No!
Could you expand on that please? 
I know that if one is in Class G, in the UK or elsewhere where IFR is allowed in Class G, one is effectively VFR and one must get enroute notams (for airshows, prohibited areas, etc). But when talking IFR as in Eurocontrol IFR, enroute notams make no sense from the first instant you get off your filed route.
BTW I still haven’t found a free facility for notams (usable for enroute) which is as nice to use as the originally mentioned one. I have emailed the operator (a guy called Harding) who has been responsive in the past. I had some emails with him in 2013 where he talked about some stuff to do with google not supporting Ajax or something vaguely like that which led him to re-hosting the site, back then. I think half the UK used that site!
There are some phone apps but all of them have a subscription requirement of some kind, though whether this is required to keep the notam facility going I don’t know. Some of them do also get appallingly bad feedback (AirnavPro especially) although one can never be sure whether that is genuine – a bit like Tripadvisor… every illiterate tom dick and harry who can just about write 1 line tends to throw in negative 1-liners.
I would not mind paying a few quid for a really nice graphical notam app like the one that’s just disappeared, but I don’t want to use some crappy app, whose developer has abandoned it and as a result the data is wrong.
In the UK, by far the main use for enroute notams is to pick up the prohibited areas around the air shows (in the summer, nearly always) which have Red Arrows presence, because the other stuff is not actually illegal. The airshow busts have been prosecuted at GBP 5000 or so. One Belgian pilot got that fine a few years ago. The other stuff is mostly irrelevant e.g. a flypast of 3 Spitfires which, in Class G, could happen anywhere anyway so why notam it? Then there is all the kite flying… It gets notamed only because it can be, only because we have the internet…
Peter wrote:
Could you expand on that please?
Certainly. What about new obstacles that affect your MSA? ATC couldn’t care less. What about various uncontrolled activities in class E? ATC could possibly care about that, but you can’t rely on it. What about GPS disturbances? Temporary closure of ATC frequencies leading to poor COM at low levels?
I know that if one is in Class G, in the UK or elsewhere where IFR is allowed in Class G, one is effectively VFR and one must get enroute notams (for airshows, prohibited areas, etc).
I wish you could stop referring to uncontrolled IFR as “effectively VFR”. It might be that under the unusual ATS system in the UK uncontrolled IFR is treated exactly the same as VFR by ATS, but that is not generally the case.
But when talking IFR as in Eurocontrol IFR, enroute notams make no sense from the first instant you get off your filed route.
I always check NOTAMs in a reasonable corridor around the route. Of course you could be sent halfway around Europe, but at least you can try to do your homework.
Airborne_Again wrote:
It might be that under the unusual ATS system in the UK uncontrolled IFR is treated exactly the same as VFR by ATS, but that is not generally the case.
Huh? Uncontrolled IFR AFAIK means IFR in class G, and no country I know of provides any service to IFR traffic in class G. And as per ICAO rules you cannot expect to get any service.
Airborne_Again wrote:
What about GPS disturbances?
Ask for vectors.
Airborne_Again wrote:
Temporary closure of ATC frequencies leading to poor COM at low levels?
Go back to the old frequency.
Huh? Uncontrolled IFR AFAIK means IFR in class G, and no country I know of provides any service to IFR traffic in class G. And as per ICAO rules you cannot expect to get any service.
I guess what Airborne wanted to do is merely counter the statement that VFR and IFR in Golf are identical. For instance, in most countries, (not the UK) IFR in Golf requires radio contact.
Therefore, ATC (or FIS) will know if you are VFR or IFR (if you are IFR, you will have to declare so; if you are not in radio contact, you must be VFR)
boscomantico wrote:
For instance, in most countries, IFR in Golf requires radio contact.
Which countries do? That seems like a seriously broken concept to me, as radio coverage is spotty at best in class G (especially where class G ends at 2000ft AGL or so).
There is some logic to the ICAO airspace classification that in G no services are provided to anyone…
Which countries do?
All the Nordic countries. France. Poland. Many more. Just look up ENR1.4 of a few countries. Doesn’t take long and saves you from making wrong statements.
radio coverage is spotty at best in class G (especially where class G ends at 2000ft AGL or so).
Hmm, I read that sentence thrice, but could make anything of it…
There is some logic to the ICAO airspace classification that in G no services are provided to anyone…
Only that this logic doesn’t exist. Flight information service is always provided in class G.
if you are IFR, you will have to declare so; if you are not in radio contact, you must be VFR
Sure, but since nobody knows your actual flight conditions….. it’s all meaningless. I know a number of German pilots who proudly use the term “IVFR” and describe it as a widespread and pragmatic practice
The UK has merely legalised what a large number of pilots (basically everybody who is instrument capable, regardless of legality) do anyway.
boscomantico wrote:
Flight information service is always provided in class G.
How if you don’t have reliable radio communication? By smoke signs? By calling over GSM?
NB: SERA.6001 says: “All IFR flights shall be capable of establishing air-ground voice communications.” and “ATC clearance is not required.”. It doesn’t say “continuous 2 way radio comms” (it wouldn’t be physically possible anyway). So it seems to me that the countries you cited either haven’t introduced SERA or are in breach of it.
Isn’t it the case that under ICAO a FIS has to be made available, but (to me, obviously) does not have to be made available everywhere a pilot could legally fly which is, generally, 500ft AGL all over the said country. That would be impossible, due to terrain shielding.
In the UK this obligation is discharged by (in the south) London Information which very few people call up because they do not provide a radar service and instead increase your workload by asking you ETAs to waypoints, etc.
