The following procedures for filing of a flight plan shall be applicable

Before any flight is undertaken it is essential that the concerned Air Traffic Service unit is informed of the flight.

Information relative to an intended flight or portion of a flight, to be provided to an Air Traffic Service unit shall be in the form of the ICAO model flight plan.

Flight plans for intended flights shall be submitted to the appropriate ATS unit at least sixty (60) minutes before departure (Estimated off-block time).

A flight plan shall be submitted before departure to an Air Traffic services reporting office, during flight, transmitted to the appropriate Air Traffic Service unit on Air ground Control frequency, unless arrangements have been made for submission of repetitive/stored flight plan.

Flight plan filed in printed form in respect of schedule flights through any electronic media available with ATS authorities shall be accepted.

In such cases it will be the responsibility of the operator to obtain ATS, COMM and MET briefing and the data/documents so obtained by them shall be retained as records for six months.

The Air Traffic Control officer may however require Pilot-in-command or any other member of crew to report in person when special briefing regarding weather, ATC facilities or any other aspect that may affect the safety of flights has to be communicated.

A flight plan submitted to the appropriate Air Traffic Service unit at the Aerodrome of departure shall be signed and submitted by the Pilot-in-command.

However in case of a flight operated/handled by a regular Air transport undertaking or handled by an authorized handling agency, the flight plan can be signed and submitted by the flight dispatcher duly approved by the state of registry of the Air transport undertaking or handling agency.

Above mentioned persons submitting the flight plan are authorized to take ATS, COMM and MET briefing.

For local training or test flights conducted by scheduled/non-scheduled operators, a flight plan shall be submitted as laid down in para 3 above.

For training flights conducted by flying clubs within aerodrome traffic zone, a flight plan may be submitted on telephone giving the following information:

i) Aircraft Identification

ii) Flight rules

iii) Name of pilots and trainees if any

iv) Number of persons on board

v) Duration of flight

vi) Endurance

On aerodromes where no Aerodrome Traffic zone is established or no airspace has been reserved for local flying, a circular area of radius 5NM, centered at the Aerodrome reference point and vertical limits up to 3000Ft AGL shall be treated as the vicinity of Aerodrome for VFR flights.

Flight plans for cross-country flights conducted by flying club aircraft and general aviation aircraft from airfields where ATS reporting office does not exist, shall be submitted to the FIC on phone giving the information as specified in para 4.2 above.

A flight plan shall include accumulated elapsed times to FIR boundary points and registration marking of the aircraft in field 18.

In order to ensure smooth operation of flights and avoid inconvenience to all concerned, operators of Non-scheduled flights operating into and across Indian Airspace shall specify the DGCA authority (YA No.) or AHQ authority (AOR No.) in field 18 of the flight plan.