Chinese Airspace FIR's

[dynamite dean]

Hello Bizjetters,

Heading out China way soon from Almaty. Just doing some pilot prep , page 536 on the eastern european book mentions the need to report 15-20 mins inbound to FIR's as the usual heads up calls for the various centres.

Are they quite hot on this stuff? I'm assuming so. Near the destination on the East coast the FIR's are all quite ''close'' together with our routing.

No experience of this airspace so go easy. Just looking for some experiences.

thanks
DD

[Klimax]

I would say the easiest is to check the Jepp charts, whether paper or elec. (press the little blue "i" icon at the FIR and read the note, and see what the info says. As far as I remember, coming from the West (Almaty/Kazakhstan), you'd be entering Chinese FIR via Urumqi and they do NOT require any pre-entry clearance, nor do Russia. On the Jepp.'s it's really only Mongolia and Kazakhstan that still request a pre-entry clearance in general.. Anyways you'd better double check for yourself. Have fun.

[dynamite dean]

thanks Klimax, our ops had just regurgitated that page to me. I did check the I button on the I pad and the Kazaks as you say do require it. the i button for china its says nothing - except what has been mentioned already.

[barrichello72]

Hey
I reckon it is also worth mentioning that china implemented rvsm airspace as well, however do not switch to meters even though your altimeter system is capable of doing so, u have to use the conversion table found amongst other places, on the back of the applicable jeppesen enroute charts.
Also a look at the ATM - Air Traffic Management - publication with the supplement applicable to that specific region will not hurt - personally i always check contingency procedures in case of any malfunction that does not allow me to maintain the altitude thus requiring a driftdow, wx deviation, and loss of communications.

Hope it helps and happy contrails!

Baobab

[dynamite dean]

thanks, trip all done without out a hitch, just a report at each boundaries.