A reminder for IFR pilots- close your flight plan!

cowman

cowman

Final Approach
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Cowman
In case you didn’t know when you’re cleared for the approach at an uncontrolled field that’s currently IFR the controllers will not clear anyone else for the approach or departure from the field until you’ve closed your flight plan checked back in with ATC if you go missed.

So, should you come in for a landing and you notice someone sitting at the hold short line waiting, please do that guy a favor and get your flight plan closed ASAP. He can’t take off until you do. Same for anyone behind you wanting to land, ATC needs to know you’re not blocking the runway or going missed or lost in the soup before they’ll grant clearance.
 
Uh oh. I hope this reminder wasn't triggered by any particular event. :(

Setting an alarm or countdown timer on the phone helps. If I can, I try to do it as soon as I clear the runway, preferably via radio.
 
The flight begins on a ramp and ends on a ramp. ASAP is after engine shut down on the ramp if a cell phone is involved. Rolling on a ramp while looking up and entering a phone number is a bad practice.
 
Same goes if it’s VFR conditions. They still can’t release IFR aircraft for departure or clear IFR for an approach until the inbound cancels. Can’t use visual sep either. At a busy uncontrolled field it can be a major hassle.
 
cowman said:
In case you didn’t know when you’re cleared for the approach at an uncontrolled field that’s currently IFR the controllers will not clear anyone else for the approach or departure from the field until you’ve closed your flight plan checked back in with ATC if you go missed.

So, should you come in for a landing and you notice someone sitting at the hold short line waiting, please do that guy a favor and get your flight plan closed ASAP. He can’t take off until you do. Same for anyone behind you wanting to land, ATC needs to know you’re not blocking the runway or going missed or lost in the soup before they’ll grant clearance.
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Blocking the Runway has nothing to do with it. And like said above, “…field that’s currently IFR…” has nothing to do with it.
 
Slight tangent - I saw a well respected YouTuber cancel IFR after breaking out of the soup on approach to a non towered field. (And another "friend" is a newly minted IFR pilot, "he" may have done this a few weeks prior to me seeing the video).

When he canceled, landing was assured. Cancelling seemed like the courteous thing to do. In hindsight, it probably wasn't the smartest at best nor legal at worst. (What if another plane, vehicle, wildlife crossed the runway just prior to touch down and he had to go around?) I can see a case being made in these two cases that both pilots were flying VFR in weather below VFR minimums.
 
luvflyin said:
Blocking the Runway has nothing to do with it. And like said above, “…field that’s currently IFR…” has nothing to do with it.
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I originally read the post as "landing pilot blew a tire on roll out or is otherwise disabled on the runway"... no?
 
Nathan Miller said:
Slight tangent - I saw a well respected YouTuber cancel IFR after breaking out of the soup on approach to a non towered field. (And another "friend" is a newly minted IFR pilot, "he" may have done this a few weeks prior to me seeing the video).

When he canceled, landing was assured. Cancelling seemed like the courteous thing to do. In hindsight, it probably wasn't the smartest at best nor legal at worst. (What if another plane, vehicle, wildlife crossed the runway just prior to touch down and he had to go around?) I can see a case being made in these two cases that both pilots were flying VFR in weather below VFR minimums.
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Yeah. If you have to ‘go around’ for some reason, and the weather is such that you can’t stay VFR down there, and the ‘go around’ turns into a ‘missed approach’ after you cancelled, that ain’t good.
 
Nathan Miller said:
Slight tangent - I saw a well respected YouTuber cancel IFR after breaking out of the soup on approach to a non towered field. (And another "friend" is a newly minted IFR pilot, "he" may have done this a few weeks prior to me seeing the video).

When he canceled, landing was assured. Cancelling seemed like the courteous thing to do. In hindsight, it probably wasn't the smartest at best nor legal at worst. (What if another plane, vehicle, wildlife crossed the runway just prior to touch down and he had to go around?) I can see a case being made in these two cases that both pilots were flying VFR in weather below VFR minimums.
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Well most likely he was in G and 1 SM / CoC. Could have been legal. Now wise or smart is subjective. Some pilots, regardless of wx, advocate cancelling on the ground. I guess if one is that worried about SAR after an accident, then cancelling on the ground would be prudent. I’m not that paranoid so if I’ve got the runway, I’ve met my vis cloud clearance criteria, I cancel.
 
I cancel in the air when it's legal and safe to do so, otherwise I do it on the ground. "Safe" would mean I can do a go-around and maintain VFR. Otherwise, I'll keep it till I'm on the ground and cancel once clear of the runway...the person waiting for their release will need wait an extra couple of minutes at most. I do not think it's fair to taxi on the ramp at a non-towered airport, holding up someone else's release or approach clearance, though. So, I would advocate for making the call once clear of the runway, rather than waiting until you're at the ramp.
 
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Clip4 said:
The flight begins on a ramp and ends on a ramp. ASAP is after engine shut down on the ramp if a cell phone is involved. Rolling on a ramp while looking up and entering a phone number is a bad practice.
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No, no, no. Closing the flight plan IS part of the flight. Close as soon as practical. I exit the runway, stop the plane, lean the engine, turn off the landing light and pitot heat if needed, then call and cancel. After that is done I taxi to the ramp, it's not nice to leave another airplane turning in a hold, or sitting at a departure runway any longer than necessary.
 
