Jujupilote wrote:
Those last 2 posts express the fear factor of flying GA in the UK. Pretty much all Class D in France revert to G at night. Military TMA are activated/deactivated within minutes everyday and have been for ages here.
Same in Sweden. Very few airport towers are open H24 and when they’re not their airspace (class C) reverts to class G.
is frankly poor decision making/planning
I would agree, unless someone confused UTC with local, especially on the day it changes over, or misread the way the daily times are specified together with the date(s) in the notam. Even app / website programmers get it wrong and they should know.
What I meant was that one could think one is inside the allowed time with a 1hr margin, and make a mistake… even 10 secs will get you busted.
I am sure everyone here has made the UTC conversion mistake at least once.
The first version of the NOTAM was badly written
Indeed! I wonder how many got MORd.
Class D reverting to G, whilst starting to disappear again around my part of the UK – has been enjoyed and well utilised by GA here. If 10 seconds is the difference between busting or not, that is frankly poor decision making/planning.
Peter wrote:
I would always advise total avoidance of their airspace
I don’t share your view. I think the route taken by Solent was appropriate. The first version of the NOTAM was badly written. The later one OK.
Xtophe wrote:
Just to clarify for the people not reading the other place, it is only one particular unit: Cardiff.
There was actually a UK FIR NOTAM (B1107) for “ground FPL” to access CAS, of course that everybody ignores including ATC 
Those last 2 posts express the fear factor of flying GA in the UK. Pretty much all Class D in France revert to G at night. Military TMA are activated/deactivated within minutes everyday and have been for ages here.
Of course there must be some fool crossing one with his radio off sometimes.
Unfortunately “the other place” is all over the internet There are countless GA sites on FB for example. I don’t enjoy reading sites where people keep getting beaten up…
Thanks for the clarification. I expect this to spread, however…
Notaming D as G within a specific timeframe is high-risk for GA because if you make a mistake by 10 seconds, you get busted. This is what e.g. Solent (EGHI) has been doing (D becomes G) and I would always advise total avoidance of their airspace regardless of that concession – because the price of a mistake is just too great. Perhaps alleviated by attempting a radio call but no-reply doesn’t mean it is G and then your bust is gonna be a stellar-size one
Peter wrote:
they are asking for a flight plan.
Just to clarify for the people not reading the other place, it is only one particular unit: Cardiff.
NATS
Partly to understand it better, we need to remind ourselves, there are 2 NATS. NATS En-Route (NERL) and NATS Services (NSL)
NSL is providing services at various airports. So in this case we are speaking of NSL Cardiff.
Why NSL Cardiff are chosen this way rather than notaming the class D airspace as G as other NSL unit have done is the question?
(And why the CAA let them do it?)
Peter wrote:
And VRPs are not valid identifiers for an ICAO FP.
If it works for a NATS FP, it would be more than enough
SD gives 10 to 20 FPLs per yearly subscription, it should be enough. Most would just try to avoid CAS as they already do.
However, many SD users just rubber-band a route.
And VRPs are not valid identifiers for an ICAO FP.
The knowledge of how the “system” works is basically zero within the PPL sphere; the tools hide it from you, and enable the ATC system to be flooded with garbage which in the long run will ensure that even fewer people care what is in the FP.
Also SD uses EuroFPL and EuroFPL pays for the US AFTN gateway KBLIHAEX per flight plan (as does the Autorouter, for V Z and Y FPs). So SD is paying for all this crap out of the £139/£89 annual cost, which in due course will have to go up.
The AFTN mailbox is not dirt cheap; it isn’t say 1p per FP. I don’t know the current rates but my recollection is of the order of $0.50/FP. EuroFPL offer 10/month free, which is subsidised by all those who pay.
