What this tool does

The ATC Strip Editor parses a raw ICAO Doc 4444 flight plan strip into an editable form. You can modify any field — callsign, aircraft type, equipment codes, PBN capability, routing, Field 18 items — and the tool immediately regenerates a correctly formatted strip in the output panel.

It is intended for Part 121/135 dispatchers who need to quickly modify or verify a strip before filing, without manually reconstructing the field syntax.

ICAO FPL strip format

An ICAO flight plan strip is a single string enclosed in parentheses, with fields separated by hyphens. The standard form is:

A real example:

The parser accepts the strip on one line or split across multiple lines. Surrounding parentheses are optional.

Parsing a strip

1. Paste the full strip text into the Paste ICAO FPL Strip textarea.
2. Click Parse Strip. The editor cards appear below and the Generated Strip panel updates immediately.
3. If the strip cannot be parsed, a warning banner explains why. Check that the strip starts with (FPL- and has all required fields.
4. Click Clear to reset the editor for a new strip.

Every change you make in the editor — checkbox, dropdown, text input — is reflected in the Generated Strip panel in real time. You do not need to click Parse again after editing.

Flight Information (Fields 7 & 8)

Callsign / Flight ID Field 7

The ICAO flight identifier, up to 7 characters (e.g. DAL2482, N12345). Entered in uppercase automatically.

Flight Rules Field 8 — first character

I	IFR
V	VFR
Y	IFR then VFR
Z	VFR then IFR

Type of Flight Field 8 — second character

S	Scheduled air transport
N	Non-scheduled air transport
G	General aviation
M	Military
X	Other

Aircraft (Field 9)

ICAO Type Designator Field 9 — before /

The 2–4 character ICAO aircraft type code (e.g. B738, A320, BCS3, B77W). Use ZZZZ when the type is not in the ICAO list, and specify it in Field 18 TYP/.

Wake Turbulence Category Field 9 — after /

J	Super (A380/A388)
H	Heavy — MTOW ≥ 136,000 kg
M	Medium
L	Light — MTOW < 7,000 kg

Equipment (Field 10)

Field 10 has two parts separated by a slash: COM/NAV/approach equipment / SSR transponder. Each part is a concatenated string of single-letter or two-character codes.

COM / NAV Equipment Field 10 — before /

Checkboxes are grouped by category. Common codes:

SSR / Transponder Field 10 — after /

Select the transponder capability. Common codes:

Routing (Fields 13, 15 & 16)

Departure Aerodrome Field 13

4-letter ICAO identifier of the departure airport (e.g. KMSP). Use ZZZZ for aerodromes not assigned an ICAO code, and specify the location in Field 18 DEP/.

Departure Time (HHMM) Field 13

Estimated off-blocks time in UTC, 4-digit HHMM format (e.g. 1400).

Speed Type & Value Field 15

Select the speed unit, then enter the numeric value:

N	Knots — 4 digits (e.g. 0440)
K	Kilometres per hour — 4 digits
M	Mach — 3 digits (e.g. 082 for Mach 0.82)

Level Type & Value Field 15

Select the altitude reference, then enter the numeric value:

F	Flight Level — 3 digits (e.g. 320 for FL320)
A	Altitude in hundreds of feet — 3 digits
S	Metric flight level — 4 digits
M	Metric altitude in tens of metres — 4 digits
VFR	VFR cruise — no value needed

Route Field 15

The route string as it appears after the initial cruise speed and level — SIDs, airways, waypoints, DCT segments, and STARs. Enter in uppercase. Example: SMERF7 SMERF DCT MMUDY DCT PIONR

Destination Aerodrome Field 16

4-letter ICAO identifier of the destination (e.g. CYVR). Use ZZZZ and specify in Field 18 DEST/ if needed.

Total ETE (HHMM) Field 16

Estimated total elapsed time from departure to destination in HHMM format (e.g. 0348).

Other Information (Field 18)

Field 18 carries supplementary data in KEY/value format, separated by spaces. The editor breaks it into three sub-sections.

PBN Capability Field 18 PBN/

Check the PBN specifications the aircraft is approved for. The value is written automatically as a concatenated code string (e.g. A1B1C1D1O1S2T1).

PBN codes are grouped by specification type:

Other Field 18 Items

Each recognized Field 18 keyword has its own text input. Leave a field blank to omit it from the output. Common ones:

Standalone Flags

Some Field 18 content is a standalone token without a slash — for example CANMANDATE or STS/HOSP-style items entered without a recognized key. Enter these space-separated in the Standalone Flags field. They are appended to the end of Field 18 in the generated strip.

Generated strip & copy

The Generated Strip panel at the bottom updates every time you change any field in the editor. It always shows a correctly formatted ICAO strip, ready to paste into a filing system.

The strip is formatted across multiple lines for readability:

Long Field 15 routes and Field 18 strings are word-wrapped at 60 characters. Click Copy in the panel header to copy the full strip text to the clipboard.

Validation hints

When common consistency issues are detected, an amber hint bar appears above the generated strip. These are warnings, not errors — the strip is still generated. The checks are:

The R code in Field 10 declares the aircraft as PBN-approved. ICAO Doc 4444 requires the specific PBN codes to be listed in Field 18 PBN/. Select the appropriate codes in the PBN Capability section.

Codes J1 or J4 (CPDLC ATN VHF or FANS 1/A VDL Mode 2) are checked in Field 10, but no data link services are listed in Field 18 DAT/. Some regions require DAT/ to be populated when CPDLC is declared.

The Z code signals that equipment not covered by the standard Field 10 codes is installed. Per Doc 4444, the specific equipment must be described in Field 18 NAV/ or COM/.