NorthSouth, the whole BIRD area is indeed oceanic by definition and inside MNPS even though most of it around Iceland is covered by radar. Flying from Iceland to northern Scotland, and between Iceland and Norway south of around 66N is fully covered by radar. Nevertheless a oceanic clearance is still required even though being covered by radar the whole route, as per above.
This sounds a bit like a SLOP was being done as other posters suggested.
Having said that, I would put a big questionmark to doing a SLOP when under radar and on a random route. The SLOP is intended and strongly recommended for oceanic flights when NOT under radar and especially on the NAT tracks where you have multiple aircrafts on the same route. I do not see the point in doing that on a random route. In rare cases the NAT tracks do go over Iceland, then and only then it is recommended to stay on a already established SLOP if that is being utilized when transiting through a mid ocean radar area which makes sense if you are on a NAT track.
So I would say doing a SLOP on a "Blue Spruce" route from Iceland to Scotland is a HUGE overkill
Last edited by SR-22; 21st Aug 2014 at 15:36.