Peter wrote:
EC does nothing; VFR FPs are AFTN messages (which nowadays don’t go via “telex” but go via fast TCP/IP links, and some private lines; I saw a map at NATS ~10 years ago) and ultimately end up entirely in national databases, some ATC-accessible and some not, some maintained for national security usage.EC still handles Z and Y FPs.
@Peter, then how would the French ATC will know a route of a VFR a/c incoming from the UK? AFTN?
Yes, AFTN. A VFR FP is supposed to be addressed to various FIRs; this is a huge vast enormous topic which has varied over the years. In France, they seem to have an integrated “known traffic” system where all FPs are accessible anywhere, so an FP addressed to just LFAT (LFATZTZX, I guess) is actually accessible to all in France. Off topic for Eurocontrol 
A FP going to EC gets addressed to various recipients according to the route by the EC computers (one is Paris one is Brussels) so the originator doesn’t need to care; he just stuffs the FP into the EC interface (some sort of VPN). All happens in a few seconds.
Airborne_Again wrote:
The code is generated before the flight plan is activated. It’s already on the strip when you first call up ATC on the ground.
This might be the case in Sweden but the reality is that it depends on the FDPS settings (there is usually 1 FDPS / country).
I’m sorry but I know a bit about my job.
Surely not the case in France, I fly on code = 1000 in many IFR flights (I think used on FPL = ModeS in lower airspace), also I do have AutoRouter tracking on many of those flights…
I’m sorry but I know a bit about my job
That could mean two things The English idiomatic interpretation is that you know a lot about your job, in which case we may be able to find out more about how this works.
Guillaume wrote:
This might be the case in Sweden but the reality is that it depends on the FDPS settings (there is usually 1 FDPS / country).
I’m sorry but I know a bit about my job.
Then how could Autorouter send the squawk code to the pilot in advance of the flight? (Until Eurocontrol asked Achim to stop as some country didn’t like it.)
I’m sorry, too, but I’ve got squawk codes like that not only in Sweden.
arj1 wrote:
@Airborne_Again, what about VFR? Does Eurocontrol do anything with VFR flight plans? If not, then who activates them?
Eurocontrol doesn’t process VFR flight plans at all. (Or VFR parts of Y and Z flight plans). Individual countries may do it using their own systems.
Basically the airport of departure (or whatever ATS unit activates the flight plan) sends a departure message to the destination airport using AFTN.
Airborne_Again wrote:
arj1 wrote: @Airborne_Again, what about VFR? Does Eurocontrol do anything with VFR flight plans? If not, then who activates them?Eurocontrol doesn’t process VFR flight plans at all. (Or VFR parts of Y and Z flight plans). Individual countries may do it using their own systems.
Basically the airport of departure (or whatever ATS unit activates the flight plan) sends a departure message to the destination airport using AFTN.
So how does VFR traffic handover happen between, say, London Info and Lille APP? They don’t coordinate at all then?
Airborne_Again wrote:
I’m sorry, too, but I’ve got squawk codes like that not only in Sweden.
Only 20 countries are part of ‘squawk code factory’, there are 40 countries in Eurocontrol
As I said, I fly on 1000 in my transponder (80% of the times)
I have never used 1000 on my transponder. When do you use it and where can I find more information on that code?
