How to plan a VFR flight in Spain, step by step

A VFR flight plan is more than a line on a chart. It is the route, the heading and ground speed of every leg, the fuel, the terrain and airspace under you, and the weather and NOTAMs along the way. This guide goes through those steps in the order you would do them for a flight in Spain, and shows each one in AirPlotter. The steps are the same in any planning tool.

1. Choose the route

Start from the aerodromes you will fly between and the points you want to pass over. Spain publishes VFR reporting points and VFR routes, and ENAIRE makes that data available. Around Madrid, for example, the points W, N and P1 sit at Cuatro Vientos (LECU). Using published points gives you names that other pilots and ATC know.

In AirPlotter you can click the map, search for a place or an aerodrome, or type a route such as LECU 4021N00356W LEMD. The chart shows the airspaces, navaids and obstacles from ENAIRE around your line, so you see what the route crosses before you commit to it.

2. Set the aircraft and the departure time

Every number after this depends on a few figures about your aircraft: true airspeed (TAS), cruise altitude, climb and descent rates, and fuel flow. Enter them once and save the aircraft, and each new plan starts from them.

Then set the departure time, in Zulu or in local time. The time matters because the wind changes through the day. AirPlotter fetches the forecast winds and temperatures aloft for the time you expect to fly each leg.

3. Let the wind do the maths

A crosswind pushes you off your course. To stay on it you point the nose a little into the wind. That angle is the wind correction angle, and your heading is your course plus or minus it. A headwind or tailwind also changes your ground speed, which is your speed over the ground and not through the air, and the ground speed sets how long each leg takes.

For every leg, including the climb and the descent, AirPlotter works out the true and magnetic course and heading, the TAS and ground speed, the distance and the time. You do not need to draw wind triangles by hand, but it helps to know what the numbers mean: wind correction angle and ground speed explains them with examples.

4. Read the nav log

The nav log is the table you take into the cockpit. Each leg has its altitude, wind, outside air temperature, courses and headings, TAS and ground speed, distance, time, estimated time over (ETO) and fuel left. The top of climb and the top of descent are placed for you, and a leg with low terrain clearance is flagged.

The frequencies and the airspaces of each leg sit on its row, so you can see which ones to call and which ones you may not enter. Choose the Full, Standard or Minimal set of columns, depending on how much you want on the page. How to read a VFR nav log goes through every column. Three blank columns are left to fill in with a pen in flight: the actual time over (ATO), the actual time en route (ATE) and the actual fuel remaining (AFR).

5. Check the terrain and the airspace

The vertical profile draws the terrain along the route with the floors and ceilings of the airspaces and your planned climb and descent. It marks the point with the lowest clearance, which is the first place to look at when you want to change the altitude or the route.

6. Work out the fuel

The fuel you need is the sum of five parts: taxi, trip, contingency, alternate and the final reserve. AirPlotter adds them up and sets them against the fuel on board, and shows the endurance that leaves you. The guide to VFR fuel planning explains each part.

It starts from a final reserve of 30 minutes and a contingency of 5 % of the trip fuel, and shows the recommended final reserve under the field: 30 minutes by day and 45 minutes when you land at night. Change them if your rules or your own margins ask for something else.

7. Brief the flight

The briefing puts the weather and the NOTAMs next to the plan. You get the METAR and TAF of the stations near your route, and the NOTAMs that apply: those for your departure, destination and alternate aerodromes, and those within 5 NM on each side of the route, for the time you will be flying, from take-off to landing with 30 minutes of margin either side.

The briefing also shows sunrise and sunset at both ends of the flight, with the civil twilight, and warns you when you would land after dark. To plan around the light, read how to plan a VFR flight around sunrise and sunset.

8. Take it with you

When the plan is ready, print the nav log as a PDF with a route map page, or the route map alone as a PDF for the kneeboard. To load the route into your navigation device or app, export it as a GPX file, which most apps read, or as a Garmin FPL file for Garmin units. AirPlotter also prepares the ICAO flight plan in the ICAO format. What each export contains explains which one to use.

Before you go

Planning is the part you can do calmly on the ground, so do it with the AIP, the NOTAMs and the weather briefing open next to the plan, as you always have. AirPlotter puts the numbers in one place and does the arithmetic, and you decide what to fly.