plan since then except for border crossing.

Bob Axsom

Hmmm...cut off your nose to spite your face.

 

[PCHunt]

Do Both! FF doesn't guarantee someone is watching!

But it DOES guarantee that you are on a frequency that you can immediately talk to someone who knows who you are, and where you are. A "Mayday" call will get you all the help you need without switching freqs. And, no flight plan to forget to close. Works for me, anyway. YMMV.

 

[TSwezey]

But it DOES guarantee that you are on a frequency that you can immediately talk to someone who knows who you are, and where you are. A "Mayday" call will get you all the help you need without switching freqs. And, no flight plan to forget to close. Works for me, anyway. YMMV.

It works for me also!

 

[aerovin]

It works for me also!

At least until you hear "Radar service terminated. Squawk 1200. Frequency change approved."

Or, in the west at lower altitude:

"You're below my radar coverage. Try Seattle Center in 125 miles on 134.5."

Flight following is great but has some limitations.

 

[kcameron]

At least until you hear "Radar service terminated. Squawk 1200. Frequency change approved."

Or, in the west at lower altitude:

"You're below my radar coverage. Try Seattle Center in 125 miles on 134.5."

Flight following is great but has some limitations.

Yep. Learned that one the hard way. I was thinking "Why file a flight plan when I can just use flight following?" Got the "squawk 1200" while over the desert 150 miles from nowhere.