Controlled airspace transits - local tips

So back to the zone transit question…. I followed the Prague flyout report with interest as a site guest, because I’m planning to fly London-Prague in a few weeks and I was looking for tips. However, unlike many on this forum I’m only IMC-rated, so I’ve been trying to discover how easy it is to plan a direct route VFR though Belgium, with a fuel & customs stop in western Germany. I’d like to be able to plan a good weather VMC-on-top route and well as a back-up scud-running one if the tops are high (no O2 or anti-icing). I fly to SW France quite often and the process is effortless, usually settling down at 7500’ or 9500’ often through CAS and just being passed on from controller to controller. Can I expect the same in Belgium (and for that matter Germany and Czech Republic), and are there any particular route/altitude recommendations?

Ok, a few remarks to Switzerland then.

All pics are copyright by Bundesamt für Landestopografie swisstopo and the Federal Office for Civil Aviation and extracted from here:
Bundesamt für Landestopographie online map

Bern and Geneva have published transit routes.

These are pretty straighforward and are usually granted. There was a Notam the other day that transit should be requested higher than 5000 ft.

Geneva has got transit routes as well. Also, the D Airspace lower limits are quite high.

Zürich has no pre-defined transit routes. However, to the North the TMA can be underflown at pretty high altitudes (up to 4500-5500 ft AMSL), to the South it is more difficult, as the CTR of Dübendorf and Emmen need to be considered as well. If both are inactive (mostly weekends), one can fly at up to 5500 ft AMSL for most of the time going via Rickenpass and then direction Wangen Lachen. From there, the TMA of Emmen needs to be crossed (which is usually not a problem) or underflown, otherwise one can go via Buochs – Kägiswil towards Meiringen (also crossing clearance necessary) towards Thun. Crossing N-S is best done through one of the sectors giving up to 6500 ft lower limit of Airspace D.

Thanks all, so sounds like I should stick to what I was taught and not try and get clever on the radio.

Very little to add but I suspect just requesting a zone transit is unhelpful. Until AT assign you a squawk they have little idea where you are and what you want. I find G-X at Goodwood requesting transit from X to Y helpful with X and Y as precise or imprecise as possible. That way AT know roughly where you are and what you want. The height is relatively irrelevant because they know and you know they can assign whatever they wish. In the intial call worth also making clear whether its an IFR or VFR transit or either – I suspect they then have the whole picture. Personally I also mention the zone ATIS as it suggests you have bothered to get it and have a better idea what you are about so “Solent G-X at Goodwood requesting IFR transit eastern boundary direct track Exeter with India”. Happy to be told by AT to include less or more but it has always worked for me. Only place and time in the UK regularly refused a transit is Stansted (but they have been better recently) and occasionally Thames over City and up the Lee Valley. Think Heathrow may have had an issue with the old Burnham SVFR once.

PS Belgium is the same or better – no problem with a transit at any level and any route – Belgium Mil are the best port of initial call and will work all and any handovers and there rarely seems any problem weaving around to miss the weather as required. Excellent hassle free service. You will find all the looking up of frequencies en route unnecessary.

RedKite,

SW France quite often and the process is effortless, usually settling down at 7500’ or 9500’ often through CAS and just being passed on from controller to controller. Can I expect the same in Belgium (and for that matter Germany and Czech Republic), and are there any particular route/altitude recommendations?

For Germany: no, don’t count on that. The FIS expects you to be on your toes and ask for class C and class D (in order not to say: “CAS transits” ) proactively and in a timely manner. It is quite a bit different than in France.

As mentioned, don’t expect to be granted at Frankfurt and Munich. In the other cases, you can expect to be granted, possibly with a slight altitude change.

Redkite,

Your Routing should start DVR-KOK-MAK-LNO-ARCKY, I hope your avionics can handle waypoints.
So crossing Belgium should be no big deal if you go on top in UK airspace (this is why I prefer VABIK as class G is up to FL105)
Crossing Germany is not rocket science. Your route to Prague will just south of Cologne Class C and north of Frankfurt. There would be no problem to fly in Cologne C but Frankfurt is nearly impossible if you can’t do oxygen levels. Minimum is FL140 even for an IFR crossing if you are lucky 120.
I have no idea of your range, so it is hard to give you any idea about fuel/custom stops. Hof maybe, but I wasn’t there for a long time.

If you fly VFR to Czech republic from Germany you don’t need to file a flight plan. Just fly. I have no idea about Prague, but you can ask Flyer59, he flies there on a regular basis.

Scud running is a proven method in Germany, but be aware there are some wind turbines. So I would route north of Frankfurt as too, but there are some hills you should know. Then south of the Thuringia Forrest, a line East-West just south of Erfurt. Watch the grid altitudes as there are some hills up to 3000ft.
There are some bad weather scud running routes, maybe someone has a link.

be aware there are some wind turbines

Hm. May I call that an understatement? All of Rheinland-Pfalz (Rhineland Palatinate, one of the federalities making up the German Bundesrepublik ) is infested with the bloody contraptions.

BTW is there any point in including the MAK NDB in this routing?