Timothy wrote:
You will need to file a GAR for arrival, but can arrive anywhere. There are various ways to file a GAR, but a search of the forum will, I feel sure, tell which is best for single use. https://www.onlinegar.com/splash.olg?FromDefault Is easiest for ongoing use, and free for SkyDemon users, but may be a pain to set up for two uses (in from France, in from Ireland.). There is a free Government website but I have never used it.No flightplans are required within the UK, but some airfields require PPR, usually by phone, occasionally by online form. I would invest in Pooleys Flight Guide, available as a paid add-on to SkyDemon or separately. It had everything you need to know about airfields of all sizes. Most small UK airfields are very relaxed indeed.
Timothy wrote:
I have a very good knowledge of the UK and, to a lesser extent, Ireland and am happy to have a phone call, by arrangement.
Thanks. I will do some more research and would love to contact you with specific questions if I can’t figure them out myself.
Agreed, and nobody should fly VFR in weather which is not VFR. I didn’t say that.
But you will not have any reliable outlook for the two weeks ahead the day beforeyou want to start your trip. It will be more or less accurate only for the next 4-5 days. So this will not really help you in deciding how the weather will be in over the entire next two weeks.
And reagarding those 4-5 days: again, on a pre-planned trip, the day before, you will very likely find that the forecast for the UK will not be entirely good. That’s just normal, for an island that is stuck out there in the Atlantic Ocean. Same for Norway, you will very very likely not have sunshine throughout there for 2 weeks on a pre-planned departure date (although there has been a lot of incresdibly nice weather in the last few summers there).
The point is that – if you ever want to make this trip to the UK – you should not cancel once the forecast looks a bit grim. The only exception would be if the first 4-5 days are forecast to be atrocious, with huge amounts of rain, gales, etc. But again, chances are 99% that you will not have weather-free conditions on such a trip. You just have to accept that. As the Brits say: “if you don’t like the weather… just wait ten minutes”. Flexibility is the key.
In particular, the 5 day forecast for the UK is not much better than guesswork (even if they say the 5 day forecast today is as good as the 1 day forecast was in the 1980s). The best policy once you get to the UK is make your plans on the actual day depending on where the weather’s good, and if you’re planning further out, and the weather’s not looking all that good as the time approaches, wait for the actual morning of the flight before deciding whether or not to cancel.
The UK is a great place to visit, ASW22 
And I don’t think the wx forecasts are significantly worse than elsewhere. I have just done two 6hr flights UK-Croatia and the wx was quite different from the various forecasts (a topic for another thread when I get around to it). You just cannot get forecasts which are reliable more than a couple of days out – for anywhere. And as said above, keep it flexible, because a flight should not be cancelled until the morning of the said day (nature of wx forecasting is that it is pessimistic).
boscomantico wrote:
Agreed, and nobody should fly VFR in weather which is not VFR. I didn’t say that.But you will not have any reliable outlook for the two weeks ahead the day beforeyou want to start your trip. It will be more or less accurate only for the next 4-5 days. So this will not really help you in deciding how the weather will be in over the entire next two weeks.
And reagarding those 4-5 days: again, on a pre-planned trip, the day before, you will very likely find that the forecast for the UK will not be entirely good. That’s just normal, for an island that is stuck out there in the Atlantic Ocean. Same for Norway, you will very very likely not have sunshine throughout there for 2 weeks on a pre-planned departure date (although there has been a lot of incresdibly nice weather in the last few summers there).
The point is that – if you ever want to make this trip to the UK – you should not cancel once the forecast looks a bit grim. The only exception would be if the first 4-5 days are forecast to be atrocious, with huge amounts of rain, gales, etc. But again, chances are 99% that you will not have weather-free conditions on such a trip. You just have to accept that. As the Brits say: “if you don’t like the weather… just wait ten minutes”. Flexibility is the key.
Agreed. One has to have personal minimums, but as long as they are valid one can at least try how far one can get. As I tried to explain, I don’t see VFR as a perfect sunshine hobby, and of course the weather won’t cooperate perfectly all the time over the whole area, but most of the time one can actually do more than one thought. To choose the right moment to abort is key!
We planned to do a trip in those two weeks, but if we don’t find a nice spot to fly to we can actually reschedule quite easily. My wife is a teacher (so long vacation in summer time) and my calendar also wouldn’t be too offended if I didn’t leave work at that time and later is allways easier ;)
But if we see a chance to do the flight we will definitely try. And if we end up somewhere else, so be it. Most places in europe are actually quite nice to stay for a day or two.
We are leaving tomorrow in the afternoon for our trip to the UK.
The Weather looks promising and I will be using EDRZ Zweibrücken as departing airport out of the Schengen Area and will be landing in EGHL Lasham in the late afternoon.
I went into the details on how to get VFR from EDRZ to the UK and it looks quite easy except for the area of Luxemburg.
Right now I am planing the following route:
EDRZ – PITES – LAKAL – TALUD and then continue towards Le Toquet and then hop to the UK. Any suggestions or recomendations on this?
Would it be possible to fly south of LUX through all the small TMAs coordinated by some INFO-Controller? Otherwise I would have a handover every couple of seconds which seems a bit cumbersome.
Are the points PITES and TALUD sufficient as border crossing points? I couldn’t find a point on the western side of Luxemburg to enter Belgium.
@Boscomantico
The Greek Islands are fine in July and August… although I have to agree that Sept and the first 1/2 of October are even better!
I would advise you to fly across eastern France, south of Luxembourg. It makes the flight easier IMO. Check in SD which military areas are active tomorrow and then call Strasbourg FIS which will coordinate your crossings.
Enjoy your trip !
Jujupilote wrote:
I would advise you to fly across eastern France, south of Luxembourg. It makes the flight easier IMO. Check in SD which military areas are active tomorrow and then call Strasbourg FIS which will coordinate your crossings.
Enjoy your trip !
SD says that the restricted ares will be restricted starting from tomorrow 20:15 Z till the next day. I would be passing this area well before that time.
I would only have one border crossing point (SUTAL)
It would look something like this:
Good luck with the trip, not sure why you want to avoid ELLX? If weather is nice to keep VFR at 2500ft you can get a clearance from Lux Approach and stay with them in Class D TMA just above CTR all the way from Germany to Belgium or to France?
On that VFR route you would probably be asked to report at REMIK (they also like to give transponder codes with load of sevens, just what you need for 2 seconds fun on a trig transponder )