I'm lucky enough that my home field has a remote relay so we can talk to ATC by radio on the ground, it greatly simplifies things. A couple of other airports I frequent also have this feature. I wish there was some way to know if this was the case or not- the only ways I've found are to either ask ATC or find someone in the FBO who knows. Seems like it should be in the remarks or something... anyway...

As it happens yesterday was the first time I've ever had to do it by phone which isn't really relevant other than just adding to the annoyance. Original plan was to depart VFR and get clearance in the air which is what I'd normally do. Unfortunately, when that plan was made conditions were broken 1600, by the time the engine started up we were down to 900' overcast. I did think about the class G rules and going anyway but I didn't like it, additionally this was a busy-ish area under the Chicago Bravo so it just seemed like bad idea all around.

With the engine already going and not wanting to create problems for anyone coming in, I decided to taxi out and do my runup first then call which is how I'd do it at home with the radio. I like to be able to tell ATC I'm ready to go rather than worry about precise timing... may revisit that practice now. When I called they told me someone was on approach and I'd have to call back in about 5min. Ok, well that's annoying but no biggie. I watched the guy come in and land, then he pulled off the runway and sat on the taxiway exit for a bit.. I assumed he was canceling right there. I called again, flight plan was not closed- call back in 3min. Called back in 3min, still not closed try back in 5....

This resolved eventually with me doing the thing I should have done first thing, I had assumed after all the time that had passed the other pilot would have been shut down but I called on the CTAF and he answered and closed the flight plan. I don't know what was going on with the other pilot and I don't want to rip on him too much- we all mistakes. It was just really annoying. I just made the mistake of opening up my foreflight track log and I didn't realize it had been that long but I guess I was stopped for a full 20minutes. So maybe I have sufficient cause to gripe here. :p

Sitting here, I'm wondering... the FBO didn't have the guy and he was on the radio 20 minutes after landing. The self-serve tanks would have been out of view for me. I wonder if he was fueling that whole time and heard me on the radio because he'd just got back in and started up.
 
PaulS said:
No, no, no. Closing the flight plan IS part of the flight. Close as soon as practical. I exit the runway, stop the plane, lean the engine, turn off the landing light and pitot heat if needed, then call and cancel. After that is done I taxi to the ramp, it's not nice to leave another airplane turning in a hold, or sitting at a departure runway any longer than necessary.
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Taxi to the ramp takes less than 2 minutes at the average uncontrolled airport. Back in the day before cell phones, you would have to wait until the arrival taxied to the ramp and walked to the pay phone and hoped he had a dime.
 
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Clip4 said:
So you are the idiot blocking the Alpha taxiway. Taxi to the ramp takes less than 2 minutes at the average uncontrolled airport.
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Nope, you're the one ATC is telling me hasn't cancelled their flight plan yet so I have to hold. If the field is VFR, cancel in the air, if the field is IFR, you'll be blocking no one, because until your flight plan is cancelled, no one can get in or leave..... you gotta think!

And very few fields I fly into are 2 minute taxis to the ramp.
 
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PaulS said:
if the field is IFR, you'll be blocking no one, because until your flight plan is cancelled, no one can get in or leave.....
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This has to be a typo, right? If the field is IFR, you'll be "blocking" anyone trying to shoot an approach or depart. What am I missing?
 
Syracuse Approach always reminds me to call upon landing if unable to cancel in the air. At my home field, if you can't safely cancel at the MVA, then there is no radio communication possible below that altitude on the approach, so phone call it is even if your break out early on the approach. I always try to cancel at the MVA if conditions allow, in order not to hold up other IFR traffic, which we can have quite a bit of at times.
 
Nathan Miller said:
This has to be a typo, right? If the field is IFR, you'll be "blocking" anyone trying to shoot an approach or depart. What am I missing?
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If the field is IFR you have exclusive use of the runway until you cancel your flight plan. No one can shoot an approach or depart until you close your flight plan. There are uncontrolled airports around here where you can end up over a mile from where you want to park, plus you may need to cross a runway or two. So much more than "2 minutes" can elapse from the time you exit the runway, clean up your airplane, taxi, cross a runway, get ushered into a parking spot then shut down. Meanwhile the airport, plus the approach, and missed approach airspace is unusable for other airplanes in the area, this can include approaches to other airports. It's just courtesy to close your instrument flight plan as soon as possible. Taxiways almost always have connectors between the runway and the main taxiway where you can stop, clean up your airplane, and make a 45 second call to ATC. You block no one.

I fly in a busy area, ATC generally asks pilots to remember to close their flight plans and do it as soon as they can because other airplanes are following in. It's the way I was trained, get the flight plan closed as soon after the landing as you can safely do. For me this means when I clear the runway.

