172driver wrote:
I’m only following this from afar, but am I right in saying that now Austria, Czechia and Hungary have gone free route ?
Yes.
Silvaire wrote:
Happily I have no idea what this thread is about, especially in regard to Class E by its proper definition. My kind of ‘free route’ in Class E involves turning off the radio and flying where I want to go.
“Free route airspace” means that there are no airways. IFR traffic can choose any route they want.
172driver wrote:
I’m only following this from afar, but am I right in saying that now Austria, Czechia and Hungary have gone free route ?
Yes, with limitations. Check the IFR Directs and one-way airways thread.
You won’t actually get any DCT though, like you usually can in the US. ATC will still want traffic in certain places, for separation etc.
This is regardless of what route IFPS validates, which is what my earlier comment was about. The successful validation doesn’t need to have much of a relationship to what you can fly on the day.
We need a new thread where people can post examples of routes they filed and flew, in these “FRA” countries.
Peter wrote:
You won’t actually get any DCT though, like you usually can in the US. ATC will still want traffic in certain places, for separation etc.
For SID/STAR exit/entry points, yes, and of course points where you enter and leave the FRA, but not otherwise. That’s the whole point of free route airspace.
Yes; LKPR has only a few of those 
Also, if one takes the whole airspace volume below say FL180, CAT traffic makes transitions to/from the SID/STAR terminators way away from these procedures.
This is why it would be great to see actual examples of what routes people get.
Emir wrote:
172driver wrote: I’m only following this from afar, but am I right in saying that now Austria, Czechia and Hungary have gone free route ?Yes.
Ha! So the Austro-Hungarian empire has gone free flight. Who would have thunk it !
Peter wrote:
This is amazing!
Been like this for years in Austria and Slovenia (SAXFRA – Slovenian Austrian Cross Border Free Route Airspace).
You can easily see the regions on an ifr enroute chart, those without airways are free route.
So what would a FPL or a clearance look like in pure free route airspace ? I am unable to grasp the practical aspects of this great-looking concept.
It’s a no-brainer in pratice. See here for the Austrian chart. As you can see, there are border points available for entry, for exit, or both to/from the FRA.
Based on your departure or destination, your routing program will select the shortest possible combination of entry and exit points and put the DCT in between. As usual, clearances are as filed. Of course, during the flight, ATC will steer you. The flightplan mostly only has NORDO purposes in Europe.
