Definition
Specified information relating to the intended flight of an aircraft, filed orally or in writing with an air traffic facility (such as a Flight Service Station or ATC). Standard items include aircraft identification, type and equipment, departure and destination points, route, altitude, true airspeed, time of departure, estimated time en route, fuel on board, alternate airport, pilot information, and number of people on board.
Plain English
A document the pilot files before a flight that tells aviation authorities who is flying, what aircraft, where they are going, how they plan to get there, and how long it should take. It allows search and rescue or air traffic control to track the flight if needed.
Context Anchor
You encounter flight plans during preflight planning, when filing for an instrument flight rules flight, or when filing a visual flight rules flight plan for added search-and-rescue protection.
Why Pilots Care
It keeps ATC aware of the aircraft's intentions so controllers can provide separation from other traffic and launch search-and-rescue if the flight becomes overdue.
Intuition Check
A flight plan is not just a private plan in the pilot’s head. In this context, it means information formally filed into the aviation system.
Example Sentence 1
Before departing on the cross-country, she filed a VFR flight plan with Flight Service and remembered to activate it once airborne.
Example Sentence 2
After takeoff the controller asked if the pilot had an active flight plan on file for the route.