Re: Treatment of IFR flight plans (UK, outside Class A)
vintage ATCO
The reason I raised this VFR FP addressing query is that Austrocontrol told me last year that VFR flight plan addressing is done using a database which cross-references airports with FP addresses to which the FP is meant to go to.
(Actually they didn't say this in so many words because their English is limited, but that was the equivalent)
I did a VFR flight from one Spanish airport X to another Y. X was a little one, with the only activity being in the bar. Y was a big one. FPs for an X departure were meant to be addressed to Z (a nearby big one) but Austrocontrol's database didn't have this piece of info, and the FP had never arrived at Z.
This is just a little useless piece of info, but it illustrates how a VFR FP can vanish. Presumably conventional ATC units have an addressing directory, rather than a database, but the problem is the same.
As regards IFR FPs, I don't see why Austrocontrol should do things differently for "within UK" FPs, just because we can fly IFR in Class G, etc.
Incidentally, I have just got info from a friend in a far corner of Europe, whose national ATS does almost exactly what the UK does (FPs are mandatory, but it treats little local IFR FPs as VFR, for addressing purposes).