The normal procedure in France when you land at an unattended airfield is to call +33810 437 837 (+33810 IFR VFR) to close your flight plan.
I wondered why very often, the ATS calls me on my mobile phone to remind me to close my flight plan. It happens when I land at an unattended airfield, in France. They call during taxi, just after landing. Incerfa begins 10mn after estimate time for landing, so why do they call while I’m still taxying?
I think the answer is in my EET.
I calculate my EET according to doc 4444, as I was taught repeatedly during my PPL, theoretical ATPL, and IFR training
For IFR flights, the estimated time required from take-off to arrive over that designated point, defined by reference to navigation aids, from which it is intended that an instrument approach procedure will be commenced, or, if no navigation aid is associated with the destination aerodrome, to arrive over the destination aerodrome. For VFR flights, the estimated time required from take-off to arrive over the destination aerodrome.
French and Belgium AIP don’t say anything about EET, so normally the ICAO rules apply.
But amongst the 600+ pages of the Eurocontrol manual, you can read:
85. ITEM 16: (…) B) TOTAL ESTIMATED ELAPSED TIME (…)
The total Estimated Elapsed Time (EET) given shall be considered by the IFPS to be the total time calculated for that flight from departure to the point at which that flight lands at the aerodrome or point of destination
The difference is the IFR procedure, which can last 10-15 mn if your plane is slow and if you fly the entire procedure.
The first conclusion is that training, even professional one, is not professionally done. But we all know that.
The second conclusion is that the IAP of France and Belgium (and probably of other European countries) do not comply with ICAO standards, as an ICAO difference should have been filed and I could not find any such filing.
Autorouter seems to calculate the EET according to the VFR version of doc 4444 (ie from TO to overhead). The way autorouter calculates the EET does not seem to be documented.
The total Estimated Elapsed Time (EET) given shall be considered by the IFPS to be the total time calculated for that flight from departure to the point at which that flight lands at the aerodrome or point of destination
Argh! Why that deviation from ICAO standards???
In Sweden you have 30 minutes after ETA to close your flight plan. I don’t know if this is an ICAO standard or national value.
Autorouter seems to calculate the EET according to the VFR version of doc 4444 (ie from TO to overhead).
No it calculates from take-off to landing. We don’t however have an approach database, so the case where you fly a STAR to overhead, then have an approach procedure that flies outbound then inbound misses a few minutes.
There’s quite a bit of uncertainty, because you cannot really know in advance which STAR you’re going to fly, and much less which approach…
No it calculates from take-off to landing. We don’t however have an approach database, so the case where you fly a STAR to overhead, then have an approach procedure that flies outbound then inbound misses a few minutes.
If you don’t take into account the procedure flown, how to you calculate the time from TO to landing? Do you assume that the plane makes a straight and continuous descent down to the ARP at that the flight ends there?
misses a few minutes.
It can be 10-15mn, and that’s enough to start incerfa in France
Do you assume that the plane makes a straight and continuous descent down to the ARP at that the flight ends there?
Yes
It is good practice to always file flightplans with True Airspeeds quite a bit less than the actual TAS. This gibes you a bit more time to close the flightplan.
The “problem” is that “flightplanning” and “filing the flightplan” is nowadays done in one step (by a program), so if you do that, you will also mess up your flightlog.
In France, ATC should ask for your estimated landing time before you switch to air to air frequency.
Your estimated is then forwarded to the service responsible for closing FPL (in France it is called BTIV).
Your estimated landing time will be used to trigger alert phases (if necessary).
Yes Guillaume, that is fact what usually happens to me as well.
However, nobody obliges me to speak to ATC / FIS before switching over to the airfield frequency, so in these cases, they will not have any update on the ETA. Then, they will calculate the landing time from ATD + ETE in the flightplan.
Autorouter does in fact calculate EET the ICAO way as if your flight were VFR. (calculating a straight line descent to the ARP at 0 AAL is the same as calculating the time to reach the overhead at circuit height.)
But this is not what eurocontrol expects.
You must add the time needed to land. It can be 3 min in VFR, but it can be 10-15 mn if you fly a full IFR procedure.
Alerfa starts in France 10 mn after your ET for landing.
But this is not what eurocontrol expects.
We use the Eurocontrol database to compute EET, so we really compute it exactly as Eurocontrol does, except that we use a more precise aircraft model.
