I hope the title say it all really. How do others activate a flight plan when departing from your own private strip? As I remember you cannot activate before airborne and cannot do so in the air (some nearby atc units will sometimes help but cannot be guaranteed).
I call up London information and ask them to do it. It can be difficult on a sunny Saturday at 10am to get a word in edge wise.
I wonder too if it can be done by telephone?
Doing it by phone seems to vary by country.
Generally in the air an area FIS will activate it for you eg in the UK, London Info or Scottish Info. Sometimes you can get a local ATC unit to do it, but they often simply pass your request to London Info for you.
The few times I’ve done it, I’ve just asked London Info and it’s been no problem.
Once airborne you will contact some kind of service, either a controller or a FIS. After establishing contact and exchanging information, “request to activate flight plan, airborne zero five”
Just like JJBeall says, if it is a FIS on a busy day you may have some trouble getting it through.
As for doing it by telephone, I find that a bit hard to imagine – one isn’t even supposed to text while driving, much less calling, much less as a pilot, I should think, though probably there’s no formal rules as yet. Nor can I see the advantage of a mobile phone with its tiny keys and unreliable comm’s quality over your tested and approved and familiar R/T equipment.
Of course it is possible that here again we are at some UK peculiarity. But in BE/FR/DE – the only FIR’s where I have done it – it works as smoothly as it could.
London Info normally, as stated.
It should also be possible to get it activated by getting a friend with an AFPEX account (which potentially every pilot who can supply a UK address can get, even if he/she doesn’t have any UK CAA licenses) to transmit a DEP message for your flight. I don’t know what security AFPEX implements (they must have put in some anti vandalism measures…) but I can certainly file a flight plan for any aircraft reg, from anywhere to anywhere in the world.
Just call up Norway control. They are everywhere, in Norway at least Just don’t forget to close it after you land, that often has to be done by phone due to no reception in the valleys at remote places. I have forgot a couple of times and got called up by a very angry lady.
Jan
The phone bit was meant on the ground. Not in the air.
dp
Thanks one and all. Just as an additional question; if I file IFR, I do not have an IR just an IR restricted, will that be advantageous except that I still must keep clear of Class A airspace?
Hi Jan – I meant from the ground before you take off. You can do that in the States. I fact I used to get IFR clearances from a telephone booth in a rural west Texas town 25 years ago!