What flight plan import options are there in FF?
One does need some way, in case the autorouting function fails.
Cut and Paste. It accepts the data in exactly the same format you would have on a paper form. Oh, and SkyVector can export to FF.
I flew with FF and Jepp N Europe for the first time this weekend. A agree that it takes a lot of power compared to for instance SD (iPad mini 4 w 4G). Still a lot to learn. My first impression was that I preferred Garmin Pilot which i had for the past year (only with AIP). Somehow i think GP is more intuitive. But I will try this and I hope will get used to it.
The routing engine was easy and worked fast. Integrated flight plan filing worked great!
Peter wrote:
Eurocontrol knows nothing about the TL and a FL is always acceptable for both validation and filing.
But then (in the UK) London dumps your FP because it is FL and not A… Had that about month ago.
London Control dumps the flight plan because it is OCAS, not related to FL or A. If you want to fly a Eurocontrol IFR flight plan in the UK and get a service from London Control (in the south, for example) then you need to make it decisively in CAS, and for more than just a few minutes. In general this means something like FL070 or above. The Autorouter has a tendency to start at FL040 which I reported to Achim many times as causing problems for this reason. So I configured it to route at FL070 minimum. FL090 is much better.
This issue is not related to how to get a flight plan validated and filed.
Same would happen in most countries in Europe. Eurocontrol IFR flights need to be generally in CAS. In some cases the tower won’t even let you depart; I had that in France, LFBZ-EGKA, low level IFR, many years ago.
Aveling wrote:
One way that FF is less helpful than SD is in the number of devices – limited to two iPads, but 3 with SD. As discussed elsewhere, I regularly have 3 iPads in the cockpit for redundancy and and battery life issues. Is there any chance of that changing?
You can have three devices, two ipads and one iphone. I don’t think there is a limit on the web version, but it would not be used in flight.
I found how to transfer the plan – it’s super-simple – just open .FPL file with FF.
Peter wrote:
London Control dumps the flight plan because it is OCAS, not related to FL or A.
<shrug> Tower said it was because of the FL instead of A. The flightplan Eurocontrol-validated and was acked. Just nowhere to be found when we wanted to depart. They were helpful and kind, and made a new one for us.
I realise you understood we were allowed to depart, but then London didn’t “accept” us in flight. No, we were actually stuck on the ground, not allowed to depart for lack of a file plan. When I said London dropped it, I meant as the UK / FIR transmission point from Eurocontrol, which had validated and acked our FP.
Flying out of Blackbushe, I haven’t had flight plans “dumped”, however based on my limited experience of various flights around the London TMA over the past 9 months and speaking to London TC on the phone, London TC does not normally accept flights if the filed level is below the minimum arrival holding stack level which is FL70 or FL 80 on most days (transition level which depends on QNH of the day). I have not had issues with getting accepted at lower levels (4,000 or 5,000 ft) when routing via CPT or GWC. Also, it seems that various parts of the London TMA are delegated to other ATC units, e.g. Farnborough Radar, Thames Radar or Essex Radar.
For instance, on outbound and inbound flights via a routing of OCK-BIG-DET, I routinely get cleared into London TMA Class A airspace at 3,000 and 4,000 ft via a combination of Heathrow Radar and Thames Radar although the climb into/drop out of Class A airspace tends to be between OCK and BIG depending on prevailing Heathrow departures and direction – in neither of the cases was the FP “dumped”.
