Planning a VFR Cross-Country in Canada: What You Need

For a VFR cross-country in Canada you need current VNC charts (and VTAs near major terminals) and the Canada Flight Supplement, a weather and NOTAM check through NAV CANADA, and a VFR flight plan or flight itinerary for any flight beyond 25 nautical miles of your departure aerodrome. By day you must also carry enough fuel to reach your destination and fly 30 more minutes at normal cruising speed, plus the required aircraft and pilot documents. This guide walks through each item with its Canadian Aviation Regulations (CARs) or Transport Canada AIM reference, so you can check the source yourself.

This is a planning checklist, not legal advice. Regulations change, so always check the current CARs and AIM before you fly. We checked every reference below in October 2026, against the CARs on the Justice Laws website (current to September 21, 2026) and the Transport Canada AIM edition dated October 1, 2026.

1. Know what the rules require of your preflight

Two short CARs set the baseline. The pilot-in-command "shall, before commencing a flight, be familiar with the available information that is appropriate to the intended flight" (CAR 602.71), and must also be familiar with "the available weather information that is appropriate to the intended flight" (CAR 602.72).

That's deliberately broad. Unlike the FAA's preflight rule, the CARs don't spell out an item-by-item list, so the rest of this guide is a practical version of one: how you meet those two duties on a real cross-country.

2. Charts and publications

The AIM describes the VFR set as "VFR navigation charts (VNC), VFR terminal charts (VTA) and the Canada Flight Supplement (CFS) or Canada Water Aerodrome Supplement (CWAS)" (TC AIM MAP 2.5).

VNC charts are 1:500 000 and cover all of Canada. VTA charts (1:250 000) cover Vancouver, Edmonton, Calgary, Winnipeg, Toronto, Ottawa and Montréal (TC AIM MAP 2.5.1 and 2.5.2). At twice the scale, the VTA shows terminal airspace and VFR checkpoints in far more detail than the VNC. So a trip out of Springbank (CYBW) starts on the Calgary VTA, which is where you work out how to stay clear of the airspace around CYYC, and moves to the VNC once you're past it. Out of the Lower Mainland, the Vancouver VTA does the same job around CYVR. Students sometimes plan the whole route on the VNC and only meet the VTA's detail in the air. Plan on both.

The CFS is where you check aerodrome details, frequencies (including each MF and ATF) and procedures for every airport on your route and your alternates. Read the whole entry, not only the frequency line; non-standard circuits and noise procedures are in there too.

The AIM says charts and publications are "obtained from authorized distributors or from NAV CANADA's online store" (TC AIM MAP 4.2.1). NAV CANADA states that "there are no expiration dates on all VFR charts and they are valid until a new edition is produced" (NAV CANADA purchase information). That cuts both ways: a VNC never expires on a date, but the one in your flight bag is out of date the day a new edition comes out. Make sure you have the latest edition. The CFS is published on a 56-day cycle (NAV CANADA eCFS).

Canadian Airport Charts and the Designated Airspace Handbook are free from NAV CANADA (NAV CANADA operational guides).

A common misreading: CAR 602.60(1)(b) requires current charts and publications on board "if the aircraft is operated in VFR OTT, night VFR flight or IFR flight". For day VFR, the duty to have the information you need comes from 602.71, and in practice that means current charts and the CFS for your route.

Many EFB apps include VNCs and the CFS under licence. If you are choosing an app, our ForeFlight vs ClearProp comparison and our survey of free ForeFlight alternatives show which ones include NAV CANADA data and which, like ClearProp, do not.

3. Weather and NOTAMs

Your main tool is NAV CANADA's Collaborative Flight Planning Services. The AIM says CFPS at plan.navcanada.ca "offers aviation weather products, NOTAM and the ability to file flight plans" (TC AIM MET 1.1.3), and NAV CANADA notes the "Weather and NOTAM" tab "does not require a login" (NAV CANADA flight planning and reporting). Pull weather and NOTAMs for departure, every point along the route, your destination and your alternates, not only the two ends.

