Important reminder for legal flight

Important reminder to every pilot:

FAR 91.103 means that you should not deviate from your plan unless:
* You have reviewed all available information for the new airport and route
* It’s an emergency

It’s easy to miss that one line here or there, so I urge you to double check your sources while on the ground. It would really be no fun getting an Air Force escort, or a landing fine/fee.

It’s also important to not pick somewhere mid-flight you haven’t reviewed thoroughly. While it’s fun to hop in the car and see where it will take you, we’re required to put a little more effort into planning.

Planning includes the AFD’s Additional Remarks, FAA & military NOTAMS, airways, frequencies, terrain, etc. Legal and formal info might be from the FAA publications, Foreflight subscriptions, Jeppesen publications, etc.

We live in the future, so the Internet really does make this easy. You can get a general idea from places like Airnav and Skyvector that can save a bunch of time with initial planning.

This is brought up because we did have an incident. An unapproved landing occurred at a field that doesn’t permit transient aircraft. No harm was done, and the airport manager was very understanding.

(Though it might be worth an ASRS report.)

This concludes your annoying reminder. Carry on, be safe, and have fun.