Just happen to be unlucky enough to visit an airport of small size with no airline traffic that wants to make up the cost of ownership of the airport via all sorts of fees. Its a municipal airport which is even worse. There are at least 100 workers there whose employers lease from the city and derive a good income for the businesses. So that millions of Euros are generated for the local economy of the city. A clean environmentally green business no less.
Thanks so there is no uniform code of conduct when it comes to charging for IFR, in or outbound traffic.
Depends on the country and the airfield.
In the UK, it is customary to be charged for IFR approaches, In addition to landing fees. Some airfields charge only for training approaches in various variations (for example, at Biggin an approach coming off an airway, and any approach in IMC wih intend to land is free; Southend only charges for approaches with no landing, etc.). Some always charge.
In Germany, larger airfields have terminal charges, levied for both arrival and departure. they mostly apply VFR as well
France – normally nothing, all included in the landing fees.
Above 2,000kg MTOW, IFR en-route charges apply, but they only depend on the distance between origin and destination.
Do you guys get charged for an IFR departure?
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;
Peter wrote:
EGNR publishes this via Jepp.
Why the WAL 167° radial?
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.
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.
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.
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 
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