This US AOPA mag article reminded me of a too-common situation.
If you depart OCAS (a Class G airport) you usually don’t have a clearance to enter CAS because whoever is in the tower has no authority to give it to you. Exceptions to exist but they are rare.
It can be a very tricky situation.
I hear clearances being given all the time from my local Tower – in Class G. IFR departures are almost always given an initial clearance to enter CAS and a clearance limit to the nearest reporting point unless they have made contact with the enroute controller. Is that not done elsewhere?
Which airport is that? Most UK Class G clearances include “remain OCAS”. One known exception is Oxford, another possibly Biggin Hill.
When on a Z flightplan in Austria, you usually contact FIS after departure who already have your flightplan and hand you over to the appropriate radar frequency near the pickup point.
There are some exceptions, eg. when filing for a pickup very near to LOAN the AFIS guys arrange a sqawk on the phone and you contact Wien Radar immediately after departure. Only then you receive the proper clearance for entering CAS.
It is implied that you remain in VMC until the assigned point and altitude, but real life is said to be different sometimes 
…
Biggin is variable. They normally issue a “not above 2,400ft” clearance to remain outside controlled airspace, but often then amend that just before line-up to a climb to 3,000ft.
In Germany, even after receiving a clearance you have to maintain VMC until you reach the minimum radar vectoring altitude, which is at least 500ft above the base of controlled airspace. Fortunately, there never is any cloud at all in that altitude band in Germany, a local weather phenomenon well know to the indigenous IFR pilot community.
I am referring to Hawarden, EGNR. Pretty much every IFR departure gets a clearance to climb to 4000 or 5000 ft, contact Scottish Control on 128.050 and a clearance limit of REXAM or WAL. There are unofficial ‘SIDs’ contained in the AIP Textual Data document (see EGNR AD 2.2 Flight Procedures) – these often seem to cause some confusion for visiting pilots – I’m not sure if they are in Jepp’s or not.
Peter wrote:
EGNR publishes this via Jepp.
Why the WAL 167° radial?
The AIP description of the procedure has this to say:
REXAM 5 Runway 04 — after departure, immediate right turn remaining outside the Manchester CTA, join controlled airspace on track REXAM climbing to 4000 ft ALT, on crossing the WAL 167R, climb to 5000 ft. If no contact with Scottish Control by REXAM, take up a right hand orbit at REXAM and re-contact Hawarden on previous frequency;
