A "pop-up" IFR clearance

[IRpilot2006]

I normally fly (SE piston) either plain old VFR (and converting to IFR informally as one does in UK Class G), or under a Eurocontrol flight plan filed for some "really obvious" airways level like FL150.

But the other day I did something which quite a few other people have apparently been doing, which was to file an IFR flight plan, which definitely went to Eurocontrol, was ACKed by them, but was partly below controlled airspace.

It was

EGNS DCT ROLEX DCT WPL DCT BZ DCT CPT DCT MID DCT EGKA

at FL055.

It was filed for me, using AFPEx, by a colleague who apparently does this all the time (and he negotiates the level as he goes along, remaining below CAS).

At first I was amazed it was accepted by CFMU, but the DCTs are the key, these are an old trick and they block the CFMU computer from checking against airway MEAs.

In principle, one ought to be able to file a Eurocontrol IFR flight plan which is completely OCAS.

However in the above route the bit CPT-MID-EGKA is definitely in Class A at FL055....

I could not see a point in filing this flight plan. If the intention is to be below CAS then one may as well file a VFR one and then fly it as IFR, and then there is no risk of CFMU not liking it.

Anyway, I set off. Out of EGNS (Isle of Man) I tried to get the IFR flight plan elevated to an airways join for FL090-FL150 or something like that. No way, IOM told me is what Manchester would say to that.

Next unit was Valley. Not something they understood.

Next unit was Shawbury. They told me to call Manchester West, who asked me where I want to join CAS, so said 'anywhere convenient to you' which was no good, so I suggested WPL, which (at the time I was FL090) he said is below CAS (base there was FL145) so cannot be used as an entry, and told me politely but curtly to get lost ("7000 and frecall the FIR").

Next I tried Brize, still at FL90 OCAS of course, who ignored the request and told me they would send me underneath CAS shortly.

So, what went wrong?

I have never had trouble with my normal FL150 flight plans which were always perfectly handled by Lodnon Control, but then I never bothered filing low level routes to Eurocontrol. Life is too short. Just go VFR and if you have an IMC-R or an IR you can go into cloud!

This flight plan was IFR and was addressed to IFPS and accepted. It must have been in the enroute airways system.

IOM gave me a squawk in the departure clearance. What I don't know is whether this squawk was the one allocated by Eurocontrol, or just a private IOM one. If they gave me a private one, the flight plan would have never popped up as active on the IFR enroute screens.

I have come across pilots who got into this mess by filing airways-intended flight plans but who failed to file them at some "obviously airways" level and they found that London Control refused to treat them seriously.

Or is there some change of policy which prohibits elevation of OCAS flights to airways flights? I have certainly heard this done on the radio, both UK and say France.

I won't be doing this again but wonder why it didn't work.

[ZOOKER]

I would always be keen to file some sort of flight plan for a single engine segment over the Irish Sea and also over the Welsh Mountains.
Check Out the Accident Report for G-ATNY some years ago.

[chiglet]

Your FPL was not input into the ATC computer, ergo no details at Manch or LACC
If you want to join/leave CAS, then you file a "Z" or "Y" flight plan stating exactly where you want to join/leave CAS.....eg
EGNS DCT XXX DCT YYY DCT CPT/IFR N0123F090 DCT EGKA [Ithink, long time since I did Flight planning, but that's the gist.]
watp,iktch

[IRpilot2006]

Hello Chiglet,
The flight plan was an IFR one and was filed to Eurocontrol, and I personally saw the ACK message appear on the AFPEx terminal.

My understanding of the way the IFR enroute system works is that once the IFR flight plan is filled to Eurocontrol, the secondary radar system, all over Europe, watches out for the squawk which has been allocated, and when the radar return is first noticed, the flight plan (callsign and route I think) pops up on all the enroute controller screens. Then, when the pilot makes his first call to say London Control, they already have his details in front of them and that is why when I first call them up they always get back to me immediately.

But if he was not squawking the right squawk, they would not have them and would have to do something else maybe. Maybe this is what happened.

But my wider question was why the adhoc IFR clearance was refused. Also i would be interested to know what Manchester meant by the joining point. Did they want me to join from underneath, by climbing up into CAS, which is easy by picking any point and flying to it BELOW CAS, or did they mean some point which lies on the edge of CAS which one would use to fly into CAS horizontally, which is much harder because there are very few points like that. Most airways waypoints for example are INSIDE CAS.

