Penalty for failure to close flight plan

Exocetid

Exocetid

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Exocetid
I've been listening to some IFR panel discussions and one of the controllers said that they got very irritated when pilots landing at uncontrolled airports failed to close flight plans, or took their good sweet time closing them.

What are the penalties or sanctions involved? The one controller said that they will call the FBO and see if anyone sees NXXXX out on the ramp or not before they start the searches, but is there a sanction if you forget to close and they start the manhunt? Surely the FAA has a little present for the guy who keeps airspace tied up for hours because he never closed out.

Just curious, not planning on testing the system :wink2:
 
not that i know of, perhaps an annoyed phone call.
 
I once departed a military base on a VFR flight plan, but ATC treated it like a IFR clearance, including IFR altitudes enroute, so I made the bad assumption they had converted it to IFR, cancelled during the visual approach and didn't call FSS upon landing.

Mary got a call 30 minutes later looking for me. The next time that scenario played out I called FSS right after shutdown and they had no record of my flight in the data base.

Go figure.:dunno:
 
Failing to close a VFR flight plan can cost you the money CAP spends looking for you, but I've never heard of anyone sanctioned by the FAA for failing to cancel IFR.
 
The lack of consideration can go both ways. I once filed a VFR plan for a short flight (about 50 miles). I closed by cell phone while still on the taxiway at my destination. Flight Service didn't say anything other than the usual exchange on closing a flight plan. Then when I called my wife to tell her I had landed, she was quite upset because they had previously called the house looking for me as overdue. The whole flight was only about 30 minutes. They had copied a time wrong. Not a single word from them like "call home, sorry we upset your wife".
 
Bad karma, I'd imagine... having waited while ATC tracked down a forgetful pilot, I am especially mindful to cancel with a phone call if I cannot cancel in the air.
 
Here in Canada, where there's a lot of empty territory, the government takes flight plan closure seriously. The maximum penalty for failure to close is $1000 for an individual and $5000 for a corporation. I've seen several $250 charges in the last few years. Anytime they have to go looking it can be a major and expensive effort, and vast quantities of taxpayer cash have been wasted finding pilots who are around somewhere, perfectly safe.

Dan
 
I arrived 45 minutes late on a flight plan after a - shall we say -" interesting" cross-country experience with a student. When we finally arrived at our destination, to set the scene, the student, who I at that time considered above average, really started losing altitude fast in the pattern as he wasn't paying attention. We were about to turn base and he got us into such a sink rate right smack dab over a Wal-mart that I made him climb immediately and leave the pattern for a remedial talk before trying it again. I told him that we were getting in the range of being seriously low even if it was for an intended landing and that that kind of flying was likely to get folks mad and call the police, etc... Well, when we re-entered the pattern and landed, sure enough, there was a police car on the ramp... I was NOT happy. He proceeded to turn on his lights and follow us into a tie-down spot. I was really worried at that point. I was a lot happier very shortly when he told us in a real nice manner that he just wanted to make sure we were OK and that he'd been asked to look for a plane matching our description that was late on a flight plan. We had a nice, cordial, friendly chat, and that was that!

Ryan
 
Dan Thomas said:
Here in Canada, where there's a lot of empty territory, the government takes flight plan closure seriously. The maximum penalty for failure to close is $1000 for an individual and $5000 for a corporation. I've seen several $250 charges in the last few years. Anytime they have to go looking it can be a major and expensive effort, and vast quantities of taxpayer cash have been wasted finding pilots who are around somewhere, perfectly safe.

Dan
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Thanks Dan, what you described was pretty much what I thought we had here given the FAA's passion for disciplining errant pilots, but from the responses it doesn't sound like much happens, which is cause for concern because if you were in an accident near the airport in heavy IMC minutes could be critical. Likewise, if you are up there circling while some clown who didn't close is having coffee in the pilot's lounge, it could be pretty aggravating.
 
Ron Levy said:
Failing to close a VFR flight plan can cost you the money CAP spends looking for you, but I've never heard of anyone sanctioned by the FAA for failing to cancel IFR.
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I've never heard of anyone being charged for the money CAP spent searching for them.
 
I have worked several dozen "SAR" missions for overdue aircraft. None of them were fined or billed for the effort
 
Ron Levy said:
Failing to close a VFR flight plan can cost you the money CAP spends looking for you, but I've never heard of anyone sanctioned by the FAA for failing to cancel IFR.
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If CAP is called out it's unlikely you made it to your destination.
 
