ICAO FP

[Eric Hill]

I was recently told by a ZTL controler that VATSIM doesn't condone the use of the ICAO flight plan format. It's not manditory until 2017 but, its been prefered for PBN equipped aircraft for some time. I quote:


My real airline has been using it for well over a year domestically, and my VA operates the same way.
Is the controller mistake or is VATUSA too behind the times??

[Don Desfosse]

It has nothing to do with VATUSA, per se. The standard VATSIM flight plan form is still the legacy FAA flight plan form. VATSIM has not yet published guidance on when that will be changing. It's not whether VATUSA condones it or not, it's about the fact that VATSIM doesn't require it. You can put all the ICAO information you want into the comments section, but there is no requirement for controllers to look at your flight plan comments, so all of your ICAO information will likely go unviewed and disregarded until such time as VATSIM changes over to requiring the ICAO flight plan form.

[Ryan Parry]

To expand a little on what Don said, I believe all of that stuff is automatically decoded for the controllers anyway. So while a few of us are able to figure out what is all there due to working with it in real life, the vast majority of controllers on the network can't and won't.

[Eric Hill]

I really appreciate the explanation.