Ah, and that's where it goes wrong. There is no national or ICAO guidance (apart from in Norway).

At least, not that anyone has yet found.

I've re-checked ICAO Doc.4444, which offers no guidance on departing early, and SERA.4001 is a bit vague. All the guidance is targetted at late running departures. I come back to my assertion that the authorities expect pilots to manage their FPLs to reflect their revised EOBTs, and never envisaged anyone not complying.

Sam, if the only reason you needed a VFR flight plan was because it was an international flight, then it makes even less sense than at first glance. If you had cancelled your vfr flight plan, you could have departed vfr without delay. Or even asked for a vfr departure without using your flight plan then asked to activate it once airbourne. In neither situation would you be doing anything wrong. So no real/obvious reason for brussels to delay your departure. And indeed nothing to stop you filing an airbourne flight plan after departure. I think that you are right about the fact that no rules exist in general re early departure and I think that the guy in brussels has some explaining to do ! Also wondering about other situations requiring VFR flight plans, eg spain in general, night flight in some circumstances in europe etc, but in general VFR flight plans have no time dependent/slot/coordination issues so it makes sense that there are rules about late departure because there has to be a cut off where the fpl gets dropped if you aren't going to use it, but no issues round early usage. ( and trivial to cancel and refile since it requires no validation of route etc).

It woudl definitely be worth re-posting this in the ATC issues section. There is a host of knowledgeable people there that might not see this in private flying.

Is not the issue here the difference in airspace structure between UK and (e.g.) Belgium ? Brussels EBBR and Charleroi EBCI have Class D CTRs, but these are surrounded by Class C Brussels TMA. It seems possible to fly right to the UK FIR boundary in the Class C airspace VFR and there the rules change. Because Controlled VFR is permitted in Class C the system may well expect the pilot to choose to operate in the controlled airspace rather than low level in Class G. In that case it might be understandable that the same flight planning and departure constraints should apply to a VFR flight as for IFR.

Whereas in the UK we have no option to fly VFR in controlled airspace, it is Class G overlaid by Class A (though for the purpose of discussion discounting the possibility of a Class D transit). In the UK departure case the VFR flight plan may serve no ATS purpose because there is no ATS control hence no coordination required. The purpose of the VFR flight plan serves to meet the requirement for international border crossing, for SAR, and for notification of ETA at the destination airfield. So why should it not be possible to activate the plan any time after it appears in the system ?

God some people make it so difficult....
There are no rules in the uk...as has been said.
Airfields outside CAS airspace will send a DEP message.
Just Go.

Outside UK who knows...

You are correct that most AIPs only talk about delayed EOBT. I could only find a statement for Sweden (see below) but not for Norway (checked ENR 1.10, maybe you did use another source?)
Some more AIP excerpts. One more (The Netherlands) that explicitly mentions 'negative' delay, but in context with IFPS (means probably not relevant for VFR).
The delay 'limits' vary from 'as soon as practicable', 60min, 30min down to 15min. This was not the original question, but should show that the limit can be something else (in some cases considerably less) than EOBT plus one hour.

That's for VFR?

So, Sweden also covers this - the Norway reference is earlier in the thread.

Two countries only (out of +/- 200) have actually published how much earlier than filed you can leave on a VFR flight plan. Nobody else!

Clearly there are no defined departure time tolerances for departing on VFR flight plans unless a portion of that flight is filed IFR. It is my understanding that departure tolerances have been devised in order to regulate the amount of IFR traffic in controlled airspace at any given time. It clearly would not be possible to predict traffic volumes if aircraft depart excessively early/late on flight plan times hence why the +/-15mins EOBT and -5+10 CTOT tolerance for 'slotted' flights exists.

It seems that since there are no rules governing VFR departures it relies on people using common sense and keeping their EOBT as accurate as possible, if you call for start/taxi an hour early and the controller does not have your details because the system only prints/displays strips for planned movements for the next 30 minutes then personally I think it would be reasonable for the controller to insist that a CHG message is sent or a refile.

1. Though completely understandable, that's not what he said and nor do I think it's the case.
2. If I was flying within Belgium, without a flight plan, he'd also have no prior warning of my departure - but would just fit me in between departing traffic.
3. Equally, I can arrive at the airport (non-international VFR) and the very first he knows is a call to TWR "approaching the CTR..."

I don't think that is the case in Belgium, because you are obliged to file a FPL if "any flight or portion thereof to be provided with ATC service"

I can, do. So does everyone else, including the two (three?) flight schools that operate out of there...

Tagron

>Whereas in the UK we have no option to fly VFR in controlled airspace, it is Class G overlaid by Class A (though for the purpose of discussion discounting the possibility of a Class D transit).

At the risk of thread drift/being picky , what about departure VFR from any class D airport in UK? that would be VFR in controlled airspace...

Perhaps it would be wise to seek an explanation from the unit in question.

At the unit I work in pilots are required to file a flight plan/phone up and book out before you will be allowed to join/leave the class D CTR, announcing your arrival on the radio is not sufficient as the airfield is PPR.

We can print strips for flights later in the day/change flight plans at short notice so pilots calling up early/late on VFR flight plans aren't really an issue. However, every unit is different & without knowing systems/procedures it's difficult to know why they denied you start/taxi.

Custardpsc

Yes, but the requirement to file a fllight plan for a VFR flight arriving or departing Class D airspace can be met by the initial radio contact and the passing of basic details. This I believe constitutes an Abbreviated Flight Plan.

So to return to Sam's flight if his destination had been another Belgian airfield then I suspect this is what he would have needed to do to get a clearance to exit the Class D at the CTR boundary then proceed outside (i.e. below) CAS. But because he had filed a full ICAO plan for boundary crossing purposes the system would have assumed he may have wished to proceed in the Class C CAS all the way to his FIR exit point.

It is worth remembering that Class C ICAO rules provide for positive separation of IFR from VFR, i.e.it is Controlled VFR, whereas in Class D the ICAO requirement is only for information on VFR traffic to be passed to IFR flights. Of course it is sometimes said that UK airfields control their Class D as if it were Class C, which is understandable but perhaps not a debate for now.

In the UK we have no Class C whereas in Belgium it covers the whole country from low altitude up to FL195. Hence perhaps the different planning and departure constraints with less flexibility for VFR.

Before the implamentation of new flight plan rules for IFR flights in IFPS zone (+-15 min) in 2002 , there was just ICAO rules.

4.4.2.1.2 In the event of a delay of 30 minutes in excess of the estimated off-block time for a controlled flight or a delay of one hour for an uncontrolled flight for which a flight plan has been submitted, the flight plan should be amended or a new flight plan submitted and the old flight plan cancelled, whichever is applicable.

Even though, these rules were mentioning delay circumstances, we were aplying them for the start up times also. +,- 30 min for IFR flights, +,- 60 min for VFR flights.
So as my thought, the only change made for IFR flight times,VFR application remained the same.

Well, that was my recollection as well, but can't find it written anywhere...