Flight planning checklist

Recency of Experience

• Current flight review
• Current medical certificate
• Day currency for taking passengers
• Night currency for taking passengers

Personal

• IMSAFE (Illness, medication, alcohol, stress, fatigue, emotion)

Airport brief

• Radio frequencies
• CTAF / tower / ground / approach
• ATIS / ASOS
• Center
• Flight Service
• VORs
• Field elevation
• Runways
• Airport diagrams (Chart Supplement)

Weather forecast

• TAF (departure and all destinations)
• Winds aloft
• Write TAF and winds on each airport brief
• Density altitude
• Weather improving? Deteriorating?

Route of flight

• True course -> True heading -> Magnetic heading -> Compass heading
• Hemispheric altitude selection (0-179, 180-359) (VFR +500)
• Airspace considerations: departure, en route, destination
• Total distance, leg distances, leg times
• Departure information
• Top of climb calculation
• VFR checkpoints
• IFR checkpoints
• Top of descent calculation (vertical distance to pattern-entry leg) (TPA x 3)
• Arrival information
• Fuel burn
• Alternates
• Record radio frequencies, runway headings, field elevations on separate sheet

Preflight Brief

• NOTAMs
• AIRMETs/SIGMETs
• TFRs
• Briefing and filed flight plan

Weight & balance

• Will there be a payload?
• Will there be abnormal loading?