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How far in advance can you file a flight plan?
You can file a flight plan with an ETD up to 27 days in the future. The flight plan can be amended, canceled, or activated at any time during that time frame.
How long does a flight plan stay in the system?
If not activated, flight plans stay in our system for only 2 hours after EDT.
When can you amend, cancel, or close a flight plan?
IFR Flight Plans
A filed IFR flight plan (PROPOSED state) can be amended or canceled (where it transitions to the CANCELLED state) up to 46 minutes prior to its estimated time of departure (ETD).
It cannot be activated and therefore cannot be closed.
The flight plan is transmitted to an Air Route Traffic Control Center (ARTCC) at 22.5 hours prior to ETD or immediately if the ETD is in less than 22.5 hours. If the ARTCC accepts the flight plan (rogers it), the flight plan will not be accessible via web services after ETD. If the ARTCC rejects the flight plan, the flight plan will be accessible until rogered or 2 hours past the ETD (when it transitions to the CANCELLED state).
The ARTCC status (rogered or rejected) and last transmitted and received messages are available by retrieving flight plan details.
Flight change alert messages containing the ARTCC status can also be pushed to a registered webhook.
VFR Flight Plans
A filed VFR flight plan (PROPOSED state) can be amended until canceled (when it moves to the CANCELLED state) or up to 2 hours past the ETD (when it moves to the CANCELLED state).
A flight plan can be activated up to 30 minutes prior to the current time or up to 30 minutes after the current time. Activating a flight plan with a departure time in the future is known as an assumed departure.
After activation, the flight plan (now in the ACTIVE state) can be amended until the flight plan is closed (which moves the flight to the CLOSED state).
The flight plan must be closed within 30 minutes of estimated time of arrival (ETA) or it becomes overdue (OVERDUE state) and search and rescue will commence.
An overdue flight plan must be closed or the ETE extended to terminate search and rescue.
The UNDEFINED state is not expected to be returned. The CLOSED and CANCELLED states are terminal. Flight plans that are CLOSED or CANCELLED are not guaranteed to be retrievable as they are purged from the system.
Can I validate a flight plan before filing?
The best way to validate the flight plan is by actually filing the flight plan. Our system validates the flight plan before transmitting it to the appropriate ATC facility. You may also perform a route briefing before filing which will validate the departure, destination, equipment, and surveillance fields. In addition, there are a few web services to look up or validate specific fields:
LookupAircraftType
OptimizeAltitude
RetrieveFaaAirportId
RetrieveSidsOrStars
RouteSearch
Contact for more questions
Please send questions to the Vendor Support Team at R-FFSP-WebServicesSupport@leidos.com.