October 28, 2019

Good news! The FAA has made filing IFR flight plans easier.
They recently completed a modernization effort eliminating the need to contact Flight
Service to activate a flight plan. Before, flight plans needed to be relayed
through the Flight Service “middleman” in locations where ATC could not be
directly contacted — such as a non-towered airport. Now the FAA has developed a
network of clearance delivery phone numbers pilots can call to activate an IFR
flight plan from more remote airports before getting airborne. It is meant to
expedite the clearance delivery process and reduce the chance for errors.

These new clearance delivery phone numbers are now published within the FAA Chart Supplements. Our team has incorporated these documents natively into not only our FltPlan.com, FltPlan Go and Garmin Pilot apps, but also many of our popular avionics solutions, such as the GTN 650/750, GPS 175/GNX 375/GNC 355 navigators, G1000 NXi and more. It’s an easy and convenient way to find these phone numbers when preparing for a flight. Plus, on your smartphone, you can even select directly from the FltPlan.com, FltPlan Go and Garmin Pilot apps, and dial out to clearance delivery representatives who can help activate an IFR flight plan. We’ve even taken convenience one step further if your aircraft is equipped with one of our audio panels enabled with BLUETOOTH technology — such as the GMA 345 or GMA 350 series. Pilots can wirelessly pair a compatible smartphone running one of our apps to select headsets and call clearance delivery straight from the cockpit.

Finding Clearance Delivery Phone Numbers

Clearance delivery phone numbers can be found within many of our avionics solutions or portable devices that feature the AOPA Airport Directory. This includes FltPlan.com, FltPlan Go, Garmin Pilot, aera 660, TXi series flight displays, G1000 NXi and more. On Garmin Pilot from your smartphone, simply select Airport Info, then Information. The applicable clearance delivery phone number will be listed in the Phone Numbers section. Clearance delivery phone numbers are only available at non-towered airports where ATC cannot be directly reached via radio.

For additional information about clearance delivery phone
numbers and Garmin aviation products, please contact our award-winning product
support team at fly.garmin.com/support.