New Flight Plan Suffixes Coming

If your airplane has some of the latest electronic gear, your flight-planning nomenclature is changing. Effective Sept. 1, 2005, the FAA is adopting several new suffixes to be used in identifying the navigation gear on board. The new designations apply specifically to RNAV and RVSM capabilities. There are also some significant changes to the definitions of certain suffixes that already exist. The FAA has published a table of the new suffixes and definition changes and it’s important to note that the new suffixes should not be used until Sept. 1. A flight plan containing any of the unfamiliar letters will likely be rejected before that date.