I think you may have conveniently missed IO point which I think was that if British airspace was joined up with French airspace an airways clearance in France would translate to an airways clearance in the UK with the FIR boundary being an irrelevance. As it is unless you understand what is needed to continue the flight in CAS you will get dumped.
You are missing the point. An airways clearance in France
does translate to an airways clearance in the UK with the boundary being irrelevant
as long as you actually file a route within airways. But if you enter the UK FIR OCAS, then you get handed to London Info. What is so difficult about understanding that?
As it is unless you understand what is needed to continue the flight in CAS you will get dumped.
Amazing. Shock horror. A pilot who elects to file an IFR flight plan outside CAS....errrr....finds himself outside CAS, and has to operate accordingly.
"Understanding what is needed to continue the flight in CAS" is a pretty fundamental aspect of being an IFR pilot. What exactly are you saying? That the system should cope with people who don't understand how to plan an IFR flight that remains in CAS?
That seems to me a totally different argument. Should we suffer a poor service in the UK because we should be lucky to be given any service?
That's exactly what I am saying. I am further saying that the "poor" service is actually a pretty good one. What exactly is wrong with being handed over to London Info to fly IFR OCAS? But my point about the 2t exemption would be that the "complaints" on this thread about "poor service" simply reveal a lack of understanding of how the system works. Not something any user community wants. Especially one that pays nothing. My sense of the 2t exemption is that it is a precarious thing, which could easily be swept away - I believe there have been efforts in the past. Funnily enough, AOPA Europe, I believe is one of the key players who have succeeded in defending it.
So, my advice would be, understand the system and don't jangle it's chain with clueless complaints.
brgds
421C