Palmpilot said:
I've never heard of anyone being charged for the money CAP spent searching for them.
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I left a VFR flight plan open past the due time when I was flying a Coast Guard patrol. Landed and had a message waiting for me from flight service. Called them back and apologized for forgetting. They told me that they were real close to notify me to start looking for myself. We had a good laugh over that!
 
Palmpilot said:
We do get called for aircraft that end up being found on the ramp or in a hangar.
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Interesting. When I have an aircraft that forgets to cancel I call the FBO, airport manager, local constable, or owner.
 
roncachamp said:
Interesting. When I have an aircraft that forgets to cancel I call the FBO, airport manager, local constable, or owner.
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We're discussing the closure of VFR flight plans, not cancelling IFR. Since ATC is not in the loop on unclosed VFR flight plans, and they are not covered in 7110.65 (see Section 10-3, Overdue Aircraft http://www.faa.gov/air_traffic/publications/atpubs/atc/atc1003.html#atc1003.html.1), it's not surprising an ATC controller wouldn't realize this. FSS has a time-phased checklist of what to do in the event of aircraft which don't close their VFR flight plans, and eventually, they contact the AF Rescue Coordination Center, which in turn eventually calls out the CAP. Among other things, CAP performs ramp searches and, to the extent possible, checks hangars for the "missing" aircraft.

And yes, there are provisions for the Federal Government to recover the costs of a search for an aircraft caused by the pilot's negligent failure to close a VFR flight plan. While those provisions are very rarely exercised, they do exist.
 
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Ron Levy said:
We're discussing the closure of VFR flight plans, not cancelling IFR.
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Are you sure about that? Here's the OP:

Exocetid said:
I've been listening to some IFR panel discussions and one of the controllers said that they got very irritated when pilots landing at uncontrolled airports failed to close flight plans, or took their good sweet time closing them.

What are the penalties or sanctions involved? The one controller said that they will call the FBO and see if anyone sees NXXXX out on the ramp or not before they start the searches, but is there a sanction if you forget to close and they start the manhunt? Surely the FAA has a little present for the guy who keeps airspace tied up for hours because he never closed out.

Just curious, not planning on testing the system :wink2:
Click to expand...

Since ATC is in the loop on unclosed VFR flight plans, and they are not covered in 7110.65 (see Section 10-3, Overdue Aircraft http://www.faa.gov/air_traffic/publications/atpubs/atc/atc1003.html#atc1003.html.1), it's not surprising an ATC controller wouldn't realize this.
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Actually, ATC is not in the loop on unclosed VFR flight plans, but it's not surprising a CFI wouldn't realize that.
 
Sorry, I forgot that the thread was about IFR flight plans.
 
It's a good idea to include a destination contact so the FSS can call you to find out that you arrived safely. I was once late on my VFR Flight plan, and was met by the local cop who got a call from FSS to go to the field and look for me. It was mostly embarassing, but the cop was pretty cool about it, and glad that I wasn't a smokinh hole in the ground.
 
Ron Levy said:
FWIW, it's generally accepted that when terminating a flight, you cancel an IFR clearance, but close a VFR flight plan.
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From AIM 5−1−8. Flight Plan− IFR Flights:

NOTE−
Close IFR flight plans with tower, approach control, or
ARTCC, or if unable, with FSS. When landing at an airport
with a functioning control tower, IFR flight plans are
automatically canceled.
 
roncachamp said:
From AIM 5−1−8. Flight Plan− IFR Flights:

NOTE−
Close IFR flight plans with tower, approach control, or
ARTCC, or if unable, with FSS. When landing at an airport
with a functioning control tower, IFR flight plans are
automatically canceled.
Click to expand...
Next time I'm flying IFR and want to go VFR, I'll say "22RL, close IFR," and see what the controller's response is. If it's "22RL, IFR closure received," I'll buy you a beer. If it's "22RL, IFR cancellation received, you buy me a beer.
 
Ron Levy said:
Next time I'm flying IFR and want to go VFR, I'll say "22RL, close IFR," and see what the controller's response is. If it's "22RL, IFR closure received," I'll buy you a beer. If it's "22RL, IFR cancellation received, you buy me a beer.
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I'll do ya better than that. Just tell me an official FAA publication designed to provide the aviation community with basic flight information and ATC procedures for use in the National Airspace System is not a reliable source of information and I'll buy you a case of beer.
 
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