There is little doubt the security is overdone but one can kind of see why NATS did it. It would have taken just one person around the table to raise the possibility of vandalism and that would be the end of the argument.

The fact that the USA has had an online FP filing system, and the French via Olivia, and a few others around Europe, and none of these have been openly and visibly vandalised, probably isn't going to hold much sway. If there have been nutters filing a load of flight plans for somebody's 747, the word has not got out publicly. One just doesn't know.

But the pulldown passphrase is certainly nonsense; this does not give any more security than any password entered conventionally. The extra security is just an illusion.

But one cannot compare Afpex with Olivia. Olivia works only for flights with one end in France. This is OK for many but is a dead end for many others who would have to maintain multiple logins, just to get around a bit of Europe. Afpex works worldwide - it is a direct AFTN interface.

Those who fly abroad only to France have lost nothing - they can use Olivia :ok:

I used Olvia last weekend for a flight from the UK to Belgium without any problems.

This is v. interesting, but there are counter examples reported where such flight plans disappeared.

It is possible that "Belgium is near France" so they let it go. A bit like Homebriefing, based in Vienna, do unlimited free flight plans to/from not only Austria but also Switzerland.

Until somebody manages to get an official clarification, the situation will be undefined.

I believe the DGAC have been to see how the AFPEx system works so that they can replace the Olivia system with something that doesn't need expensive human intervention.

Can any AFPEX boffins explain my predicament?

When another AFPEX account holder copies my AFTN address in to his flight plan recipients, I don't receive a new message on my AFPEX Terminal Pending Messages to see his flight plan. Why is this?

That's bizzare... suggest you email their helpdesk. I always find them really good, and about as far from the mobile phone call centre script monkeys as you can get :)

If you get your mate to send you a Free Text message, does that reach you OK?

Thanks IO, I'll try both those suggestions and let you know the outcome.