If you divert in France to other than your planned/alternate and you inform ATC/FIS, they will create a new FPL for you in the system (from scratch if you did not have an FPL or cancel an exiting one), you will have to close it yourself after you land if no one is in the tower, in UK, no one cares if FPL stays open as long as you are outside airspace…
I think the answer is complicated.
In the UK, any towered airport will issue the ARR message when you land there. And before that, the IFR authority (typically London Control) will have “dumped” you from the Eurocontrol system anyway, although this also varies (as I can see from when tracking ends, on diffeent flights). And, in the UK, there is never a requirement to close a FP; no S&R action takes place unless a 3rd party makes a positive request to trigger it.
In France, I can think of airports where, if you diverted there, you must absolutely make a phone call to close the FP. Basically anywhere without a manned tower. I have done diversions in France but always to a manned tower.
Rob wrote:
If on a IFR flight plan and you divert to a airfield for fuel that was not one of your alternatives on the flight plan, whats the way close the FlightPlan, UK and abroad?
I assume you inform ATC/FIS of your diversion? Then the procedure would be as if the diversion airport was your destination. I don’t know that it matters if you divert to one of the planned alternatives or not.
That’s dependent on the country, and other things.
If on a IFR flight plan and you divert to a airfield for fuel that was not one of your alternatives on the flight plan, whats the way close the FlightPlan, UK and abroad?
I don’t have a hard strategy; I watch the situation as I go.
I would like to land with 20USG. If wx is good all around, anything below 15USG I regard as urgent.
Below 10 I have never been and that would be an emergency in any wx situation, especially as the last 4 or so can’t be used. On long flights I run down one tank until I get the low fuel light, which comes on when the level in that tank is down to 8USG. I note down the time, and then I fly on that tank for another 4USG (say 20mins), then switch tanks. At that point I will normally have loads in the other tank – perhaps 20USG – and finish the flight on that tank.
Must also add: the fuel gauges are accurate to the thickness of the needle – perhaps 2-3% – and the fuel totaliser is checked on every fillup and is usually within 1-2% of the full tank (86.2 usable). Frankly I don’t think the bowser meters are much better.
As for the diversion strategy: it depends on where one is going.
At low level – i.e. the level where I will be fishing for an alternate, having gone missed – I am burning 11.7GPH.
Then it depends on the wx.
If say I am heading to Brac LDSB. That’s a long leg which is fine in still air (LFOB about 20-23USG and plenty of alternates) but can get pretty marginal if there is headwind. Rarely is bad wx present but it does happen; in 2016, at the end of a flight with headwind all the way, had to divert to Split, just earlier up the road, when Brac was TSRA++ / low vis and anyway the LFOB for Brac was showing about 10USG. That was done just in time and perhaps my tightest flight ever. Landed with 12.1USG, although the bowser fill said ~14USG.
Now let’s say the wx is great all the way down the Adriatic. The options are Pula, Losinj, Zadar, Split, Brac, Dubrovnik. All have avgas and good food 
Then I would go down to 10USG LFOB if everything was CAVOK, but have never done so. Lowest was maybe 15.
But doing the same coming back to the UK, with wx hovering around minima, and with Bournemouth and Southampton having ILS but being really just mayday options for various reasons, Lee on Solent and Goodwood having no IAP, Biggin (ILS, £200 taxi costs), Lydd (ILS, £300+ taxi costs), and the last two not ideal for staying locally, and my preferred alternate being Biggin which is 20 mins’ flying time after Shoreham, I like to see at least 15USG LFOB at Shoreham IF the Shoreham wx looks doable and is improving. The worst I ever saw, though not a fuel issue, was from Tempelhof in 2008 when the whole UK south coast fogged in more or less concurrently, and I got into Lydd just in time to see the fog cover the whole place. Stayed at a local pub, together with a pile of other GA pilots
So not a clear reply; just that below 20USG things get looked at with increasing urgency
Interesting to read as always, Peter.
Can you tell me a little about your own personal fuel planning and minimums? What are you happy to arrive with? Does this change from the planning stage to the inflight stage (as in, 15USG LFOB for planning but content to go down to 12 if headwind is stronger when in flight for example)? Your comment in this thread about a diversion with ~16USG being on a mayday has interested me, as it seems more conservative than I would be (at face value not knowing the specifics of how much fuel you allow to get to Biggin). My own private flying is heavily influenced by my job in the commercial flying world, and a different perspective would be useful to me.
No idea about TB20 v. A36.
Your cabin is 50 inches wide, even wider than a PA-32/34, and 8 inches wider than the 36.
Thanks
I had to google on “Stakhanovite”… despite my communist origins it totally passed me by
The Mountain High O2D2 system is totally automatic. Just turn it on before departure and turn it off after landing. Actually I normally shut it down and remove the cannula when descending through 5000ft, in case I forget later, and then one is relying purely on the O2D2’s “valve is shut when battery goes flat” property, which if there is a leak will empty the oxygen cylinder, and then how do you fly back home? I carry a 2nd cylinder but…
No headaches, ever. It’s a good system. The others I tested, many years ago, were much more haphazard.
Normally I am running around 95% SPO2 and heart rate of 65-70, at FL160.
No idea about TB20 v. A36.
These are labours of love @Peter, with a lot of useful information.
You are quite a Stakhanovite, not many folk would be in the FL on oxygen for this length of sectors :) Understanding how you manage the oxygen supply would be interesting.
I spent a fair bit on oxygen crossing the Alps about twenty years ago, and even though I was only at FL160 for less than an hour, even with cannula systems, it left me with a mild headache.
The TB20 is a great machine, and am guessing with more shoulder room than a Beech 36?
