forgot to close my flight plan.

I've taken black marker and written on solo XC student's arms "CLOSE YOUR FLIGHT PLAN" when I had weekend duty at SOSU with all the commercial students headed out on their time building XC's.
 
TheresaPilot said:
I've taken black marker and written on solo XC student's arms "CLOSE YOUR FLIGHT PLAN" when I had weekend duty at SOSU with all the commercial students headed out on their time building XC's.
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Good thought. We have signs all over the place as gentle reminders now. Kind of sucks getting that call from Mr T asking why 11x sack o sugga aint back yet when it's already put up. Makes you feel like a tool for not catching it.
 
As a fledgling pilot, I had flight following with Cleveland Center and for some crazy reason asked them to close my flight plan when I had my destination in sight. They didn't. After finishing my $100 hamburger I started up the aircraft and began to taxi. Well, this particular airport had a Maryland State Trooper aviation unit. I made it about halfway to the run-up area before a police cruiser pulled in front of me with its lights on. I didn't know what to do, so I stopped the airplane and pulled the parking break, engine still running. The trooper exited his cruiser, walked over to the door of my mighty skyhawk, and tapped on the side window. When I opened the window he informed me that the FSS was interested in speaking with me. I called up the FSS and explained my mistake, apologizing profusely. They probably laughed and scowled upon hearing my explanation. Let that be a lesson to ya. Center and the FSS are separate entities, and they provide different services.

And THAT, ladies and gentleman, is the story of how I was pulled over by a cop car while I was operating an aircraft.
 
poser765 said:
Good thought. We have signs all over the place as gentle reminders now. Kind of sucks getting that call from Mr T asking why 11x sack o sugga aint back yet when it's already put up. Makes you feel like a tool for not catching it.
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I got called 110 Suga Suga on my first XC when getting flight following and when they responded with that, my instructor (male) went on the radio and ready everything back... It kinda made him sound like a jealous boyfriend. :laff:
 
Never really trusted ATC with flight plans other than IFR. Hell even now you can't really trust FSS with VFR flight plans.
 
poser765 said:
So i hope this doesn't hijack to much, but has anyone else had any problems with Lockhead FS recently regarding actually closing flight plans? We had maybe half a dozen students AND instructors last semester close a flight plan only to start getting the call from FSS inquiring about the aircraft. Not sure what's happening but there seems to be some type of communication break down at the FSS level.
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Yep...around Thanksgiving. We were heading out of town and had activated the plan before taxi out. Had a mx issue and came back to park. I called Lockheed and canceled. Went home and then out to eat...left cell phone @ the house. Came home to about 10 messages from the FSS and the AF SAR folks in Florida! Cleared it all up, and no SAR activities had been launched. The AF SAR dude told me it wasn't a bad idea to get the Lockheed controllers initials when closing out. That is a common practice in the AF, so I have started doing this with the FSS peeps too. Everything is on tapes anyway, so as long as you did close it out...no harm, no foul.
 
It's kindof a refreshing post actually... at least you know (and the rest of us as well) that the system works! You don't close your flight plan and people will come looking, awesome! Learning experience, and I'm guessing you've learned from it. Don't worry about it, we all make mistakes. Personally I have never done it (and personally never fly VFR anymore, but that's my own deal... I like the IFR system), but I definitely could've seen that happening to me years ago. No huge deal!
 
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