Filing flight plans online

[Fly Stimulator]

Has anybody tried filing a flight plan online with Olivia yet?

If so, did it work?

By the way, under the NOTAM option it seems to have a handy list of French restricted airspace areas and their status.

[PhilD]

I did last Sunday, from a dedicated terminal at Deauville. Absolutely no problems, except that I forgot to change the language to English, and by the time I realised that this is an option I had done too much to start again. It looks like a great system, and something similar would be very welcome in the UK.

Does anyone know if you can use Olivia to file flight plans that don't originate OR end in France - i.e. within the UK FIR?

[IO540]

One ought to be able to insert flight plans into the system from anywhere in the world.

Whether they actually make it to the departure and destination airfields, or anywhere else, is another matter. In my experience, it is common for VFR flight plans to vanish; on one recent trip to Spain 3 out of 4 vanished.

[Fly Stimulator]

It can't always be blamed on 'the system' unfortunately. I was full of righteous indignation when I had to shut down and return to the terminal at Le Touquet once after the tower denied all knowledge of my flight plan.

As I went to put it through their fax machine again I realised that I'd had the paper the wrong way up the first time and had faxed Lille a blank sheet.

I note that the fax machine there is now under the control of the counter staff, so I probably wasn't the only one to get it wrong.

[bar shaker]

FS

I *really* like that! Especially as it works from a P900

[Fly Stimulator]

P800s too (if you've installed the Opera browser) for us old traditionalists!

This means that one can now check the weather and the NOTAMs and file a flight plan all while enjoying breakfast in a French café.

That must represent a great leap forward for human civilisation.

[Fly Stimulator]

I've been sticking to old-fashioned fax technology for flight plans for the last few months, but thought I'd give Olivia a try for a quick raid on the Le Touquet market on Saturday.

I filed both outbound and return plans through Olivia on Friday evening. It did say that the plans had been sent, but were waiting for processing. Before leaving home on Saturday I rang Heathrow just to be on the safe side and they couldn't find any trace of either of them in the system.

How have others been finding Olivia?

[IO540]

I don't think checking with e.g. Heathrow helps, with VFR flight plans. They can get lost anywhere, and if they aren't lost they may not go anywhere useful except departure and destination.

I am starting to think that the best way to file VFR flight plans is to fax them directly to the departure and to the destination i.e. two faxes for each one. Then one is able to telephone each end and ask if they've got it.

[Fly Stimulator]

That raises a good point. Although I refer glibly to 'the system' and assume that there is some form of common repository of flight plan data accessible to ATC units I don't actually know how it all works behind the scenes at all.

Perhaps I should pose the question in the ATC forum, but before I trek all the way over there can anybody here enlighten me?

[Chilli Monster]

Although I refer glibly to 'the system' and assume that there is some form of common repository of flight plan data accessible to ATC units

No - fraid not. Flight plans are only addressed to the relevant units on the address list. (in the case of VFR's / IFR's outside CAS aerodrome of departure and destination, plus anyone else you may have added). If you're not on the address list you don't get a copy. The only places which can do Flight Plan interrogation are the two centre's (Scottish & London) plus (I'm guessing) the Flight Plan reception units.

There is another way to see if flight plans are 'in the system', by acccessing the Eurocontrol/IFPS website and being a registered customer. Most ATC units however don't subscribe to this - there's really no point.