The fact is that the flight planning in the ME region is hap-hazard and random at the best of times.
A/C can be flying for 6 hours before coming into our FIR going from Europe to the far East, no flight plan, no estimate, no nothing.
Very embarassing and un-professional of an ACC controller to be asking a pilot, "where are you going, what is your A/C type etc ??", but it has to be done, because they just turn up out of no-where.
We are required to clear every A/C through our FIR, point by point. We never see hard or electronic copies of flight plans, the exit point printed on our strips is what the assistants have guessed as the most appropriate route for the destination when they took the inbound estimate (if they get one).
Please don't even go there with flight plans and RVSM approval!!
