mmgreve wrote:
A VFR FP is not really being used by anyone.
Maybe not in the UK. In Sweden it is definitely used by all affected ATC units.
JnsV wrote:
My experience is that SkyDemon sends the flight plan basically to a single AFTN address for the departure FIR, which is supposedly the address of the unit who is to take care of sending the flight plan over to all other concerned units.
Every AIP should have information on how a VFR flight plan should be addressed. AFAIU SkyDemon uses this info.
Design4p wrote:
SkyDemon sent an email reply to me which was abrupt and did not help with the situation. Shown Below:
I’ve had the exact same situation. Weirdly so it happened that those were the only flightplans i also didn’t get into my email. Still, they couldn’t see how they had any blame and didn’t seem very inclined to look for it.
SkyDemon uses EuroFPL for filing VFR flight plans and their VFR addressing rules.
It is true that for a departure from the UK, you would have to address the flight plan yourselves as there is no ARO office and manual labour to do it for you.
EuroFPL (aka SkyDemon) would address a VFR flight plan from EGFF in a straight line to LFLB as follows:
FF EGFFZTZX EGZYVFRT EGFFZIZF LFLBZTZX LFMMZFZX LFLLZPZX
AeroPlus has its own VFR addressing engine and would address this as follows:
FF EGFFZTZX EGFFZIZF EGZYVFRT LFRRZFZX LFRGZTZX LFFFZFZX LFPMZTZX LFLCZTZX LFSBZTZX LFMMZFZX LFLLZTZX LSGGZTZX LFLBZTZX LFLLZPZX
For an IFR flight plan, it is all a lot simpler as Eurocontrol distributes them. For a composite flight plan, the VFR portion has to be addressed by AIP rules while the IFR part is done by Eurocontrol, who will also forward the VFR portion, but as a flight plan provider, you have to provide Eurocontrol with the addresses they have to forward to.
Would you turn the above flight around, the situation would both address this flight plan to one address according to the AIP: FF LFLLZPZX
We created a rules database, but take the data from the AIP. I think it is not 100% available in digital format, so it is a time consuming process. If the AIP specifies special addresses for when you fly VFR at night or when you cross FIR boundaries along your route, we try to address them correctly according to our rules database.
Sometimes VFR flight plans go missing. That is not a problem of SkyDemon or EuroFPL as long as they address the flight plans correctly. Especially ARO offices and tower operators in France expect VFR pilots to use Olivia and they have their own interface. The IFR flight plans appear in another system and they should look in there, but don’t always do so. I have once discussed this extensively with the ARO office at Le Bourget. Not that much you can do about it other than to file IFR or accept that it can happen once in a while.
I’ve had the issue in Portugal (→ France) and once France (→ UK). I think the failure in France happened only once. Rocket route filed fine (after the embarrassing moment “we don’t have your flightplan”).
In my case, they always send a copy of the FP to my inbox. I think I have 100% correlatino between them being in my inbox and the ATC having them. and these were the times where it wasn’t in my inbox, so I still think they had some sort of issue on their end.
Every AIP should have information on how a VFR flight plan should be addressed. AFAIU SkyDemon uses this info.
Skydemon use Eurofpl for flight plan filing. I know because I introduced Tim Dawson to Travis Holland 
However Eurofpl is definitely not “aka Skydemon”!
The VFR FP filing issue is not simple. For a few countries the electronic filing agency merely addresses it to the departure ARO. Homebriefing used to do that for everywhere and it worked 1/2 the time… Nowadays any filing agency will have a database compiled from each AIP otherwise it is useless.
SkyDemon sent an email reply to me which was abrupt and did not help with the situation.
It is well known there are some interesting personalities in GA…
As I said before. The AIP is leading for VFR addressing and it is not simple. If there is a responsible ARO office, then the flight plan might be delivered there. If you are departing from the UK, there is no ARO office to distribute your flight plan, so the distribution is on you or the software you are using. And again, not all the pieces of software do address this issue the same.
The whole issue of VFR addressing with examples is discussed in this YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL-vK592zR06f5kvDqdFI9mNMx1q_1_lV7
I use SkyDemon to file VFR plans and have never had a problem.
@WhiskeyPapa: most problems appear when flying from the UK to mainland Europe and for some in France. All for the above mentioned reasons.
Design4p wrote:
I have now filed 3 flight plans through SkyDemon and 2 have not been received by the Arrival, Destination and En-route airfields.
Did you file them on the day of the flight? If you didn’t, then VFR flight plans often just get thrown away.
Please note that a flight plan for the Channel Islands must be filed at least 12 hours before departure.
This is not correct. I think you are confusing GAR requirements with flight plan requirements?
