Two quick questions regarding VFR routes + flight plans in Croatia.
If you’re intending to fly one of the VFR routes – e.g. ADRIA1 – is there a simple way of identifying the route as such in the en-route section of the FPL? Looking at a putative SkyDemon version of just such a route contains a score of turning points all marked by lat/long co-ordinates which seems unnecessarily clumsy and complex. It may also not be what the AROs are expecting to see.
Also – do these VFR routes provide automatic clearance through CTRs/CTAs if you stick to the requisite altitudes (as for instance they do in the US), or do you still have to request/negotiate a clearance each time?
Appreciate any advice!
You can just type ADRIA1in the route, preceeded by the joining point and followed by the exit point.
You get no automatic CAS clearance. ATC has to clear you. Croatian ATC is relaxed though.
Those VFR routes don’t mean anything really. They are partly historical relics, partly a means for VFR traffic to fly low for the scenery and ATC knowing where to expect them, but you can just fly straight down the Adriatic at say FL085 as I used to do. I did one VFR flight from LJLJ to LATI at up to FL140 
Re clearance, you’ll be talking to ATC (radar or approach, depending on the area) and they’ll provide clearance. In my experience, one just needs to indicate desired route and altitude upon contact and ATC will either clear you without your asking or give other instructions (usually if you request a higher altitude than the standard 1’000ft along the coast). Inland, you might be talking to the excellent FIS OCAS, but they’ll hand you over to ATC as you approach CAS. E.g, Osijek to Losinj VFR routes are mostly OCAS with FIS until nearing the coast where FIS will hand you over to Pula Radar and they’ll give you the cleared route & altitude. FIS also has radar so they know where you are.
Clearance higher down the coast will depend on runway in use and traffic to/from airports inland… Zadar, Split, etc. But ATC is mostly relaxed and will let you up once you’re past the traffic. The only exception might be Dubrovnik where I was once held at 1000’ over the sea for an hour due to airline arrivals spaced at 30mi intervals.
Excellent advice, thanks to all.
I was initially thinking of flying Portoroz – Dubrovnik IFR (and still will if the wx is poor of course), but those low-level VFR routes a whole lot more fun – bit like the fantastic one from Cannes to Monaco along the Med where your wheels almost scrape the top of millionaire yachts!
I used ADRIA1 (or at least followed the coast) at 3000’ VFR Portorož to Pula, and apart from some orbits over a reporting point due to a commercial departure it was uneventful and scenic. I gave town names or VRPs for the flightplan route, which I filed by phone, and no-one seemed to mind. Motovun, in the middle if the Istrian peninsula, is worth flying over.
Capitaine wrote:
I gave town names or VRPs for the flightplan route
Couldn’t you just give ADRIA1 as the route?
Airborne_Again wrote:
Couldn’t you just give ADRIA1 as the route?
I don’t remember now… maybe because I wanted to fly higher than 1000’. The flight was mostly sightseeing and probably just coincidence it was along ADRIA1. Grožnjan is another hilltop village worth flying past
