Although most pilots will be familiar with the ICAO flight plan forms these are actually not transmitted by flight plan filing services anymore.
These days typically a so called Type-B message is sent via the Aeronautical Fixed Telecommunication Network (AFTN) to all relevant station. The type-B message is a very short text message containing the required minimum data to transmit a flight plan and this harks back to the days Telex or TTOR was used to transmit flight plans. It is still used today because it has become a worldwide standard and is the lowest common denominator and helps process flightplans even in the lesser developed parts of the world that not yet have secure internet access. The addressing of of flight plan messages over the AFTN is based on 8 letter station addresses which are based on the ICAO identifier plus 4 letters defining the station. For instance the to address at London Heathrow airport would be made up of its ICAO identifier “EGLL” + the tower identifier “ZTZX” to form EGLLZTZX. In the online flight planning service RocketRoute.com you can see the addresses on the final filing page and RocketRoute allows you to add additional addresses if required such as your own airline code.
The actual message content is defined in ICAO Document number 4444 and this has been without changes for many years. However in November 2012 some major changes will come into affect:
- The date of flight information is now mandatory in field 18 This allows filing earlier than 24 hours ahead of time although some countries will still not implement this. RocketRoute already does this automatically.
- The Aircraft Identification field (Item 7) can now be 7 characters long.
- If the type of flight in field 8 item 8b denotes requirements for special handling it will be mandatory to complete field 18 with the STS/ statement declaring the reason for special handling (Government officials, VIPs etc).
- Equipment and Aircraft Capabilities are listed in Item 10 and these can now include numeric codes as well as letters. An interesting sign of the time the letter “S” denotes standard equipment and trhis used to mean “VHF comms, ADF, VOR and ILS” but from November 2012 the ADF has been dropped indicating the world is clearly moving away from this imprecise navigation technology.
- Departure Aerodrome in item 13 now makes the insertion of the departure location mandatory where previously only the name was required. RocketRoute already does this by inserting the ICAO formatted location coordinates in DEP/ and adding the long text name in the remarks section. In future the first fix after departure can also be added. The same is true for field 16 the Destination Aerodrome.
- The route field 15 now formally allows waypoint names and true bearings in high latitudes. It is also clarified that the levl, route and speed changes commence after the “/”.
- Field 18 the free text or remarks section now receives a preferred sequence of information starting with STS/ followed by specific codes. There is also now a denominator for Performance Based Navigation, for example a GPS navigator with 5NM precision would be PBN/B2 and if it supports WAAS or EGNOS as a Spaced Based Augmentation System (SBAS) you can now add NAV/SBAS
- A new field 18 indicator DLE/ is introduced to indicate enroute delays so a 30 minute delay at Dover would be DLE/DVR0030.
- You can now use ZZZZ as Alternate and describe the Alternate in field 18 using ALTN/ and RALTN/ for en route alternate and TALT/ can be used for take off alternate.
RocketRoute will automatically generate a completed ICAO flight plan form on request. If you have selected this as part of your briefing pack it will automatically be emailed to you or you can click on the menu option Email/Fax briefing pack and click View ICAO flight plan to get instant online access to the flight plan form. In some countries it maybe useful to carry a printed copy if nothing else it can help you get through security – strange as that may sound. If you require a blank form you can find one online here.