Understood. So the instruction to report mid-Channel is really more of a nudge to the pilot to make contact with the relevant side, than a specific requirement of the outbound ATC who can see you already – officially or otherwise, depending on the direction of travel (or relevant trade union).
Literally mid channel does not equate fir boundary?
liftvectorup wrote:
Literally mid channel does not equate fir boundary?Nope. The pink line is the FIR boundary.
So being literally to report mid channel seems less likely to do with border crossing reason and more to do with engine failure s and r etc.
A Belgian ultra-light was intercepted by a French Air Force fighter when it crossed the border without a flight plan, without speaking to anyone, and probably without transponder…
https://www.20minutes.fr/societe/2269403-20180511-outreau-rafale-intercepte-ulm-provenance-belgique
I am told this is SOP amongst ultra-light pilots.
Interesting.
However I bet you there is more to the story, along the lines of the “payload” :)
Lots of ULs and homebuilts fly below the radar, metaphorically speaking, because permits are required otherwise.
Another article now says that the UL had a flightplan but did not provide the correct “flight plan number” whatever that is… What do I know?
Maybe wrong registration or callsign. I heard a similar story a while back when I flew to a meet-up at Lee-on-Solent. Seems like some aircraft’s callsign does not match the registration. @Bordeaux_Jim may remember the details.
The guy busted 3 active military CTRs. There’s the background story…
I have done a number of VFR trips to Le Touquet in the last year or so and have just changed direct from Shoreham to LT, and same on the way back.
This was VFR so it is ex FR24, no Eurocontrol tracking available.
Shoreham just says “bye”. In the other direction, LT tower says “you are now leaving French airspace, contact London 124.6” which is the south east UK FIS. But if you don’t do that, nobody cares, and Shoreham is in radio range 10 mins later.
So I think a lot of this stuff is just being made complicated for the benefit of PPL training.
IFR is different, and varies according to whether you are high enough to interact with London Control (who chuck in the bin flight plans filed below about FL080, even if FL070 would be in CAS; you have to remain OCAS i.e. below 5500ft). And on the way to LT you call up Lille for an IFR service and vectors to the ILS or whatever. If you fly IFR at say 5400ft then you change straight from Shoreham to Lille on the way to LT, and on the way back you get a SID, change to Lille, then Lille (which somehow knows London Control don’t want you) hands you over to 124.6 as above but you can ignore than and go straight to Shoreham.
A pilot flying VFR from Germany to a French airfield not far from the border has recently been interviewed after landing because another aircraft had likely been observed crossing the border without making radio contact with neither FIS nor ATC.
It‘s the first time I have heard this rule (rif. ENR 1.2 of the French AIP) being „enforced“ to a degree. Possibly also somehow Corona related?
I don‘t know any more details.
Anyway, always make contact with FIS, even if your destination is just a few more past the border and it doesn‘t „pay off“ calling them just for a couple of minutes.
