Ghost flight plans and their consequences (flight not taking place and FLP not cancelled)

Peter wrote:

IIRC, on an IFR FP you are allowed to depart up to EOBT plus 30 mins (or EOBT minus 15 mins) unless you are on a CTOT and then the latitude is something like zero.

On a VFR FP, the latitude is -30min to +60min.
On an IFR FP without CTOT, the latitude is -15min to +30min.
On a CTOT, the latitude is from -5min to +10min, but keep in mind that is a take-off time, you need to ask for start up, clearance, taxi, etc before that! The other latitudes are to a block off time.

I expect a towered airport will not let you depart outside of these latitudes. Certainly not depart outside the CTOT, but also not start taxi outside the other latitudes. However, they may be kind and just silently send a DELAY message for your flightplan without you explicitly asking for it.

First hand experience:

Flight from EBZW to EDRK. VFR flight plan filed via Autorouter. Was planning to cross EHBK CTR so manually added them to AFTN recipients.

Departed on time, after ~3mins called EHBK TWR and got my crossing clearance. I called with callsign only, and they responded promptly which to me was a clear sign they had received my details.

Upon landing (on time) I pulled my phone out of airplane mode, and got a notification of several missed calls, all from the same Belgian number. Called them back, it was the ARO in Brussels who was investigating whether I was actually in the air as my FP had not been activated. They eventually spoke to EHBK who confirmed I was airborne.

I apologised and explained that from my point of view, FP should have been activated along with the crossing clearance. Operator said OK, not a big deal this time and proceeded to note down my landing time and close the FP.

So at least in Belgium, somebody does check.

I have had the opposite experience of filing two FPLs, out and back, landing at an ATC airfield (I think the most recent experience was Deauville) then, when ready for departure, many hours later, putting GRAMET 1 into Autorouter Telegram only to find that the outbound is still alive and active in the system.

Surely, when arriving at an ATC airfield you are not expected to close or cancel your FPL?

As long as there is an active ATSU at the destination airfield at the time of landing, nothing has to be actively done or requested by the pilot (VFR or IFR). That said, I think it depends on the type of “system” that the specific ATSU uses whether the ATCO or AFISO actually still needs to do something “manually” in order to close the flightplan. So, it may be that he forgets this “action” every now and then. But even then, since it is an active ATSU, what will then happen is that upon ETD+30, the first thing the AIS will do is call (and reach) that ATSU and enquire whether the aircraft has actually landed or not. The ATSU will then confirm this, and the pilot will never hear anything about that little overdue action in the background.

Things only get interesting if there is NO active ATSU at the time of landing. For that case, ALWAYS put your cellphone number in the flightplan (and keep your phone out of flight mode!) ,so in case YOU forget to close, the issue gets resolved with a short phonecall.

In The Netherlands ATC at non-controlled airfields do not actively close your flight plan. You might call them on the radio, e.g. at Lelystad, and ask them if you would close your flight plan, and they will say that they do, but they don’t do anything. That is the “arrangement” made. They know you are coming due to the active flight plan and will come to action if you do not show up. But if you show up, then nothing is done.

So different it is if you land in Germany at a non-controlled airfield. There you are expected to close your flight plan. I normally do so through the AeroPlus FlightPlan App, but also will give them a call to verify. In France, I will call to Le Bourget to make sure they have seen my arrival message.

AeroPlus wrote:

You might call them on the radio, e.g. at Lelystad, and ask them if you would close your flight plan, and they will say that they do, but they don’t do anything. That is the “arrangement” made.

Errrm, Sorry?? As far as Im concerned if I talk to any ATC service to activate or close a flight plan and they say “OK” or “Yes” or anything other than a very specific “I cannot do that for you” then my part of the process has been completed. If an ATC service was to refuse to do so there would absolutely be a discussion about why notaas well. The only issues I have ever had with flight plans have been that I have filed one by various electronic means, but when it comes to ATC finding it, it “disappears”… due to this I now always factor in 30-45mins of “faffing” time for international flights.

Regards, SD..

skydriller wrote:

Errrm, Sorry?? As far as Im concerned if I talk to any ATC service to activate or close a flight plan

I think it means ATC/ATS at some un-controlled airfields don’t do anything to your FPs “officially msg in the FP system” (your responsibility) but they may glance at FPs and alert if you are not physically around for takeoff or landing when expected…

It may help to have someone to remind you or come to help when you have an FP filed not activated and the aircraft is still parked, so always useful to keep some phone numbers in the FP columns

@skydriller: you are right. You can consider the closing of your flight plan as “done” when you land at e.g. Lelystad. There is no further action required there from you. What I meant to say is that behind the scenes they don’t do anything so they don’t actively close it for you. This is in accordance with best practices in The Netherlands but does not work the same way in e.g. France or Germany.

I always ask ATS to open and close flightplans, just to be safe. Also, as Bosco says, having the phone number included helps.

I once asked Lille APP to open a flightplan, but landing at EGHP A/G said it had never been activated. I didn’t know who to believe, but never heard any more from it.

Flying Belgium to France, I forgot to close the flightplan. Half an hour later, during the next flight to the UK, I had missed calls and voicemails from Le Bourget. They’d seen the second flightplan and radar track leaving France so ‘knew’ the previous flight had finished safely, but they still had to check. I felt very guilty for wasting their time and now definitely close flightplans.

I’ve tried to close flightplans with FIS on long final at Calais and Cherbourg when the tower was closed, but they said they couldn’t do it until the aircraft was safely on the ground. Whilst a bit inconvenient, it’s safer. I used to use 0800 IFR VFR (0800 437 837) in France, but don’t know if it’s still valid; I just use Skydemon now.