Airborne_Again wrote:
What exactly does that mean…?
Something I read in the AIP years ago, don’t remember the exact context. Reading the AIP now, I can’t find any of it. It’s all ADS-B, M-LAT, WAM, SSR, PSR, SCAT and whatever. Nothing applies to VFR flights in controlled airspace execpt SSR.
Dave_Phillips wrote:
A VFR flight within CONTROLLED airspace is a CONTROLLED flight.
I don’t see anyone disagreeing with that. The UK version of it is a bit funny that’s all: “A VFR flight within CONTROLLED airspace is an ILLEGAL flight” 
LeSving wrote:
I don’t see anyone disagreeing with that.I do. Class E is controlled airspace, but VFR flights are not controlled.
The UK version of it is a bit funny that’s all: “A VFR flight within CONTROLLED airspace is an ILLEGAL flight”It literally used to be that way, but that was a long time ago, with different terminology.
VFR in CAS was never illegal in the UK, except Class A in which you could (before SERA) enter on a SVFR clearance but this was possible only if the Class A touched the ground (Heathrow, Jersey, Lyneham, not many others IIRC).
You just need an ATC clearance to enter CAS (most relevant UK CAS is Class D) and this can be obtained via a radio call. This is the same all over Europe. What varies is the formality of it. For example in France the clearance is usually given without giving it, by saying something like “radar contact” 
In the UK the clearance is explicit, followed by “radar control service” when you cross the line.
Peter wrote:
VFR in CAS was never illegal in the UK, except Class A in which you could (before SERA) enter on a SVFR clearance but this was possible only if the Class A touched the ground (Heathrow, Jersey, Lyneham, not many others IIRC).
Actually it was. I am thinking of the 1980s and early 90s — before the alphabetic airspace classes were introduced. Controlled airspace in the UK at that time (CTR, TMA, CTA, AWY) corresponded to what today is class A airspace. (You could indeed also fly Special VFR in control zones.)
What today is class C/D airspace was called Special Rules airspace in which both IFR and VFR traffic required clearances. You had “Special Rules Zones” (SRZ) in addition to control zones and “Special Rules Areas” (SRA) in addition to TMA’s. So for all practical purposes Special Rules airspace was controlled, it was just not called that. (There might have been variants of SRA/SRZ where clearances were only required for IFR.)
This was one of many things that made international GA flights in Europe at the time a real hassle.
It literally used to be that way, but that was a long time ago, with different terminology.
When I got my PPL in 1992 we only had CTRs and ‘airways". Maybe the CTR was class C already then, don’t remember. What I do remember was on cross country flights, we were supposed to contact information/control every 20 minutes at least and tell status. The airways were far up in the air as I remember, I never flew in any of those.
