10.3 Flight Planning, NOTAMs & Energy Planning

10.3 Flight Planning, NOTAMs & Energy Planning

Quick Answer: Pick the flying area for safety and legality, not only access. Read NOTAMs (fires, airshows, temporary restrictions), CFS, charts, weather, and authorizations. Plan energy/fuel reserves, weight and balance, and configuration/serviceability. Keep crew documents available. Complete a real site survey (CAR 901.27) and obtain required pre-flight information (CAR 901.24) before you arm motors.

Navigation products only pay off when they feed a deliberate plan. Advanced operations fail when pilots “wing it” inside a control zone, launch with 12% battery because the client is waiting, or skip NOTAMs and discover a forest-fire restriction after the fact. This section is the planning bridge between chart literacy and airborne decision-making.

Factors in choosing a flying area

Build a structured site-selection filter:

A site that is perfect for photography but sits under a busy final approach without authorization is a no-go, not a “careful quick flight.” Document the go/no-go rationale; Advanced professionalism is visible in the planning record as much as in stick skills.

NOTAMs: temporary truth over the chart

A NOTAM (Notice to Airmen / Notice to Air Missions) is a time-sensitive notice containing information essential to personnel concerned with flight operations. Charts and CFS describe the baseline; NOTAMs describe what is different right now.

Why RPAS pilots must read them

• Temporary restricted or hazardous areas
• Aerodrome closures, lighting failures, crane obstacles
• Airshows, fly-ins, major public events with aviation impact
• Forest fire related flight restrictions and aerial firefighting activity
• Navigation aid and communication outages (context for manned traffic behaviour)
• Other TFR-like temporary flight restrictions in Canadian publication form

Fire, airshow, and temporary restriction themes

Forest fires: Aerial firefighting aircraft operate at low level with high workload and may use tankers, helicopters, and lead planes. Temporary restrictions around fires protect those crews and ground teams. Launching an RPAS into or toward a fire zone without clearance can ground firefighting aircraft and create criminal/civil exposure. Treat fire NOTAMs as hard stops unless you are an authorized participant under the published conditions.

Airshows and major events: Expect temporary restricted airspace, display boxes, and unusual traffic. Consumer drones near airshows are a classic enforcement target.

Other temporary constraints: Crane NOTAMs, VIP movements, military exercises, and disaster response can all alter an otherwise “green” chart picture.

How to read NOTAMs efficiently

1. Filter by location (aerodrome, FIR, radius around site) and time (UTC!).
2. Decode the condition: what is restricted, from what altitude, until when.
3. Translate Zulu validity to local crew briefing times (Section 10.1).
4. If ambiguous, escalate—contact FIC / appropriate authority / do not assume entry is allowed.
5. Re-check close to launch; NOTAMs can appear the morning of the job.

CFS in the planning loop

Use the CFS (Section 10.2) during planning to:

• Confirm aerodrome type and communication environment
• Note elevation for performance planning
• Identify special procedures and hazards in remarks
• Support authorization and vicinity briefings near airports/heliports

Pair CFS + chart + NOTAM + weather + authorization status into one briefing sheet for the pilot-in-command and visual observers.

Energy / “fuel” requirements and battery reserves

RPAS “fuel planning” is energy planning. LiPo (or other chemistry) packs are finite, temperature-sensitive, and nonlinear under high current.

Build an energy budget

Never plan to land at 0% or manufacturer “empty.” Professional practice sets a minimum landing state of charge (many operators use policy bands such as landing with meaningful reserve—exact percent is SOP-driven; exam emphasis is plan a reserve, not hope). High density altitude, payload, wind, and low temperature all increase required energy for the same ground track.

Wind effect on range and endurance

• Headwind out / tailwind back is not free: time into wind grows more than time with wind shrinks for many profiles; multirotor power also rises fighting wind to hold position.
• Station-keeping in gusts can dominate the budget on inspection jobs even with zero “route distance.”
• Return-to-home into a strengthening wind is a classic flyaway-to-low-battery sequence—set RTH altitude/path with obstacles and energy in mind.
• Fixed-wing RPA: fuel/energy vs wind is classic range/endurance theory; multirotors: every minute is powered flight.

Weight and balance

Even small RPA have mass and centre-of-gravity (CG) limits:

• Payload changes (camera, LiDAR, sprayer tanks, loudspeakers) shift CG and raise all-up weight.
• Exceeding max takeoff mass reduces thrust margin and may invalidate manufacturer performance and, for declared aircraft, the assumed configuration.
• Lateral imbalance causes constant motor differential, heat, and shortened endurance.
• Document configuration for the flight; a “quick extra battery taped on” is a maintenance and W&B event, not a hack.

Documents available to the crew

Part IX and professional practice expect relevant documents to be available (not necessarily paper in a briefcase if digital access is accepted and reliable). Typical set:

If an inspector or flight reviewer asks and the crew cannot produce required proof, the operation looks non-compliant even if the flying was skillful.

Serviceability and configuration

Flight planning assumes the machine you briefed is the machine you launch:

• Serviceable per CAR 901.29 themes (Chapter 8)
• Correct firmware, props, payload, and failsafe settings for the site
• Batteries within health and temperature limits
• Control link and GNSS status acceptable for the environment
• Lighting configured if night rules apply

A plan that requires Mode C conspicuity awareness or a declared aircraft does not survive swapping to an undeclared backup airframe at the last minute without re-checking privileges.

CAR 901.27 site survey and CAR 901.24 pre-flight information

These two rules are high-yield Advanced planning anchors.

CAR 901.27 — Site survey

901.27 requires a site survey before operation. Conceptually you must assess the operating area for hazards and constraints: airspace, aerodromes, people, obstacles, weather exposure, emergency procedures, and other relevant factors. A drive-by glance from the truck while spinning props is not a survey. Good surveys are written or checklist-based, shared with observers, and updated if conditions change.

CAR 901.24 — Pre-flight information

901.24 requires the pilot to obtain relevant pre-flight information for the intended flight. That information set classically includes weather, NOTAMs / aeronautical information, and other data needed to conduct the flight safely and legally. “I checked the phone weather widget” without NOTAMs or airspace status is incomplete.

Planning sequence that satisfies both spirits:

1. Define mission, altitude, times (UTC), aircraft, crew roles.
2. 901.24 pack: weather, NOTAMs, CFS/chart/DAH extracts, authorization status.
3. 901.27 site survey on location (or verified remote survey when appropriate and still valid).
4. Energy/W&B/configuration go/no-go.
5. Crew brief: lost link, emergencies, sterilize launch area, abort calls.
6. Launch only if all gates green.

Common exam traps

• Treating NOTAMs as optional for “short” flights
• Ignoring fire or airshow restrictions because the site is “just outside the smoke”
• Planning battery use to empty with no reserve
• Skipping W&B after payload change
• Documents left at the office with no accessible copy
• Claiming Advanced certificate replaces site survey or pre-flight info duties

Bottom line: Flight planning is controlled decision-making under uncertainty. NOTAMs update the map; energy and W&B update the physics; 901.24 and 901.27 make preparation a legal duty. Advanced pilots who plan well rarely need heroics in the air.