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A day trip to Midden-Zeeland EHMZ

Let me put it differently; please don’t cross the Brussels TMA at FL060, 070 or 080. Those are agreed coordination levels between different ATC-units. The req to cross the TMA 090 or above has nothing to do with IFR/VFR/RNAV but purely with separation issues. Of course when tfc load is low you can ask for lower, hence the “normally”…

EBST, Belgium

airways wrote:

Let me put it differently; please don’t cross the Brussels TMA at FL060, 070 or 080. Those are agreed coordination levels between different ATC-units. The req to cross the TMA 090 or above has nothing to do with IFR/VFR/RNAV but purely with separation issues. Of course when tfc load is low you can ask for lower, hence the “normally”…

Clear!

EBMO, EBKT

NinerEchoPapa wrote:

I climbed up to FL85 but when checking in with Beek approach they said they could only accept me at FL65. No problem. I was then handed over to Belga Radar who cleared me in to their airspace then a few minutes later told me VFR flight in Belgium is prohibited above 4500ft. This was news to me (and apparently several other people in EHMZ). Must try harder with reading the AIP’s…

I was allowed to continue at FL65 for a while before being told to descend to 4500ft prior to passing through a small corner of the Brussels TMA.

Today I have received an email from the Belgian CAA (via my flying club) informing me that on this flight (almost a year ago!) I infringed the EBBL TMA at FL060, “whilst SID were in progress to FL090”, followed by “We tried to get information from Dutch ATC without success”. Attached is a questionnaire I need to fill out and send back. It doesn’t sound like they are about to take any action against me, rather they just want to do some research as to how airspace infringements happen. Either way, I am surprised to receive this email as I was definitely cleared into their airspace (as mentioned in my original post), otherwise I would’ve done a 180 and not gone anywhere near it.

Aside from filling in the questionnaire and maybe attaching my log from SkyDemon, does anybody have any ideas? Am I in trouble or are they just doing some data gathering?

On another note, if posting about this before it’s all solved is a bad idea, please let me know and I’ll duly delete!

Edit: I’ve since read at the top of the questionnaire: “Without the risk of prosecution, or consequences for the validity of your pilot license, you are kindly asked to testify anonymously, to fill in the following questionnaire, regarding the following incident”.

Last Edited by NinerEchoPapa at 10 Sep 15:11
EDLN/EDLF, Germany

Looks like ATS dropped the ball there. Somebody wasn’t in a mood to make a coordination. I’ll repeat what I said before: during the week it’s better to plan your flight via civil airspace.

EBST, Belgium

airways wrote:

I’ll repeat what I said before: during the week it’s better to plan your flight via civil airspace.

Thanks again for the tip, one for the future!

EDLN/EDLF, Germany
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