I did that flying into St Yan, with an empty tower. The French search & rescue people made a phone call to the fireman there who said “yeah the plane is sitting here” (in French, presumably ) and that was it… a €1000+ bill avoided.
You can also transmit an ARR message via the Autorouter interface.
All sorts of weird things happen. Once, flying something like LDLO-EGKA, the whole FP vanished while over the Alps. Somewhere through Switzerland, ATC constructed a new one…
In the US, there is a lockout that varies from 47 to 61 minutes before EDT. Once in the lockout period, the ATC computer rejects any messages, so CHG, DLY, or CNL don’t work and the pilot must contact ATC via radio or phone to effect the change.
I can understand CHG, but why DLY and CNL?
So, is it enough after landing to cancel via AutoRouter Telegram the FPL you have just flown?
ARR rather than CNL, I would say.
Peter wrote:
ARR rather than CNL
The practical difference, after you have landed, being?
No idea, but I would expect some ATC software to get confused if they see a DEP followed by a CNL. It might also trigger S&R action because you departed but never landed.
Maybe some people in ATC might know?
It is not always enough on VFR flight plans to just send an arrival message. For IFR or Z/Y flight plans handled by Eurocontrol you even get the arrival message confirmed. That is, when landing at an airport where the tower is closed for example.
This may be more complex.
AIUI, and with Achim of the Autorouter having done his 6th disappearing act and not yet returned so we have no detailed info:
and the above is true for DEP and the other messages.
Eurocontrol distributes IFR and ZY flight plans and for the VFR portion in the AeriPlus Flightplan case our own addressing engine tells Eurocontrol where to send it. The whole flight plan is under Eurocontrol “management” and a ARR message will be handled by Eurocontrol which will also send a response.
For VFR flight plans, which are not distributed by Eurocontrol and addressed and distributed by either the ARO office or our addressing engine or the pilot (e.g. when originating in the UK), you can send an Arrival message via AFTN but that is no guarantee that it will be noticed.
If you fly to an airfield e.g. France , say at night and land with pilot controlled lights and nobody is there and it is a VFR flightplan I would also call to Le Bourget. It is a long story and I am typing this on my iPhone. In short: the arrival message is not always enough and seen with VFR flight plans. Best to then also call. Of course, you can close with ATC or an approach frequency just before or after landing or at a controlled tower airfield with ATC when they are there. But that is common and known.
If I depart from Lelystad VFR, the flight plan has to be delivered to ARO Schiphol. They then distribute the flightplan to all stations, which they address manually. If I file a Z/Y or IFR flight plan from Lelystad, it is Eurocontrol that deals with the distribution.