Big, long piece of paper airline pilots print out?

Question

I was at the airport today, and a pilot walked into the terminal and printed out this huge piece of paper at the gate agent's desk. I mean, this thing was like 8 feet long. It was LONG! I think it could be the flight plan, I'm not sure.

Answer 1

It was the flight release faxed from the dispatcher.

Answer 2

That is whats known as a "flight release"

It is the document that authorizes the pilots to depart from the gate, tells them their route of flight, tells them their fuel information, gives them the weather, and does just about everything else you can imagine.

It is actually illegal to depart without one of those things.  (Not to mention pretty much impossible since it contains the routing information that needs to be loaded into the FMS prior to going anywhere).

Answer 3

Wifes credit card bill.

Answer 4

It could be almost anything but likely the entire flight briefing including clearances, weather, routing etc.

I know even for a simple cross country flight, I use an online flight planner. If I were to print out the entire thing that it spits out, I would often have as many as 50 pages of stuff when you include a DUATS flight briefing. DUATS not only gives you your entroute weather but tells you all the c**p that the FAA doesn't want you to forget like not to pick up terrorists you don't know at the airport and other stuff you won't even begin to use on your flight.

Answer 5

Yup it is the flight plan, some even included forecasted weather print out enroute.