Airborne_Again wrote:
I don’t have the exact definition, but what’s important from an ATC perspective is that the aircraft are sufficiently close together to be treated as a single flight by ATC and that the the pilots do their own se
Thanks, that’s pretty much what I thought and also what we did on the two or three occasions I’ve used that for a single FP. Certainly not a military-style formation.
About 20 years ago I was flying in a Piper Archer with another Archer in a loose formation from Austria to Budapest per their request. One did the radio and we stayed close together but not like a military formation. It wasn’t anything special or complicated at all.
Own separation and only one plane does the radio.
Oh and don’t forget – only one transponder too, otherwise all manner of crash alarms will ring ^^
172driver wrote:
What isn’t all that clear to me is the definition of ‘formation’. Anyone ?
I don’t have the exact definition, but what’s important from an ATC perspective is that the aircraft are sufficiently close together to be treated as a single flight by ATC and that the the pilots do their own separation within the formation.
FWIW Wikipedia:
Formation flying is the disciplined flight of two or more aircraft under the command of a flight leader.
Aviathor wrote:
Only in case of formation flying.
Well, that’s what I wrote. What isn’t all that clear to me is the definition of ‘formation’. Anyone ?
But in this case, you only need one FP and put the total no of a/c in the ‘number’ section
Only in case of formation flying.
Steve6443 wrote:
a group of us were flying from LHFM to LKPL
But in this case, you only need one FP and put the total no of a/c in the ‘number’ section (and again in the ‘remarks’ to be on the safe side). This of course assumes a formation (or close to a formation) flight. I’ve done this a couple of times in Spain.
Peter wrote:
You could not make that one up
No, you couldn’t !!!
The most famous case of totally unauthorised flight plan cancellation was this year’s Friedrichshafen EDNY (AERO 2015) show where some idiot just sat there and cancelled (or suspended – same result in practice) every inbound flight plan whose ETA did not fall into his pre-booked arrival slot.
Probably the same guy who started telling me on final at EDNY (the year before) that I was too slow, and then claimed credit for preventing me stalling and crashing. GS <> IAS…
because I had submitted two flight plans within a few seconds from one another with similar call signs, the system assumed the second was a copy of the first and it was deleted. He recommended that when submitting multiple flight plans electronically, to submit them by ensuring the call signs varied as much as possible…..
You could not make that one up 
Not exactly the same but I have had VFR Flight Plans cancelled by FIS before – a group of us were flying from LHFM to LKPL, I took the lead to file the flight plans from my laptop. Two of the aircraft had similar call signs – D-ELKX and D-ELKC. I submitted the plan for KC, changed the details of the PIC and colour of KX and submitted this, received the text confirmation from DFS for both plans, then changed the details for the third plane. The next morning we started up only to be told that Budapest Information hadn’t received the flight plan for KX and we had to submit one, all other flight plans were in the system.
I shut down the engine, rang DFS and they confirmed that a Flight Plan was in the system for KX but that it had been cancelled – reason unknown. The operator told me that he thought that, because I had submitted two flight plans within a few seconds from one another with similar call signs, the system assumed the second was a copy of the first and it was deleted. He recommended that when submitting multiple flight plans electronically, to submit them by ensuring the call signs varied as much as possible…..
