I nearly never file a flightplan and am trying to understanding what went wrong. I had prepared a flightplan for a VFR flight into the Salzburg but when I arrived at my home base it turned out that the fuel pump was inop. I then canceled said flightplan and filed a new one before I departed to my fuel stop in Eggenfelden. The messages for that flightplan are:
FPL-EDME0930-LOWS0030
DEL-EDME1015
DEP-EDME1022
Landing was at 1050. I would have expected Salzburg to issue the respective ARR message but then I checked later through the DFS AIS-portal (was that my mistake?) the flight wasn’t shown as arrived but it also wouldn’t let me close the flightplan. I wasn’t worried about it and I never received a call but when I closed the flightplan for the return leg I noticed that the first leg now showed as expired and I really wonder what went wrong.
Does it mean that the flight was MIA for a brief period of time until someone noticed that it is already on the ground or is it just an issue about what the web interface nows about that specific flight?
I don’t know how it works outside the US, but in the US, a VFR flight plan is filed, but must be activated in order to receive SAR services. Before it is activated, the flight plan may be cancelled. Once it is activated, the flight plan can’t be cancelled, but must be closed. When a VFR flight plan is activated, FSS sends a departure message. When an activated flight plan is closed, the receiving FSS sends the arrival message. If an activated flight plan is not closed within the time period specified by the departure message + ETE + 30 minutes, then an alert is generated. This may all be terminology, but in the US, cancel does not mean closed or arrived safely, it means the flight will not take place and is to be removed from the FSS system.
NCYankee wrote:
I don’t know how it works outside the US, but in the US, a VFR flight plan is filed, but must be activated in order to receive SAR services. Before it is activated, the flight plan may be cancelled. Once it is activated, the flight plan can’t be cancelled, but must be closed. When a VFR flight plan is activated, FSS sends a departure message. When an activated flight plan is closed, the receiving FSS sends the arrival message. If an activated flight plan is not closed within the time period specified by the departure message + ETE + 30 minutes, then an alert is generated. This may all be terminology, but in the US, cancel does not mean closed or arrived safely, it means the flight will not take place and is to be removed from the FSS system.
It basically work the same outside the US, except that airport towers open and close VFR flight plans automatically, just like IFR flight plans.
Clipperstorch wrote:
… the flight wasn’t shown as arrived but it also wouldn’t let me close the flightplan. I wasn’t worried about it and I never received a call but when I closed the flightplan for the return leg I noticed that the first leg now showed as expired and I really wonder what went wrong.
It sounds like your flight plan was never activated.
There is no uniform handling of VFR flight plans as there is (in Europe) for IFR flight plans. The question is what the German AIS portal does when you are late for departure. You sent a delay message 45 minutes after the EOBT and at that point the AIS portal may already have considered it expired. Of course then the delay message should either have reactivated the flight plan or given an error response.
I suggest you call German AIS and ask!
Airborne_Again wrote:
You sent a delay message 45 minutes after the EOBT and at that point the AIS portal may already have considered it expired.
I sent the delay at 0948 which is still within 30 minutes which I thought is the limit on VFR flightplans.
Clipperstorch wrote:
I sent the delay at 0948 which is still within 30 minutes which I thought is the limit on VFR flightplans.
To me it sounds like your FPL was never actually activated in the first place. Was your DEP (departure aerodrome) controlled or uncontrolled? I have to assume uncontrolled. In some regions you, if departing from uncontrolled airports, you can only activate the FPLs after you´re airborne and check in with relevant AIS. Normally, the AIS unit will automatically activate the FPL when you check in (comm.) with them – in which case you need to assure that the FPL is closed when you land. Regarding the closing of FPLs this also varies within different regions. Eg. in Portugal it seems AIS will not allow closing the FPL airborne – you have to phone call the AIS after landing (or use your application (I know SkyDemon (SD) works) to close it) and close the FPL. In Spain, I recently discovered that the approach controller (going into an uncontrolled airport) advised me that he would close my FPL while airborne (of course I also used SD to close it, but omitted the phone call to the AIS).
Yeager wrote:
To me it sounds like your FPL was never actually activated in the first place. Was your DEP (departure aerodrome) controlled or uncontrolled?
That might explain why Salzburg answered with go ahead instead of just asking me to report the next VRP. Guess I should then feel lucky to have been accepted without flightplan. Departure was from an uncontrolled field. They often offer to open the flightplan if the flight crosses a border though in this case I don’t remember if they did. But I can see a DEP message in the flight plan’s history.
Clipperstorch wrote:
But I can see a DEP message in the flight plan’s history.
You´re right. The ack. msg. does indicate that an actual departure was recorded.
As Airbone_Again suggested. Never be shy of phoning up the AIS and confirm status of the flight plan! Better than seeing a military helicopter hovering over your airplane 30+ minutes after landing! ;-)
Yeager wrote:
Never be shy of phoning up the AIS and confirm status of the flight plan!
Or, in this case, call them after the fact to learn what happened and what you could have done differently.
Called them up: It is a system limitation. They don’t receive the arrival message for flights which land across the border. The system then simply archives the flight plan after a few hours.
