VFR Flight Plans

I was having a conversation with my mentor and flight instructor this past weekend and we stumbled upon the subject of VFR flight plans. I say "stumbled" when I should really pick a better word, but the subject came up when he asked if one of my current students filed a VFR flight plan on his cross country. I was actually taken aback. Not only was there enough anxiety about making sure I covered everything for the cross country, but this added to the pile!

How could I have skipped over this?

Well, a quick scan of the new syllabus that I am using makes no mention of them. So, wondering if they are still being taught, I called upon my good friend who is in charge of the aviation program at one of the local colleges. He said that they ABSOLUTELY make their students file VFR flight plans and often times call Flight Service to make sure that they are actually following through.

Hmm - My quest for the perfect flight training syllabus continues.

After thinking about it, when my students file a VFR flight plan, I could always just call a Flight Service Station to see if they closed their flight plan to see if they made it to their destination airport instead of trying to figure out what the phone number for the tower is and calling them! Of course, I have asked students to call me when they land so that I know all is well, but that doesn't always happen. I know - This is kind of like mother hen - but that's how I roll...