I don't know why an adhoc IFR clearance should be so complicated. They should let you join Class A on a simple track to some waypoint.

Incidentally, in Europe, one rarely files Z or Y flight plans if the intention is to fly airways. One just does I normally. In some countries one cannot do that but in the UK one nearly always does that even if flying between two VFR airports. You just get airborne, remains outside CAS, and call up London Control or whatever and they give you a climb into CAS.

[SwanFIS]

If IFPS send you an ACK message all it means is that it has passed through their software succesfully or has been manually corrected. Your plan is then transmitted to all the ATC units who will need to know about your flight. One of those would have been the flight planning unit at Swanwick.

I am certain that this particular plan would have been rejected for manual input into HCS, the UK ATCs data proccesing computer at Swanwick. We would have looked at your fpl to decide where on your route you would be joining CAS. The first section of your plan at FL55 would have been disregarded because very shortly after leaving the EGNS CTA you would have dropped out of CAS (at FL55). The next point you encounter CAS is CPT but at FL55 it is very unlikely that you would have been given a clearance by TC for your short transit down to Shoreham.

The answer to your problem is, file the level you want to fly at and if you wish to fly airways look at the UKs Standard Route Document which I believe is available on the AFPEX website.

Edit to add - On that route an early call to us on London Information to explain your problem would have been a good idea. I reckon we could have at least got your details into the computer and tried to get you a CPT join.

[Tower Ranger]

swanfis is spot on,

The problem lies in filing a flight plan for a level that you don`t want. Often this may be done in an attempt to avoid route charges athough from experience it is more common for a VFR plan to be filed and then a request to go IFR when the pilot actually knew he was gong to be going IFR all along. When one attempts to shortcut the system it is only reasonable that you expect to be given a lower priority.

You would have been expected to join CAS in the climb and asked to specify what point you wished to enter as the controller then provides you with a radar control service and 5 standard separation. dealing with a slow moving single engine piston is basically the same as putting in a level block due to the performance differential between othe aurways traffic.

Sometimes controller workload does not permit the amount of co-ordination required to meet the request that you should have made by filing an accurate flight plan.

(if your Squalk started 45** then it was an IOM local one)

[IRpilot2006]

Yes The squawk allocated was 45xx, just looked up my notes. That explains half of it. Fair enough for me! Thank you everyone. And I did say I don't normally do this!

I have another question, from what Swanfis said. I read somewhere that flight plans entered via Afpex will never be corrected even if they contain the Reroute Accepted remark. Is this true?

[anotherthing]

IR Pilot - another thing to bear in mind is that the minimum promulgated level for an overflight in the LTMA is FL90.

You could argue that as you were landing at EGKA, you were not an overflight - that's semantics.

However because EGLL SIDS climb to 6A and the SIDs of other LTMA airports get stepped climbs under these, FL55 will not be given in the LTMA INCAS.

Chances are the very minimum you will be offered INCAS will be FL80 (we keep FL70 for standing agreements when the QHN is 1013 or above to seperate from 6A). If you are unable of unwilling to take FL80 or even FL90, you will niot get clearance into LTMA CAS.

Hope that helps for future flight planning - no point filing something that you are never going to get!!

[bookworm]

I have another question, from what Swanfis said. I read somewhere that flight plans entered via Afpex will never be corrected even if they contain the Reroute Accepted remark. Is this true?

I can't see why it should be true. Where did you read that?

A MAN response to FPLs submitted via AFPEx (and any other way) is certainly possible.

[SwanFIS]

"I read somewhere that flight plans entered via AFPEx will never be corrected even if they contain the Reroute Accepted remark. Is this true?"

ATC units have direct access to the AFTN using interfaces called AFTERMs. AFPEx is "just" an automated system that gives the pilot the same access on to the AFTN. If AFPEx accepts your plan it will forward it to IFPS without human intervention by the staff at the CACC. This means that your flightplan will be handled by IFPS exactly the same if it is filed on an AFTERM by ATC, or AFPEx by a pilot.

Unless that is there is a glitch in the system that I have not heard about in which case let the AFPEx people know so that it can be sorted.