Hello.
I was planning a trip to Ireland this weekend. Shoreham - Newtownards - Waterford today and the onward journey Sunday and Monday. Currently, based on the Belfast TAF, I am thinking of binning or delaying departure to see how actuals start to compare with the TAF which brings me onto my question re gendecs hoping the more frequent flyers can answer. Is there any easy way to update an ETA on a gendec or what I am half thinking of is to go straight to Waterford but would I be correct that destination cant be changed on the gendec already filed and that one would have to re-file and all the hours of notification would apply? This paper work to fly to Ireland and CI is a real PITA.
Any thoughts would be welcome, even if to confirm what I think I already know. Thanks.
Personally I don't bother to be too precise on the GAR forms.
I have a permanent statement on there saying "times approximate due to weather".
Also, I understand that whoever is interested in watching you has AFTN access and is going to be looking at the flight plans and the airport traffic anyway. On the occasions when I was met by the police upon arrival in the UK they usually indicated that they knew I was coming from the flight plan times etc.
So I wouldn't worry about flying an hour or three later...
Thanks for your input Peter. I am allowing this gendec thing to put unnecessary pressure on me.
I must admit I don't put any approximate statement on mine, but I tend to put the latest time I am likely to land at the destination on mine. That allows for any weather or sightseeing delays etc. And yes, the one time I was met by Police while making an unplanned stop at Shoreham, we were entering the UK FIR earlier than planned, but their decision to say hello was based on flight plan / ATC communication. In our case, we stopped just to get some fuel, and was nothing to do with the GAR form. In some cases when I sent them by email, I got email read receipts 2 days after the flight commenced - so I am not overly worried about the preciseness of these forms ;-)
Thanks for these views on Gendec. I shall keep that in mind for future trips.
I actually binned the trip. Looking at the current metars for Belfast City and Dublin and given that I would have been getting airborne around this time, my intended route would have had me scud running to get around the hills into Waterford and while some people on some forums seem to condone scud running, it is not my preference when near hills. As it was a scenic trip, if would have defeated my mission profile as well - "too have fun and see the scenery". SO, I am happy with my weather call, will do the trip with better forecasts but still think this bloody gendec is a load of nonsense and a real PITA for touring in less marginal weather. It would be ok if I had only planned the one leg but trying to do multiple legs and keep the "paper work" happy with the time scales is hard work. Lesson learnt. :-)
Hopefully I will get a long day trip in tomorrow. :-)
I know what you mean about multiple legs and forms. A few years back we flew round Wales stopping off at various locations and made a day of it. I attempted to do multiple flight plans for each part of the route and it was a PITA trying to adhere to the timings - even if one accepts a VFR flight plan is worth what it costs you to submit it (nothing). Next time I do it, I am considering not bothering with flight plans at all, even though there is a 'recommendation' that one does them when flying x miles away from home. I'll just try and keep in touch with a ATC / Info controller so if anything goes wrong, there is some kind of communication or record.
The problem is that, in the UK at least, VFR flight plans do absolutely nothing other than possibly initiate overdue action if you go missing, and then they are worth something only if your route was at least approximately as per the flight plan.
A few years ago I was departing from my base during an early-opening concession time (which they stopped doing soon afterwards because apparently one based chap abused it) and on the radio came up an inbound.
He was refused landing because he had not applied for the PPR. He said he had filed a flight plan which nobody refused...
Setting side the silliness of PPR, and enforcing it just for fun, this showed how badly PPL training covers this area.
Unfortunately the same applies to low altitude IFR ("I") flight plans, which all go to Eurocontrol, but which will then be binned when they get distributed to the relevant units, which for the southern UK is London Control. So e.g. an IFR flight plan from Shoreham to Lydd, 3000ft, will be exactly as useful (or not) as a VFR one.
Interesting, I didn't realise that about "I" flight plans - largely because I have only filled "V" ones myself. If you are doing a high level IFR flight, what do you file "Z", and then "Y" if you are landing or departing VFR?
Yes, you can do Z or Y with "proper" IFR flight plans.
At the UK end there is no point because the UK allows an "I" even for a farm strip, so if e.g. flying from your farm to say Athens LGAV (wish!) then you file "I".
But some countries ban the use "I" for non IFR airports, and they got Eurocontrol to enforce this via their validation. Germany is one example, which currently bans IFR in Class G also. Then you have to use Z or Y.
Occasionally a Z is handy if e.g. an early handover to London Control will result in doglegs all over the place, or just having to develop some stupid track to get it to validate. There are plenty of examples e.g. departing from an airfield below the 2500ft LTMA. Eurocontrol doesn't validate the VFR portion.
