They clear you for a VFR approach but dont cancel your IFR flight plan in case for whatever reason you loose the airport. Im not sure Ive ever heard hear in Europe cleared for the visual approach.
On a lighter note I did ask for a contact approach last year in Hungary. After some back and forth was told to stay at 4000 if unable to see the airport go to my alternate. 
Im not sure Ive ever heard hear in Europe cleared for the visual approach.
I have had it many times. I think Le Touquet last Saturday was the last time.
I did ask for a contact approach last year in Hungary. After some back and forth was told to stay at 4000 if unable to see the airport go to my alternate.
The Contact Approach is a US-only thing; not used anywhere else.
dont cancel your IFR flight plan in case for whatever reason you loose the airport.
Great advice. In Europe, when you cancel IFR, the whole predictable world prob99 collapses and you are likely to get
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On a lighter note I did ask for a contact approach last year in Hungary. After some back and forth was told to stay
Gosh, this is not the US of A and their regs do not apply everywhere in the world!
ATC are entitled to pretend they did not hear any IFR term e.g. ORTAC, NEVIL, DINKU, KOK, DIK, MAK, SPL
What is an “IFR term”?
I actually was told this yesterday at Straubing. Exactly as you say.If they let you. If your destination airfield is in one of the former “class F” or otherwise uncontrolled airspaces you have to cancel IFR before you can do your visual approach.
I’m not sure Ive ever heard hear in Europe cleared for the visual approach.
I think I got cleared for one tonight!
And fair enough on the pop up IFR thing. Perhaps I was too glib. But unlike the US I certainly would not depart on an trip here assuming I could just file in the air. Regardless of what SERA says.
KOK, DIK, MAK, SPL are radio beacons, aren’t they? I have mentioned MAK often enough as a waypoint, both in flight plans and when talking to FIS (not equipped to actually tune into it, no question of IFR for me…) and the FIS never objected; neither did I ever get complaints about the flight plan.
Im not sure Ive ever heard hear in Europe cleared for the visual approach.
In Croatia it’s usual if conditions allow (traffic and weather) to get visual approach under IFR flight. Very often iit’s suggested by ATC in order to shorten approach and save the time&fuel both for GA and airliners no difference.
If they let you. If your destination airfield is in one of the former “class F” or otherwise uncontrolled airspaces you have to cancel IFR before you can do your visual approach.
The reason for this is that ATC per DFS regulations are not authorized to grant anything but the procedural approach on OCAS IAPs. However, in Germany you can cancel IFR and if for whatever reason you can’t proceed, you just call ATC again and tell you need a pickup and within 5 seconds they will give you a vector while they sort out the logistics. Hey, I even had the case that after cancelling IFR I was doing some steep turns which ATC saw on the radio and asked me if I was still on frequency if I needed a pickup. So don’t fear cancelling IFR in Germany.
But unlike the US I certainly would not depart on an trip here assuming I could just file in the air. Regardless of what SERA says.
Agree but in 2014 there is also little reason to do so. For the few cases (deteriorating weather etc.), you can use the AFIL provision. Once cockpit internet gets more powerful, AFIL will be possible using the same technical means. Eurocontrol IFR requires too much information for route finding and flight plan filing to be suitable to be done via VHF.
KOK, DIK, MAK, SPL are radio beacons
Yes – the point I was trying to make, only slightly tongue in cheek, is that once you are VFR, ATC are under no obligation to recognise anything to do with IFR. The approach controller obviously will know where his nearby VORs are etc, but in VFR your first contact is often the tower controller whose job that isn’t. I have certainly had cases, in my pre-IR days, of very forceful ATC instructions to use VRPs. One was at La Rochelle, which I have written about before, where the guy was screaming at me to report at Silver Point which actually doesn’t exist and the locals didn’t know about it either. In retrospect he probably was at ICAO Level Minus 5 ELP and was referring to Point Sierra (“S”) but that was on the opposite site of the airport to where I was coming from so maybe he was trying to make my life hard to make a point. As they used to do at Cranfield, asking traffic coming from the north to report at Woburn – a large-ish house in the woods – which is south of the airport.
Once cockpit internet gets more powerful, AFIL will be possible using the same technical means
That sounds enticing but is this ever going to come below about 30-50 quid a month, if using any product that actually works most of the time well enough to be sold openly (=Iridium, not Thuraya)?
In theory, I could go to a flight plan filing website, or even run AFPEX, over a satellite phone, and file a Eurocontrol flight plan while airborne. If one did this 500nm after departure, one might get some raised eyebrows, unless one lied and said one has just departed from an airport nearby (and one send a DEP message, possible with AFPEX, but that makes it an outright lie). I don’t think the system knows what to do with this.
In theory, I could go to a flight plan filing website, or even run AFPEX, over a satellite phone, and file a Eurocontrol flight plan while airborne. If one did this 500nm after departure, one might get some raised eyebrows, unless one lied and said one has just departed from an airport nearby (and one send a DEP message, possible with AFPEX, but that makes it an outright lie). I don’t think the system knows what to do with this.
Not only in theory, the flight plan system is fully equipped for that. The departure aerodrome has to be specified as “AFIL” and then the route from where you want to fly IFR. In the Eurocontrol system, there is full support for this. Specifying your original aerodrome of departure won’t work because you can’t file with a departure time in the past and the Eurocontrol system won’t let you fly at SR71 speed with your TB20. Choosing an enroute airfield as your departure aerodrome would be untrue information.
We’ll implement it in autorouter for sure, just a matter of time. Iridium SBD is fast enough for this to be useful I believe.
