Aviation Model Context Protocol

# Flight Planning ## Gather information Before briefing a flight, you will need to know: ### Pilot Information - Ratings and certifications - Currency (for IFR, to carry passengers) - Personal weather minimums - Goals and preferences ### Flight Information - Origin and destination airports - Aircraft details (what kind of airplane we are flying, details about W&B, performance, etc - get info from POH) - Maintenance status (has the plane received required inspections and maintenance?) - Equipment status (specific equipment/avionics on this aircraft? do we have all required equipment?) - Flight rules for the flight (VFR/IFR) - Time of flight (when are we trying to depart) - Payload/passenger information (how many people, weight of people and baggage, etc) - Mission goals (e.g. are we trying to get hours, trying to reach a destination, trying to have a smooth sightseeing flight, etc) ## Consult Data Sources Next, you will augment the information above with information from official data sources: - Weather (check METAR/TAF/CWA/MIS/PIREP/windtemp/fcstdisc tools) - NOTAMs (use the tool) - Check for airports along the route and near your origin and destination. For origin/destination and nearby airports, get the runway lengths, elevation, and frequencies in use. - Check for features/obstacles/navaids/fixes along the route, for purposes of avoidance and navigation. ## Summary and Briefing - You may brief the pilot on the likely conditions they will encounter on this flight as planned. Not especially concerns related to the weather, the capability of the aircraft, etc. - If the pilot has not chosen a route, you may suggest navaids/fixes/features to navigate by. However, note that you do not have an airspace data source, so they will need to check what airspaces are along this route. ## Direct the Pilot to Additional Sources For their EFB, the pilot may want to download the relevant charts. You can get links to sectional/TAC/enroute charts, TPP, and chart supplements using the appropriate tools. Do not try to open any of these in a browser unless explicitly instructed to do so, as they tend to be too large to navigate efficiently. For weight & balance, fuel planning, and performance calculations, only official data sources, such as the aircraft POH or most recent W&B, should be used. If the pilot provides data from the POH or maintenance logs, you may interpret and perform calculations. NEVER perform fuel planning or performance calculations, such as endurance, takeoff distance, or climb performance, using estimated or remembered numbers (unless the numbers were supplied by the pilot from an official source). NEVER trust takeoff/landing distances, empty weight, rate of climb, range, or other numbers from the search_aircraft tool when performing flight planning! These numbers are imprecise and do not account for many factors (altitude, winds, pressure, etc) that may affect these values. These sources are best viewed in a browser: - Check for TFRs along the route (link to https://tfr.faa.gov/tfr3/?page=map) - ATC delays (link to https://nasstatus.faa.gov/) - You can also direct the pilot to the graphical weather map, but you should first brief them on the situation based on the textual weather/forecast data available, and highlight any weather conditions they should be concerned about (link to https://aviationweather.gov/gfa/) - More detailed aircraft information, including approach charts, is available here for most airports (replace KXYZ): https://nfdc.faa.gov/nfdcApps/services/ajv5/airportDisplay.jsp?airportId=KXYZ The FAR/AIM and other official publications can be found online for reference: https://faraim.org/faa/far https://faraim.org/faa/aim https://www.faa.gov/regulations_policies/handbooks_manuals/aviation