Pprune Radar
Thank you for the explanation. I now need to dig out the ATCO(s) who told me what I based my posting on, because I sure as hell did not make it up
It is however worth relating your undoubtedly accurate explanation with reality - e.g.
It won't have been dumped, but it takes time for the sector to get support staff to find the plan and input it in to the FDP, along with any changes you have asked for in terms of routeing and level. The priority will not be a high one.
IOW, they cannot find or won't look for it, so the end result is still that you are summarily stuffed.
If it is filed IFR, then the ACC will get it if it is within airspace or on routes that they have notified Eurocontrol as being interested in.
IOW, if you file IFR OCAS, the end result is that you have wasted your time because Eurocontrol will, I assume, not be interested in Class G.
If you are saying Eurocontrol issue a squawk as part of some global system, then no, you don't. The squawk will be issued by an ATC agency when the IFR plan is 'activated' with them. This could be carried out either as a pending flight (when it is issued by the flight data processing system, along with the flight details, to the ATC unit 40 minutes before departure), or it could be a flight coming from a non ATC airfield and allocated when the IFR ATC unit ask the system for a code.
OK, so the code is not generated by Eurocontrol but is generated when requested by somebody. AIUI, this still means that if the departure tower gives you a squawk which is different from what would have been generated, your flight does not get matched to the filed flight plan.
My "amateur" comment was mostly tongue in cheek; I am an "amateur" too
But it is not wholly tongue in cheek because ATC are only human and despite their professionalism (which one must say is higher in some countries than in others) they have human attitudes too. The way a pilot goes about things does affect the kind of service he gets (again, more in some countries than others) and this is why I like to find out how the system works.
I did actually file an IFR FP OCAS (via AFPEx) some time ago and due to bad weather spent about an hour trying to get it elevated to airways (so I could climb to VMC) and got politely fobbed off at every step. This is why I think filing IFR FPs OCAS is a waste of time.
Other than the S&R reason, and that will be equally satisfied with a VFR FP. And an VFR FP has the advantage that it cannot get chucked out because CFMU thinks some of the route is invalid. This used to be a huge problem - a route like GWC-MID-CPT at 2400ft would simply not file at all and one would have to use tricks like
GWC000000 DCT MID000000 DCT CPT000000
to fool the system into accepting it. However it seems that CFMU have fixed their software to largely abandon route checking on FPs which contain an OCAS section... I've seen some bizzare stuff go through. BTW I've sent you a PM.