This happened to me a few weeks ago, the field had an 1100 foot ceiling, a slower plane was ahead of me on the approach, I had to hold. Fortunately the guy ahead of me cancelled quickly, when he was on the ground, and I only had to do 1 loop. Then I had to deal with the bandit, doing touch and goes at a field that was technically VFR, but no way was he maintaining 500 feet below the clouds. But that's another story.
 
Nathan Miller said:
This has to be a typo, right? If the field is IFR, you'll be "blocking" anyone trying to shoot an approach or depart. What am I missing?
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We’ll just edit my original statement to say “ATC cannot guarantee separation between aircraft” and it will be more technically correct.
 
I had an instance where a King Air was behind me in line for the approach, in a hold waiting on me to cancel. By the time I could cancel, I was too low to reach approach. I had an experienced pilot with me and he radioed the aircraft in the hold to relay to approach to cancel IFR. The King Air was most appreciative.
 
PaulS said:
this can include approaches to other airports
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Oh yes, this has happened to me. I was on the ground waiting for a good 15-20 minutes while someone else was shooting an approach into an airport 12nm to the northwest (their IF was 2800ft above the airport I was trying to depart). I watched them on ADS-B while I was waiting.
 
KeepWatch said:
I had an instance where a King Air was behind me in line for the approach, in a hold waiting on me to cancel. By the time I could cancel, I was too low to reach approach. I had an experienced pilot with me and he radioed the aircraft in the hold to relay to approach to cancel IFR. The King Air was most appreciative.
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Back before cell phones we would relay through another aircraft to cancel quite often. I have also gotten releases through a relay years ago.
 
Velocity173 said:
Well most likely he was in G and 1 SM / CoC. Could have been legal. Now wise or smart is subjective. Some pilots, regardless of wx, advocate cancelling on the ground. I guess if one is that worried about SAR after an accident, then cancelling on the ground would be prudent. I’m not that paranoid so if I’ve got the runway, I’ve met my vis cloud clearance criteria, I cancel.
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Cancelling IFR with ATC does not mean you are VFR. In class G (typically below 700 ft), you can fly IFR without a clearance. Not the smartest thing to do, however.
 
sarangan said:
Cancelling IFR with ATC does not mean you are VFR. In class G (typically below 700 ft), you can fly IFR without a clearance. Not the smartest thing to do, however.[/QUOTE

Sure but that’s not the case here. He said he broke out and was cancelling IFR. I’m sure he was told to squawk VFR shortly after that. Unless he climbed back into the clouds, he was operating VFR in Class G.
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sarangan said:
Cancelling IFR with ATC does not mean you are VFR. In class G (typically below 700 ft), you can fly IFR without a clearance. Not the smartest thing to do, however.
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Don't cancel until on the ground if it is Class E surface airspace. If it is a Class E surface airport you can talk to ATC or FSS on the ground.
 
aterpster said:
Don't cancel until on the ground if it is Class E surface airspace. If it is a Class E surface airport you can talk to ATC or FSS on the ground.
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So taxi off the runway, stop, hit the flip-flop button and "Podunk Approach, Cessna 345, on the ground Anytown, cancel IFR"?

I think I've said "...landed Anytown" before and they asked if I was on the ground or not. What's the most expeditious way to phrase it so as to avoid that kind of back and forth?
 
asicer said:
I think I've said "...landed Anytown" before and they asked if I was on the ground or not. What's the most expeditious way to phrase it so as to avoid that kind of back and forth?
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Podunk approach Bugmasher12345 is on the ground at (destination) cancel IFR.
 
asicer said:
So taxi off the runway, stop, hit the flip-flop button and "Podunk Approach, Cessna 345, on the ground Anytown, cancel IFR"?

I think I've said "...landed Anytown" before and they asked if I was on the ground or not. What's the most expeditious way to phrase it so as to avoid that kind of back and forth?
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You can say either one (cancel IFR / on the ground) or combine both statements. Either one of those statements will open the field for other IFR ops.
 
cowman said:
I'm lucky enough that my home field has a remote relay so we can talk to ATC by radio on the ground, it greatly simplifies things. A couple of other airports I frequent also have this feature. I wish there was some way to know if this was the case or not- the only ways I've found are to either ask ATC or find someone in the FBO who knows. Seems like it should be in the remarks or something... anyway...
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That would be a GCO or RCO. N07 lists this in the airport communications block of the Chart Supplement:
"GCO 121.725 (MILLVILLE RADIO)"

When I landed at Elko, NV a few years back, I needed to cancel my VFR flight plan. There was a giant sign on the ramp showing the RCO freq, but, failing that, it was published in the Chart Supplement as well:
"RCO 122.60 (RENO RADIO)"

So, it is indeed published somewhere: the Chart Supplement.
 
coma24 said:
That would be a GCO or RCO. N07 lists this in the airport communications block of the Chart Supplement:
"GCO 121.725 (MILLVILLE RADIO)"

When I landed at Elko, NV a few years back, I needed to cancel my VFR flight plan. There was a giant sign on the ramp showing the RCO freq, but, failing that, it was published in the Chart Supplement as well:
"RCO 122.60 (RENO RADIO)"

So, it is indeed published somewhere: the Chart Supplement.
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Picking at nits: You can't cancel a VFR flight plan. It must be closed.
 
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