✈️ Aviation Brief — Issue #73
Weekly insights for student pilots and the instructors who train them.
THIS WEEK'S TOPIC
CA.I.C — Cross-Country Flight Planning (Commercial Pilot ACS)
1. ACS STANDARDS SUMMARY
The Commercial Pilot ACS requires you to plan a VFR cross-country flight of at least 300 nautical miles with landings at three different airports. You must select a route using current aeronautical charts and publications, obtain and interpret weather information, calculate aircraft performance (including weight and balance), determine fuel requirements with reserves, and complete a navigation log with estimated times en route, headings, and groundspeeds. The examiner also expects you to explain how you would handle diversion, lost procedures, or changing weather while airborne.
2. THREE COMMON STUDENT MISTAKES
Students often skip updating Sectional charts, Airport/Facility Directory data, and NOTAMs before planning, leading to routes through new restricted airspace or closed runways.
Many misapply wind correction or forget to convert true heading to magnetic heading, resulting in 10–15 degree track errors on the first leg.
A frequent error is calculating fuel only to the destination without confirming the required day VFR reserve (30 minutes) or accounting for higher fuel burn during climb, leaving dangerously little margin if headwinds increase.
3. CFI PRO TIP
Teach students to plan the flight “backwards” from the destination: start with the required fuel reserve at the destination, then add climb and cruise fuel requirements while working toward the departure airport. This simple reversal forces them to notice reserve shortfalls early and builds a habit of realistic fuel planning instead of optimistic straight-line estimates.
4. SAFETY SPOTLIGHT
NTSB accident data consistently shows fuel exhaustion remains a leading cause of general aviation cross-country incidents, often tied to incomplete preflight planning. In several investigated cases, pilots used only GPS direct routing without recalculating groundspeed after actual winds differed from the forecast, exhausting tanks before reaching an alternate.
5. DID YOU KNOW
Even when using an electronic flight bag, the ACS still expects you to be able to calculate a wind correction angle and estimated time en route manually; many checkride applicants are asked to demonstrate this skill with a plotter and E6B after they present their electronic plan.
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