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Can one file Eurocontrol IFR flight plans for Class G?

In the UK (my experience) they tend to kick you out of the system if you file your flight plan (IFR) too low. That is not my experience with filing flight plans in the rest of Western Europe and yes, it is true that when you fly under IFR rules in uncontrolled airspace, there is no clearance to be received as ATC has no authority in G airspace.

EDLE, Netherlands

AeroPlus wrote:

it is true that when you fly under IFR rules in uncontrolled airspace, there is no clearance to be received as ATC has no authority in G airspace.

It is not true that there is no clearance to be received, but it is true that no clearance is valid while in class G.

Last Edited by Airborne_Again at 06 Dec 18:30
ESKC (Uppsala/Sundbro), Sweden

I agree that you can get a clearance to enter controlled airspace. What I meant was that as long as you stay in G airspace, ATC can not give you a clearance for the uncontrolled G airspace part.

EDLE, Netherlands

AeroPlus wrote:

In the UK (my experience) they tend to kick you out of the system if you file your flight plan (IFR) too low. That is not my experience with filing flight plans in the rest of Western Europe and yes, it is true that when you fly under IFR rules in uncontrolled airspace, there is no clearance to be received as ATC has no authority in G airspace.

I’ve filed North Weald EGSX → Le touquet LFAT before, at FL050 I think, and they “couldn’t find my flight plan”, because apparently it was below airways. I think they ended up finding it after that and saying that I’d be OK to fly in the airway (It was my first solo IFR flight after getting the IR paper so the exercise was to go IFR)

The plan went through a lot of controlled airspace (London TMA) but that didn’t seem to help.

That validates at FL090. If you tried to file below that, it may validate but London Control will chuck it out as soon as IFPS sends it to them, so when you call the departure tower they will say they don’t have it. Or, they won’t say that and your only clue is that your initial contact will be “London 124.6” which is London Info, rather than “London 133.175” or similar which is London Control.

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

The dumping of IFPS validated flight plans because they are filed too low seems to be a British thing. Can’t remember it happening elsewhere on the continent.

EDLE, Netherlands

Peter wrote:

That validates at FL090. If you tried to file below that, it may validate but London Control will chuck it out as soon as IFPS sends it to them, so when you call the departure tower they will say they don’t have it. Or, they won’t say that and your only clue is that your initial contact will be “London 124.6” which is London Info, rather than “London 133.175” or similar which is London Control.

Exactly as you said. It validated but they couldn’t find it. At the time I still used A/G to call for clearance, so didn’t get a full explanation (after that started to call NATS directly. My 2 last flights I did as JasonC showed me, and squawked, called the CAS controlled unit right after take off)

From What I understood, they ended up finding the flight plan. Maybe when it’s low it goes directly into their “spam” folder :). Or

Last Edited by Noe at 08 Dec 08:45

Peter wrote:

If you leave controlled airspace in the UK, your clearance will be void. You can’t reenter controlled airspace without a new explicit clearance.
You can in Scotland, generally. And that is UK, though a people of people up there with names similar to a fish would rather not

If you mean ATC will not throw your flightplan away when you temporarily exit CAS, then yes…. but you still need to hear the words “cleared to enter controlled airspace” before re-entering…ie a new explicit clearance is still required…

YPJT, United Arab Emirates

I find some of these scottish airways especially tricky, as their base might be moved up by a considerable amount on weekends (I think for gliders). I recall only being told a couple nm out, and couldn’t find that in any sort of map / notam (but didn’t spend a huge amount of time looking, I don’t fly too much around there).

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