A flight progress strip is a small strip of paper used to track flights in Air traffic control. An artifact reminiscent of the days when flights were tracked by paper, it is still used in modern ATCs as a quick way to annotate a flight and hand it off. However, many features of flight progress strips have been replaced by computer software.
There are many styles of progress strip layouts, but minor differences aside, a strip contains at least:
- Aircraft Identification (e.g. tail NX000X, or a flight number as a callsign)
- Aircraft Type (B747 / Commercial Jet)
- Strip Request Originator
- Strip Identification Number (assigned by computer)
- Revision Number (increments when changed)
- TAS (True Air Speed)
- Altitude (Requested/Assigned Altitude)
- Departure, Route and Destination (Filed Plan)
Usually on the right side, a grid is provided for marking comments - in pen, being easier than clicking and typing. Special markings are used (such as the letter K) for notes such as clearance or emergency.