If the picture is marginal, talk to a briefer. Call "1-866-WXBRIEF (1-866-992-7433)" to reach a flight information centre (FIC) (TC AIM RAC 3.2). "All FICs provide 24-hr service" (TC AIM MET 1.3.1).

NOTAMs are also available through NAV CANADA's NC-Spaces, which NAV CANADA says began in May 2026 (NAV CANADA). The old Aviation Weather Web Site (AWWS) "has been decommissioned, effective February 28, 2024" (NAV CANADA), so update any old bookmarks.

4. VFR weather minima

Plan for conditions that leave a margin above these legal minimums:

Airspace	Flight visibility	Distance from cloud	Source
Controlled	3 miles	500 ft vertically, 1 mile horizontally	CAR 602.114
Uncontrolled, at or above 1,000 ft AGL	1 mile by day, 3 miles at night	500 ft vertically, 2,000 ft horizontally	CAR 602.115
Uncontrolled, below 1,000 ft AGL (not a helicopter)	2 miles by day, 3 miles at night	Clear of cloud	CAR 602.115

Notice the oddity in uncontrolled airspace: by day you need more visibility below 1,000 ft AGL (2 miles) than above it (1 mile). It's an easy one to get backwards on a written exam.

Inside a control zone, 602.114 also requires reported ground visibility of at least 3 miles when it is reported. Special VFR has its own conditions and needs ATC authorization (CAR 602.117). Read the full sections for the exact wording.

5. Flight plan or flight itinerary

You need "a VFR flight plan or a VFR flight itinerary", "except where the flight is conducted within 25 nautical miles of the departure aerodrome" (CAR 602.73(2)).

The 25 NM test is about distance from the departure aerodrome, not about whether you land somewhere else. A flight from Springbank to the practice area and back that stays inside 25 NM needs neither. A trip from Springbank to Red Deer (CYQF) is well beyond it, so you need one. And a sightseeing loop that wanders 30 NM out and comes home without landing anywhere still needs one, because it wasn't conducted within 25 NM of the departure aerodrome.

A flight plan "shall be filed with an air traffic services unit or a community aerodrome radio station". A flight itinerary can be filed "with a responsible person, an air traffic services unit or a community aerodrome radio station" (CAR 602.75). The responsible person agrees to alert ATS or a Rescue Co-ordination Centre if you are overdue (CAR 602.70). You can file through CFPS, or "by calling the applicable flight information centre" (NAV CANADA).

Think about the search and rescue time before you file. If you don't specify a time, your arrival report is due within "one hour after the last reported estimated time of arrival" for a flight plan, and "24 hours after the last reported estimated time of arrival" for a flight itinerary (CAR 602.77). With an itinerary and no time specified, that's a full day before anyone is due to start looking.

Then close it. "Failure to close a flight plan or flight itinerary will initiate SAR action" (TC AIM RAC 3.11). If your route, duration or destination changes, tell ATS or your responsible person as soon as practicable (CAR 602.76).

6. Fuel

For VFR in an aeroplane, CAR 602.88(3)(a) requires enough fuel "when operated during the day, to fly to the destination aerodrome and then to fly for a period of 30 minutes at normal cruising speed", or at night, enough for the same plus "45 minutes at normal cruising speed". Subsection 602.88(5) adds fuel for taxiing, foreseeable delays and forecast weather.

Take an aeroplane that burns 35 L/h at cruise on a leg planned at 1.5 hours, and keep the arithmetic simple by using the cruise burn for the whole leg. The leg itself needs 52.5 L. The 30-minute day reserve adds 17.5 L, so the legal floor is 70 L before you add taxi, delays and weather under 602.88(5). At night the 45-minute reserve is 26.25 L, which takes the floor to 78.75 L.

These are minimums. Most pilots plan a bigger reserve, especially where aerodromes with fuel are far apart; check fuel availability for each stop in the CFS.

7. Documents and equipment

Before you leave, check that these are on board or with you:

• Flight authority (the certificate of airworthiness is one kind) (CAR 605.03).
• Certificate of registration (CAR 202.26).
• Radio licence or a copy, if one has been issued for the aircraft (CAR 605.03.1).
• Aircraft flight manual available to the crew (CAR 605.04).
• Journey log: "no person shall conduct a take-off in an aircraft unless the journey log is on board", with a limited exception for flights that return to the departure point without landing elsewhere (CAR 605.95).
• Your licence or permit and medical certificate (CAR 401.03).
• Required equipment such as the checklist, timepiece and first aid kit, plus the other items in CAR 602.60.

