if I file IFR, I do not have an IR just an IR restricted, will that be advantageous except that I still must keep clear of Class A airspace?
Personally I would not bother filing “I” if I had the IMCR / IR but not the full IR.
Any flight plan with an IFR portion, i.e. “I” “Z” or “Y”, goes to Eurocontrol for validation. But this is of no use to you since
So… just file “V” for all flights within the UK regardless of whether you expect to enter IMC. In UK Class G, the change from VFR to IFR is legally done wholly in the pilot’s head 
Slight thread drift but I want to ask, Peter, do Manc Control still exist as Manc Control? I thought they were merged with London/Scottish. I fly around the Liverpool/Manchester area A LOT (enroute from/to other places) and have never heard of the callsign (only been flying there since last year).
To provide a valid input to the thread, I often use a nearby approach frequency to activate a flight plan. Whether they just pass on the message to London Info or not I don’t know but certainly within the Scottish FIR I always seem to get a clearence immediately upon asking to activate an IFR flight plan. (eg. “Roger Flight plan activated at 1051 you’re cleared to join controlled airspace in the climb to altitude 6000’ Q1022 on track to TRN.”)
do Manc Control still exist as Manc Control
Never heard of them, but then I wouldn’t necessarily. STOLman here ought to know.
@ DublinPilot & @JJBeall: I must be missing something, please help me out. How can you ever activate a flight plan from the ground? Surely you can only activate it (or more precisely, request activation) once airborne, with airborne time a required bit of info?
Or were you referring to having someone on the ground call for activation after they see/know you have really departed?
I must admit that I can and will only discuss VFR flight plans, which are of course largely decorum; but would there really be such a lot of difference between VFR vs. IFR flight plans?
There is no Manc Control. In Manchester and further north you speak to Scottish. When going to the IOM you are with Scottish until handover to Ronaldsway Approach.
@ DublinPilot & @JJBeall: I must be missing something, please help me out. How can you ever activate a flight plan from the ground? Surely you can only activate it (or more precisely, request activation) once airborne, with airborne time a required bit of info?
Of course you can, I do it all the time. Both in the US and in Spain (have also done it in Austria, Namibia, Australia and IIRC, France). It’s especially good if you fly in highly congested airspace (as I do in L.A.) where you have a frequency change and a new controller every minute or so. In remote places like Australia and Namibia this often is the only way, as you will not be in radio contact for a while – and that can be a long while – once airborne.
What you do is you give an estimated t/o time. This can be pretty precise (e.g. the US, where i would call up after having done all preflight) or rather vague as in Namibia, where you may have to file via HF from a lodge before driving out to the strip and your airplane. If needed (Oz, Nam – both of which have SARtime requirements in the FP), you then adjust the exact timings once in the air and in contact with someone.
I don’t think ground activation by phone can be done in the UK – or at least it is not at all encouraged, unless there has been a recent change.
The numbers are not well known, anyway.
I do have numbers for London Control which I have never tested (don’t fly from a strip) but they are believed to work; these get you a provisional IFR clearance with a squawk but you have to remain OCAS until they clear you, so basically exactly what London Info would have got you. That should save a call to London Info who can sometimes be very busy and I have sometimes been out of UK airspace by the time they were able to do it. These are (+44) 2380401110 2380401100 2380401103. These would be for Eurocontrol IFR flight plans.
My comment on AFPEX above refers to getting somebody with an AFPEX account (or accessing your AFPEX account, which is probably not allowed officially) to do it on the ground, after they have seen you depart and not immediately crash! The DEP message would be transmitted in the same way for all types of flight plans i.e. Z Y I.
I don’t think ground activation by phone can be done in the UK – or at least it is not at all encouraged, unless there has been a recent change.
I obtained a provisional clearance by phone from London Control a few months ago when departing Dunkeswell EGTU. It took the same form as departing from a towered airport in Class G – heading and altitude, remain OCAS, squawk xxxx, contact Western Radar on xxx.×. The only difference was something akin to an American clearance void – they wanted my assurance that I would be airborne within 15 minutes.
