mike hallam wrote:
I’m VFR planning Jackrell’s Farm (GB) to Reims/Prunay, France, for Customs. Then refill with fuel and fly on to Grenchen, Switzerland (which will have Customs for their Fly-In)
Reims doesnt have “les Douanes” anymore…
To close this. I telephoned Cardiff ATC. First, they had to find the NOTAM to understand the question as it was news to them! After a bit of talk amongst themselves, they said just file a plan and you will be OK. In the end, it was too windy so we did not go so I don’t know what would have happened. Instead, we went to Scotland which gave its own flight plan problems. I will raise a new thread about that and post a trip report soon.
Thanks everyone.
Good advice, thank you.
Can you add EGFFZTZX and EGFFZPZX to the addresses?
I have never heard of ZIZF and google doesn’t readily find anything either.
In the UK, addressing a flight plan to some intermediate (non-landing) airport normally does absolutely nothing; they just toss it in the bin. It gives you no privileges whatever. I see this
C4712/19 NOTAMN
Q) EGTT/QAEXX/IV/NBO/AE/000/105/5123N00310W022
A) EGFF B) 1909220700 C) 1909221700
E) AIRCRAFT THAT HAVE NOT FILED A FLIGHT PLAN REQUESTING TO CROSS THE
CARDIFF CTR/CTA MAY BE REFUSED A CROSSING CLEARANCE DUE TO
CONTROLLER WORKLOAD
CREATED: 02 Sep 2019 14:19:00
SOURCE: EUECYIYN
C4711/19 NOTAMN
Q) EGTT/QAEXX/IV/NBO/AE/000/105/5123N00310W022
A) EGFF B) 1909200700 C) 1909201700
E) AIRCRAFT THAT HAVE NOT FILED A FLIGHT PLAN REQUESTING TO CROSS
CARDIFF’S CTR/CTA MAY BE REFUSED A CROSSING CLEARANCE DUE TO
CONTROLLER WORKLOAD
CREATED: 02 Sep 2019 14:18:00
SOURCE: EUECYIYN
and it looks like yet another bizzare way of the UK doing things 
It is like this totally mad initiative except this time they want a flight plan with some remarks in it. It is self evidently mad because your exact time of arrival is not going to be known, so they can’t use it for tactical traffic handling.
If it was me I would give Cardiff ATC a phone call and ask them what they really want.
Reviving a six year old thread
I am hoping to fly to the Scilly isles on Friday including a Cardiff transit. There is an active NOTAM requiring flight plans for Cardiff transits so I checked the FP that SkyDemon would file and, despite looking in the relevant bit of the AIP (ENR 1.11) and searching the internet, I cannot work-out whether it will go to Cardiff in the required way. The address list includes EGFFZIZF, will that do what I required does anyone know please?
I'm VFR planning Jackrell's Farm (GB) to Reims/Prunay, France, for Customs. Then refill with fuel and fly on to Grenchen, Switzerland (which will have Customs for their Fly-In)
Have they reinstated customs at Reims? Wasn't available last year when I tried.
One must always have TWO ways of doing anything, and both methods need to be regularly tested. For example AFPEX will reportedly trash your login after something like 6 months of non-use.
This might be a bit of an overstatement. I use Rocketroute and normally prepare the flight plans earlier (route etc) and file as needed like AeroPlus says. It works pretty reliably but if it doesn't you can just call them. I find the big hassle in filing early is if I need to bring a flight forward. You can delay but not bring forward without cancelling and refiling. But then I only file IFR plans.
Peter, it might be you need to start using some more modern ways into the flight planning system! Maybe Aeroplus can arrange a trial for you! ;)
Basically I file everything from my iPhone just when I am about ready to taxi to the fuel pump. For IFR flights (90% of my flights) the flightplan is filed about 15 minutes before starting the engine and the confirmation from Eurocontrol comes in 2-3 minutes later telling me it is accepted. Then for VFR flightplans I file a little earlier plus I might give the ARO a call to make sure it arrived ok.
I see no need to file the next leg already before arriving at that airport. Then, when drinking my coffee I will file it. However, I might have prepared my flightplan already beforehand and have it sit ready on my iPhone to submit.
Then, I can always just delay the flightplan myself in 2 keystrokes.
No need anymore to worry about all this stuff.
This is good advice but it - historically at least - depends on which service you use.
For example the old homebriefing.com (which for a long time was the only online flight plan filing service) retained any flight plan with a forward DOF/ in its database and transmitted it to the AFTN only on the day of departure.
That ought to prevent the well known DOF/ related flight plan losses.
Whether this still do that I have no idea. My old notes on this topic mention it but I have not updated them for a while.
I use EuroFPL for flight plan filing (admittedly nearly all are IFR however) and use AFPEX as the backup, and yes I have needed that backup a few times when something refuses to work which usually happens at the worst possible time e.g. sweltering in +35C heat on the tarmac at Corfu... AFPEX makes a good backup because it works completely differently to every other online service, and bypasses absolutely everything to do with web entry forms, databases, etc. The only time AFPEX will fail to get a flight plan onto the AFTN is if you have already filed one which overlaps in time, have not cancelled it, and in any case overlapping flight plans are checked for only with IFR. In VFR you can file what the hell you like for when the hell you like, all at the same time.
One must always have TWO ways of doing anything, and both methods need to be regularly tested. For example AFPEX will reportedly trash your login after something like 6 months of non-use. Also I always start up AFPEX immediately before a long trip, to reduce the chance of getting hit with their 3MB java app update when away (the Hibernation trick is a fairly good way to guard against that, but most laptops have problems with Hibernation and some hardware e.g. Bluetooth not getting initialised correctly).
The way IFR flight plans avoid most of these hassles is almost worth getting the IR for
Still on IFR, I always pre-file flight plans, even several days ahead. The Eurocontrol system is "totally" robust, and cancelling or delaying a flight plan is much easier than filing a new one. Also there is a possibility that a route for a flight on Wednesday which validated on a Monday won't validate on the Wednesday, but if you got the FP into the system you can fly with it, while the others going to the same place are tearing their hair out!
Can I ask a supplementary question pls.
I'm VFR planning Jackrell's Farm (GB) to Reims/Prunay, France, for Customs. Then refill with fuel and fly on to Grenchen, Switzerland (which will have Customs for their Fly-In)
I was going to file both flight plans at home on the p.c. - probably using Olivier - the night before and then initiate them on the wireless first when airborne UK and the second leaving Reims.
Is O.K.?
In theory yes. In practice you'd be better off filing both on the morning of departure. There is no problem with filing both at the same time. The issue in practice seems to be filing them the day before hand. The human at the end often doesn't see the date is not "today" and then bin them.
I suppose if you do it late at night the changes of this mistake are dramatically reduced, but I'd still do it first thing in the morning.
Colm
