That sounds like you are not referring to London Control but some other unit. I’m thinking of Peter saying over and over again that only London Control provides IFR clearances and without talking to them I will not be allowed to enter CAS. On the planned route I will quickly climb into an airway, which is CAS and requires a clearance.
Climbing out you will be prob be told to remain OCTA, and call London Control on xxxxxx. There is a chance Gloucester clear you into CTA but usually not in my experience. You will be OCTA for some time before getting to the airway and airway altitude.
I’m thinking of Peter saying over and over again that only London Control provides IFR clearances
That is correct for Eurocontrol (“proper” IFR) flight plans – with some odd exceptions like Thames Radar which does some of the air around Biggin Hill.
It is not the case for ad-hoc IFR transits of bits of airport Class D, which is done by the airport itself and which can be done by an IMC Rated pilot.
Up north, Scottish Control replaces London Control.
And Yes never take off anywhere OCAS for a CAS flight unless you have the next unit’s frequency.
I also would not ask for a deconfliction service in UK Class G. I know that airliners and bizjets which pass through bits of Class G do ask for it, but that is more of a lip service to their AOC procedure manuals. On any sunny day in the southern UK you will get sent all over the sky and I think the radar unit will probably say they can’t do it – the separation requirements are way too tight to work it. It is workable for the jets presumably because they spend very little time in Class G – at most minutes I would think.
I also would not ask for a deconfliction service in UK Class G. I know that airliners and bizjets which pass through bits of Class G do ask for it, but that is more of a lip service to their AOC procedure manuals.
And when you speak to LC after being handed over, you will be OCTA. Don’t bother asking for anything other than a basic service. You will never get a traffic service from them before joining CAS.
I fly out of Gloucestershire and the L9 route is one I often use. Heading east I usually file F090 which is the correct level according to the semicircular rule. The relevance of the level is that there is a local agreement for flights filed at F100 or higher out of EGBJ to join at BADIM instead of MALBY. If you join at BADIM your clearance into CAS will be issued by Bristol rather than London Control, and the former are more used to light GA. As I don’t want to fly at F110 I haven’t tried this, but if you are able then you might find it easier (and quicker, see below) to join through Bristol.
There are not many track miles between EGBJ and MALBY so you may struggle to get up to altitude (remember the join to CAS is 5 miles north of MALBY to account for half the width of the airway). Sometimes London Control will accept you to join in the climb, other times they will want you level at F090 before you join. In the latter case I either orbit while climbing, or fly N for 5 miles before turning back S on track.
Yesterday I had to hold on the ground for 20 minutes waiting for my clearance, and when it came it was to speak to Brize Radar who took me 10 miles N before turning me back and handing me over to London. It’s the first time that has happened to me, but be prepared for anything! On other occasions Gloucester have given me “London Control clears you to join CAS 5 miles N of MALBY in the climb to F090” so it can also go easily.
Once with London you will certainly be on radar headings most of the time, rather than flying L9 as filed. Usually they vector me several miles south of L9 and then parallel, overhead Gatwick, and once past I will be cleared enroute to TRACA or some other waypoint near the FIR boundary. The radio can sometimes be very busy in these sectors – a couple of weeks back it took me 5 minutes on handover between sectors to get a word in and announce myself on the new frequency, as the controller was speaking non-stop. It is impressive to hear someone doing such a good job!
I suggest you request a Traffic Service rather than Deconfliction, otherwise you might end up being vectored all over the place. The difference is that, on a Traffic Service, you are advised of potential conflicting traffic but not vectored, whereas on a Deconfliction Service ATC are obliged to vector you away from anything. AOC and commercial ops are often required to take a Deconfliction, but Traffic is probably ok for your purposes.
To complicate matters further, you can only receive either of the above services from a radar-equipped unit. EGBJ is not usually able to provide either of these, as there is a shortage of radar-qualified controllers, so you will be given a Procedural Service which is not much use at all! It’s all part of the fun of flying IFR outside CAS in the UK – you are expected to know which units can provide services. (If in doubt, the easy way is to ask for Traffic Service – they’ll tell you if it’s not available.
Unfortunately I am away from home next weekend, otherwise I would offer to meet up. If you are around on Monday or Tuesday you would be very welcome to stay at our house on Sun/Mon night, although we are out during the day. Apart from saving you a hotel bill, we can also have a chat about flying out of EGBJ.
Flying from EGBJ eastbound a few times, London Control was quite strict in alerting me to be at at a certain waypoint at a certain altitude (FL100 or so). Obviously they don’t want you low over the London area. Once they really monitored my progress and insisted me to confirm that I’d make it. That was on a day with a nice westerly wind so these controllers understand how things work with us lowly piston guys. When this westerly really complicated my rate of climb (ft/nm) they actually made me do a circling climb 
So Stephan, be quick on the math to factor in wind..
Oops, just saw the previous post already covering this subject.
After Rich’s post, would you still say it is 95% like anywhere else, what_next?
Obviously they don’t want you low over the London area
It is driven by Heathrow departures and arrivals mostly.
I know that airliners and bizjets which pass through bits of Class G do ask for it, but that is more of a lip service to their AOC procedure manuals.
In my case it is not in the operations manual or SOPs, but outside visibility of most bizjets is not really good enough for VFR flying. So it is common sense that dictates to use every bit of help that you can get. Especially upwards and downwards visiblility is very poor and with passengers in the back you can’t do much in the way of “clearing turns” to look for possible traffic. But as you say, we only spend a few minutes in uncontrolled airspace. Stay high as long as they let you and climb as fast as they let you…
One other peculiarity of UK IFR procedures is the weird and nonsensical two-stage ILS clearance. One gets cleared for the localizer only and when established the clearance to follow the glideslope will be issued.
After Rich’s post, would you still say it is 95% like anywhere else, what_next?
Yes It is really not much different from doing a “Z” or “Y” flight with IFR pickup and cancellation elsewhere. Only that you file “I” in your plan.
It is really not much different from doing a “Z” or “Y” flight with IFR pickup and cancellation elsewhere
I agree, and IFR flying with VFR portions is always tricky.
It can be more tricky than I think most pilots appreciate, especially when it comes to having VFR charts presented as a GPS moving map.
You can get the same in say France, departing a “proper” airport on a Sunday. I did that once at St Yan, and while that airport’s CAS is then inactive (fairly obviously it has to be otherwise nobody would be able to get out of there because there is nobody in the tower to clear you into the CAS) you cannot just fly into the next bit of CAS up the road. You do have to make radio contact with somebody who can clear you enroute, and it can take 10-20 mins to wake somebody up.
Same when you cancel IFR to land somewhere. You are a VFR flight then, with all the potential surprises.
I realised back in 2004 that without a moving map GPS running a VFR chart, that sort of flying is just too dodgy. Back then it was a lot harder to achieve it…
Then you get some pilots who either always fly in CAS (commercial e.g.) or only ever flew in the USA, and they have “fun” all over Europe.
Whereas a 747 flying LGW-JFK has it dead easy
