Sorry for the late and long post. I’ve flown to the Bahamas a dozen times or so over the last 10 years. I’ve always filed IFR. I’m heading there again in a few days and decided I’d like to go on a VFR flight plan.
I’m reading posts on many websites and became very confused/frustrated with the terminology. So I called Leidos Flight Service (800wxbrief) and asked them to clarify.
Here’s what they said:
1) an international flight plan is simply the icao format (as opposed to the FAA domestic format we used to use years ago). It is, for our typical GA purposes, simply a flight plan.
- So I personally wish we could erase all the older web pages that specify “international”.
2) Only a VFR flight plan is needed. A DVFR flight plan’s purpose is to track aircraft operating within the ADIZ without landing at an airport outside the US. This is contrary to what the AOPA website indicates (the briefer said that website is wrong). The briefer was clear and stated it a number of times. And I called again and asked another briefer.
- I know this point will be contentious but please don’t shoot the messenger. If you’ve only filed DVFR, you probably have not seen a problem. The FSS folks are allowing it, but, according to them, DVFR is incorrect.
— But if you’ve filed VFR (recently, not 10 years ago) and had trouble, please do reply to this.
3) Filing VFR online at 1800wxbrief.com will provide a beacon code (same as a squawk code for those who might wonder) when filing the day of your departure. This code is enough to cross the ADIZ. This works whether you file from the Bahamas to the US or the US to the Bahamas.
4) When filing VFR to/from the Bahamas, specifying ADIZ entry points and times is not needed. I read articles indicating that I should use EET/ or DVFR/ in line 18 of the flight plan. That is unnecessary according to the briefer. The system figures the crossing time for you.
- I was focused on 1800wxbrief.com functionality, so I didn’t ask if that was figured out by the 1800wxbrief website functionality or is independent of planning tool (Foreflight, etc).
- As a note, the briefer clarified that EET (“estimated elapsed time” to a fix) in line 18 is needed when crossing an international FIR. The Bahamas are in the Miami FIR, so it simply doesn’t apply. However, flying VFR to the Dominican Republican, EET would be required for each FIR crossing (e.g. when you cross Miami FIR, Haiti FIR, etc).
At any rate, that is what I learned from the briefer.
Unless someone tells me that they know for a fact that F18s will come after me or I will get fined 5K (or both… or something else nefarious), I will try filing VFR (not DVFR) to/from the Bahamas.
It will be a departure for me from the comfort of IFR, but I am interested in how easy this might be with getting a code before departure, no stress trying to reach super busy Miami Center on 134.2 for my IFR clearance out of Treasure Cay, etc.
