NAV CANADA’s flight planning online site finally
has a complete self-briefing capability with the introduction of on-line flight
plan filing.
When COPA was involved in the development of the Flight Information Centre (FIC)
concept, we emphasized that the NAV CANADA online flight planning web site must
have key features that would permit pilots to prepare for and carry out a flight
without having to contact the FIC.
This is necessary because, despite the promises of technology, we believed that
there would be delays in contacting an FIC for a briefing or to file a flight
plan on busy summer days.
Improvements have been made to the weather site, including graphic GFAs, plain
language reports and forecasts, near-real-time weather radar, and many other
features that COPA and others suggested. Because of security concerns, the final
two features, NOTAMs and flight plan filing, took longer than originally
anticipated to come to the web. NOTAMs came online last year.
Security remains a concern for the flight plan filing program. Consequently,
pilots are required to apply for an access code. Until now, there has been an
application form on the front page of the NAV CANADA web site www.navcanada.ca
to encourage pilots to sign up for the service, but the service has been
withheld pending a thorough beta test, which included several COPA members.
The application form that has been on the site to this point in time was not
acceptable to COPA because it contained statements that we considered went too
far in terms of pilots waiving their rights.
The revised application form contains a limit of liability statement that has
been reviewed by COPA’s legal counsel and adjusted to be acceptable to COPA.
As this newspaper went to press, NAV CANADA was expecting the revised
application form and the flight plan service to be online by the end of May.
Members are encouraged to sign up for the flight plan filing service and to use
it in order to reduce the load on the FICs.
However, as with any automatic process, there is the potential for failure. As
an extra precaution to address potential failure of the system when you are
flying out of an aerodrome where you are unsure of being able to contact NavCan
either on the ground or shortly after takeoff to confirm that the flight plan is
activated, we recommend that you should call the FIC by telephone either to file
or to confirm that the flight plan is in the system.
That way, even though the plan should be automatically activated on your
proposed takeoff time, at least you will know that the plan was received by
NavCan and most likely will be activated. Contact Kevin Psutka.