The ELT deserves its own line. Most aircraft must have one or more ELTs "that transmit simultaneously on the 406 MHz and 121.5 MHz frequencies", registered with the Canadian Beacon Registry (CAR 605.38). Transport Canada says this has applied to Canadian general aviation aeroplanes and helicopters since November 25, 2025 (Transport Canada TP 15048). Check 605.38 for the exceptions.

8. Radio procedures at uncontrolled aerodromes

At an aerodrome with a mandatory frequency (MF), you need a working radio and must keep a listening watch (CAR 602.97). Arriving, report before you enter the MF area and, where circumstances permit, "at least five minutes before entering the area", then on joining the circuit, downwind, final and when clear of the runway (CAR 602.101). Departure and overflight reports are in CAR 602.100 and CAR 602.103.

Do the arithmetic on that first call. At 120 knots you cover 2 NM a minute, so five minutes before the MF area means about 10 NM before its edge. Check the MF area's size in the CFS and make the call earlier than feels natural.

Where there is no MF, the aerodrome traffic frequency (ATF) is normally "the frequency of the UNICOM where one exists or 123.2 MHz where a UNICOM does not exist", and the AIM says the MF reporting procedures should also be followed there (TC AIM RAC 4.5.5 and 4.5.7). En route, the AIM recommends monitoring 126.7 MHz (TC AIM RAC 4.5.6). The CFS lists the MF or ATF for each aerodrome.

So the MF vs ATF difference is mostly a legal one: at an MF the reports are required by regulation, and at an ATF the AIM recommends the same procedures. In the aircraft, make the same calls at both.

9. Crossing the border or entering the ADIZ

Going into the US, "A VFR or IFR flight plan must be filed prior to conducting any flight between Canada and a foreign state", and "ATS must not accept flight itineraries, composite flight plans, or CVFR flight plans for flights between Canada and the U.S." You also have to arrange customs with US Customs and Border Protection yourself (TC AIM RAC 3.5.3; see also CAR 602.73(4)). US entry requirements are set by US authorities, so check the current FAA and CBP guidance too. This matters even on short hops. From Boundary Bay (CZBB), the border is only a few minutes away, and the 25 NM itinerary exemption doesn't help you there.

If your route enters the Canadian ADIZ, CAR 602.145 applies, including giving the "estimated time and point of ADIZ entry" in a VFR flight plan. The boundaries are in the Designated Airspace Handbook.

10. A simple cross-country checklist

• Current VNC (and VTA if needed) for the whole route, plus the current CFS
• Route, checkpoints, headings, distances and times worked out on a navigation log
• Weather and NOTAMs from CFPS or a FIC briefing, for departure, route, destination and alternates
• Fuel planned to the CAR 602.88 minimum plus your own reserve, with fuel stops confirmed in the CFS
• Flight plan or itinerary filed if you are going beyond 25 NM, and a plan to close it
• Documents and ELT checked
• MF and ATF frequencies noted for every aerodrome on or near the route

Where an app fits

Apps can make this easier, but they don't change what the regulations require. ClearProp, for example, helps you plan a route, take its maps offline, follow checkpoints in flight and review a logbook draft in Transport Canada format afterwards. It has no VNCs, CFS, weather or NOTAMs, and it is not approved by Transport Canada, so you still need every official source above. See how ClearProp works and what the free plan includes, and read our aviation disclaimer.

Sources

All checked in October 2026:

• Canadian Aviation Regulations, SOR/96-433 (Justice Laws, current to 2026-09-21)
• Transport Canada AIM, October 1, 2026: RAC, MAP and MET
• Transport Canada TP 15048: Flying in Canada, what you need to know
• NAV CANADA flight planning and reporting
• NAV CANADA operational guides
• NAV CANADA purchase information
• NAV CANADA electronic CFS