I recently flew from EGBT Turweston to EGKA Shoreham and had the pleasure of meeting Peter. I can confirm: his TB20 actually exists! :D
This was the first time I filed an IFR FPL (using Autorouter) and actually got into the UK Class A “system” (also called “the airways”, to give it an aura of mysticism).
My outbound flight was great. It wasn’t all that easy to get into “the system”, but once in it, all was good and easy. On the return flight however, things didn’t run as smoothly and I’ll explain below.
GRAMET obtained from AutoRouter the night before showing clear skies. The day was pretty much CAVOK throughout England:
My filed outbound route was: EGBT N0106F090 FINMA DCT SILVA DCT BENSU DCT WOD L612 MID DCT BITLI EGKA
On departure from Turweston, I was transferred to London Information. The frequency was really busy and it was hard to get a message through. I was put on “standby” initially. After 5 min and a seemingly quiet frequency I bugged them again, “standby Sir” was the response. At this point I was below the TMA at 5400’ and approaching the next step down of the TMA base so I decided to hold at SILVA until I got my clearance as I didn’t want to descend. I also wanted to experiment with how long it would take to get it. It was one hold and London Info came back to me with a squawk, an instruction to remain outside controlled airspace (OCAS) and a frequency for London Control. Once with London Control, they asked me to hit ident, they identified, and gave me a climb to FL90 on track to CPT VOR (not on my route). I turned onto CPT and after a minute or so they told me I could route direct Shoreham. I asked whether BITLI (the IAF for the RNP approach) was okay, they said “don’t know where that is, but sure, go ahead!” 
So as you see, once you get into “the system”, everything is easy and stress-free. I got a 60 NM DCT to my destination which was great.
I requested descent about 14 minutes before BITLI (I want to descend at 500 fpm, and needed to be at 2200’ at BITLI, so aprox. 14 min to run is the ToD). Initially they cleared me down to FL70, then 4000’, and then cleared to descend below CAS. They gave me a frequency for Shoreham Radio and called them when turning at BITLI. Flew the RNP approach which has a steep final descent angle of 4.5º to clear some hills to the north of the airfield. I then broke off to the right and flew a left circuit to land on rwy 02.
Turning final rwy 02 at EGKA:
Parked at EGKA:
The route planned (magenta) vs. actually flown (blue). You can see where I had to hold before entering “the system” and for how long I had to stay below it in the vertical profile:
Some photos from Shoreham:
As for the return flight,
I went on AutoRouter and submitted my previously saved FPL, only adjusting the time of departure slightly.
I filed: EGKA N0108F100 GWC DCT MID L612 WOD M605 FINMA EGBT
FL100 was the lowest to get it to validate it.
At the holding point before departure I asked Shoreham whether they had an IFR clearance for me. They didn’t even have my FPL. This raised some slight concern but I thought it may have been due to the fact that I had only submitted the FPL a half hour ago. They told me I could depart and try with London Information, they may have my FPL. So I did, and this turned out to be a big mistake.
I took off from EGKA rwy 20, then turned right to track towards GWC climbing to the base of CAS. On first contact with London Information they said they didn’t have my FPL. I sighed. They said the best they could do is pass me to Farnborough Radar for a transit of their Class D. I asked whether I could file an IFR FPL on the spot but it seems like they laughed at me as soon as they released the PTT. Must have made a fool of myself…
So there we go. The return flight was a “de facto” VFR.
The one indicator to know whether one is IFR or VFR is the SkyDemon mode one is using. If using the VFR mapping mode, then one is VFR.
I had to descend from 5000’ to 4000’ and then fly a dangerous northerly route around all the bits of the London TMA. This is a high stress situation because there is no margin for error. One minute on the wrong heading and one has busted airspace.
You can see on the SkyDemon track how I managed to navigate around the London TMA Class A:
One minute one is happily cruising inside of it at FL90, enjoying the view; the next minute one is stuck underneath it worrying about not hitting other aircraft or other airspace which would be much worse! The radio is also busier and full of those tedious “pass your message tell me your whole life story” conversations.
It is clear that the UK is a society of classes. The upper class flies CAS and the lower class flies OCAS. There’s always classes, in everything, and aviation is no different.
After having arrived back home I tried to find out why my FPL was not picked up by anyone. I quickly spotted the issue: I had accidentally submitted the FPL dated for the DAY AFTER…
Two lessons learnt here:
The upper class flies CAS and the lower class flies OCAS. There’s always classes, in everything, and aviation is no different.
Thank you for the write up, it was a relatively cold day so hopefully the PA28 made it to FL090 before having to descend :)
Recall the Spitfires and other vintage aircraft also slum it OCAS, so us puddle jumper pilots have some aristocratic company.
Nice writeup and good lesson learned.
Nice trip, a bit of a sunny day to fly IFR
I did the same VFR FPL to L2K with another aircraft registration, I notice it after landing but same drama at the border but one can file in the air for VFR and you don’t get GASCO course for hitting FIR boundary 
For UK airways flights, I call NATS flight planning on the ground (LTCC LTMA supervisor watch is in AIP GEN 3.3, they check FPL and may give you frequency and clearance toward some point with ROCAS, you can also check AIP of IFR aiports near London they have the phone number as well)
The same in Paris TMA, I call LeBourget or Melun for uncontrolled IFR departures (also any FIS can get you pop up IFR clerance into CAS even without FPL if you need it but you have to close it after landing, so one need to make sure reg is correct or cancel it)
NFW you can get IFR in UK LTMA without valid FPL on the ground even QE2 will be told to stay OCAS
Great to meet you Alpha_Floor
You were filing the FP with me standing next to you and there was probably a distraction element there. Easily done! But this does show that AFIL (airborne flight plan filing) doesn’t actually work even though it was supposed to be available. It never worked in the UK (London Control will simply not do it) and I doubt it works in most countries because ATC simply does not have the time.
Yes good point about phoning up LTCC, to avoid having to hang on London Info where everybody gives them their inside leg measurement… For some reason I have never done that though – probably because Shoreham tower always makes that phone call for me.
I was amazed how little was open in the old Shoreham main street. But it will change soon; the shops are opening up in about a week.
Nice trip, especially as you made it be a kind of mini meet-up. Something we really start to miss during these days.
Ibra wrote:
For UK airways flights, I call NATS flight planning on the ground (LTCC LTMA supervisor watch is in AIP GEN 3.3, they check FPL and may give you frequency and clearance toward some point with ROCAS, you can also check AIP of IFR aiports near London they have the phone number as well)
Interesting. Thanks for that, I’ll try to do that next time. That way I can talk to them directly before departure rather than relying on intermediaries.
I find it interesting how London Information is kind of a “gate keeper” for London Control. They need to check you out first before they hand you their frequency. Like a bouncer in a night club. In Spain you would just call the Control frequency directly (actually there is no separate Info/Control in Spain, but I wonder how this works in Germany who do have Info and Control separately as well).
I was also told by Spanish ACC controllers (from the Canaries FIR at least) that a pop-up IFR clearance can be arranged on the spot. In fact, they do it all the time with UN humanitarian flights that depart VFR without a FPL and file it in the air.
Found the list of phone numbers:
The numbers I have had for a while are +44 2380 401110 and +44 2380 401100.
I used it only once, IIRC, in 2018, when the Autorouter could not file the onward flight plan after an unplanned refuel stop at Colmar, due to one already in the system (should have been terminated by France but wasn’t). So I got LTCC to remove the old one.
