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Crossing borders VFR - is using FIS (reporting mid Channel etc) mandatory?

Say you go Shoreham EGKA to Le Touquet LFAT

One is taught to come off the Shoreham frequency, call up London Information 124.60, then around ALESO in the above case call up French FIS (shown on the chart as Paris North 125.70 although I have never heard of anybody calling that one) and then get handed to Le Touquet 118.45.

But in reality one can just change straight from Shoreham to Le Touquet and I have done it many times, in both directions.

It makes sense because at 140+ kt the time spent talking to anybody in France except LFAT is going to be very short and one may never be able to establish comms in such a short time anyway.

What’s wrong with that?

One is on a VFR flight plan, duly filed to the correct agencies, so any “national security” issues result in you being tracked on radar. Well, assuming they can pick your blob out of a load of others… I don’t believe this actually works but nobody seems to care.

If one did call up London Info on the way out, does anyone know what they actually do (in full)? I am not expecting a UK ATCO to reply because they signed the Official Secrets Act but I assumed they notify some agency that you are about to cross the border.

It would make sense to always be listening to somebody potentially useful in case of a ditching so one can set 7700 and make a call, so they can get these people out. But is there a legal requirement to call FIS at all?

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

I have always used FIS and the handover always worked pretty smoothly. That said, I have never flown the particular route you reference there, my UK to continental Europe trips always went via Belgium. In any case, being over the sea, I’d consider it good practice to be ‘in the system’. No idea about legal requirements.

As I understand, the legal requirement is to inform authorities on both sides when crossing a FIR boundary. As neatly worded above, to get “out of” the one system and to get “into” the other one. There may have been a time when such information was actually followed up, but I too doubt if that is the case today.

But perhaps part of your confusion (if it be that) comes from the woolly airspace vs. authority relation in the UK. In any other FIR I know, given a set of coordinates and an altitude there is one and only one service one should be tuned into, on one and only one frequency; and it is to them one reports leaving/entering their area. If you heard “you need to talk to FIS” it may be because FIS is the default service to talk to, if outside controlled airspace.

Myself disallowed in controlled airspace, I am always listening to FIS, and sometimes even talking to them. On a hamburger run to the river Mosel or so, the main reason to talk to my Belgian FIS would be to know if certain military areas are active. But that is rare, so that near the border I normally do not need to tell them I am leaving because they were never aware of me – they might not receive me properly, anyway, at that distance – but I will call Langen when crossing the FIR boundary.

Last Edited by at 07 Oct 21:45
EBZH Kiewit, Belgium

But is there a legal requirement to call FIS at all?

The anwer to that is quite easy: it depends.

There is no blanket requirement to inform any “authority” at all. It entirely depends on what’s written in the respective country’s AIP. Germany has absolutely nothing of that sort. Other European countries have it.

Mainz (EDFZ) & Egelsbach (EDFE), Germany

I have crossed Czech – German border many times on the way to EDMS – at times when FPL and customes/immigration were mandatory. I was always told by Praha Info to contact Munich info but never get response, the terrain there is not supportive to radio coverage. Usually I called directly EDMS when closer to them. Nobody did ever even question this. So my answer – you informed auhtorities of your intention by the flight plan and you activated your FPL. So you are good to go and you do not need to be at radio contact and to get clearance to cross border.

LKKU, LKTB

I too always learned that reporting border crossing was mandatory, and that you are expected to indicate the expected time of crossing in your FPL

LFPT, LFPN

You have to file the FIR crossings in your flight plan.
I only call London Information on request of London Control mostly westbound.
Eastbound I contact Brussels Radar directly after Southend about 10 mins before reaching the FIR border, so no FIS.

Last Edited by mdoerr at 09 Oct 08:33
United Kingdom

You have to file the FIR crossings in your flight plan.

if any

EBZH Kiewit, Belgium

Why is there a necessity of a flight plan for VFR flights between Schengen countries in the first place? Doesn’t that contradict Schengen?

Okay, UK isn’t Schengen, but still…

mh
Aufwind GmbH
EKPB, Germany

Sigh. What has Schengen got to do with flight planning?

EBZH Kiewit, Belgium
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