John wrote to us on our website to ask how he would file a flight plan from an airport that did not have a Standard Instrument Departure Procedure since most airports do not have a Standard Instrument Departure or SID.
In this lesson we take a look at how you would file a flight plan from Troy Municipal Airport in Troy, Alabama. Troy does not lie on a victor airway, nor does it have a navaid on the field.
When filing a flight plan using victor airways (we’re using a no GPS example for this lesson), the first fix always needs to be a fix that will get us on to the airway. We can’t just file from the airport to the airway since we have no idea where on the airway that would put us.
So our flight plan would look like:
Departure Airport — Navaid/Intersection — Airway — Rest of route
That way, you know exactly where you are intercepting the airway, and air traffic control knows exactly what you are doing. This keeps you safe using proper altitudes and routes, and keeps you right on track.