Flight plan

They generally include basic information such as departure and arrival points, estimated time en route, alternate airports in case of bad weather, type of flight (whether instrument flight rules [IFR] or visual flight rules [VFR]), the pilot's information, number of people on board, and information about the aircraft itself.

In the United States and Canada, when an aircraft is crossing the Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ), either an IFR or a special type of VFR flight plan called a DVFR (Defense VFR) flight plan must be filed.

In most land areas of the world, aircraft are required to fly airways between the departure and destination airports[citation needed].

SIDs and STARs are procedures and checkpoints used to enter and leave the airway system by aircraft operating on IFR flight plans.

A SID, or Standard Instrument Departure, defines a pathway out of an airport and onto the airway structure.

In the United States, there are several types of SUA, including Restricted, Warning, Prohibited, Alert, and Military Operations Area (MOA).

Examples of Special Use Airspace include a region around the White House in Washington, D.C., and the country of Cuba.

The altimeter reading is converted to a flight level by removing the trailing two zeros: for example, 29000 feet becomes FL290.

For example, an aircraft may be able to reach FL290 early in a flight, but step climb to FL370 later in the route after weight has decreased due to fuel burn off.

In Canada, unlike the United States, unless specifically exempted by a company Operating Certificate, IFR flight plans require an alternate airport, regardless of the forecast destination weather.

The minimum weather conditions vary based on the type of approach(es) available at the alternate airport, and may be found in the General section of the Canada Air Pilot (CAP).

The fuel burn rate is based on specific throttle settings for climbing and cruising.

The planner uses the projected weather and aircraft weight as inputs to the flight performance data to estimate the necessary fuel to reach the destination.

In case of an in-flight emergency it may be necessary to determine whether it is quicker to divert to the alternate airfield or continue to the destination.

[citation needed] Holding over the destination or alternate airports is a required part of some flight plans.

Organized Tracks are a series of paths similar to airways which cross ocean areas.