Fuji_Abound wrote:
Dimme – maybe its me, but i sense you are being obtuse.No, I agree with him. SERA requires a actual flight plan for all night VFR flights regardless of airspace class as soon as you leave the “vicinity of the airport”. The requirement is possibly not enforced by the UK CAA, but that’s a different matter.The point i am making is that during the day you simply book out, i am going from x to y. In the uk you may do exactly the same at night for flights ocas. We are talking strictly ocas vfr as that was the original question.
I have a feeling more than just the UK aren’t / won’t be enforcing a mandatory FP for night VFR, because in EASA-land loads of people pop up for a “local” and some landings at sunset plus 30 mins plus 1 second to regain their night passenger carriage and come back before it gets properly dark 
“VFR at night
VFR at night is permitted in accordance with SERA requirements. Aircraft leaving the vicinity of an aerodrome must maintain 2-way communication with ATC and file a flight plan. The process of ‘booking out’ is still accepted as an alternative method to filing a formal paper or electronic flight plan in certain circumstances. Similarly, abbreviated flight plans filed in flight are still permitted.”
Ref. Previoulsy given
So is this from the CAA no longer valid?
How is it a question of not being enforced when, if this is valid, the CAA give acceptable alternatives?
Please note the terminology “formal” flight plan.
Sorry to pursue the point but earlier this year i was x to y and both ATCs and everyone on the way seemed happy, hate to think i should have formally filed.
In short sera may require a formal flight plan but perhaps the caa have their own idea what this constitutes?
Fuji_Abound wrote:
How is it a question of not being enforced when, if this is valid, the CAA give acceptable alternatives?
The point is that the CAA is not at liberty to give “acceptable alternatives”. It is not the regulator, EASA is. CAA is the enforcer. Of course, from a practical point of view, if the enforcer doesn’t enforce then the regulations might just as well not be there.
Sure, but who cares? We should be grateful for anything that makes flying simpler 
The fact that you can file an FP with a tablet app for 100 quid a year is a different argument; one should not need to do that.
Peter wrote:
The fact that you can file an FP with a tablet app for 100 quid a year is a different argument; one should not need to do that.
Well, I guess as there is (I as understand from discussion on this forum) no ARO in the UK that will accept VFR flight plans (in contrast to other countries) it is only reasonable that the CAA doesn’t enforce the submission of such flight plans.
no ARO in the UK that will accept VFR flight plans
That’s a mysterious statement
I have had a more detailed read of SERA and i dont see anything that requires the filing of a full FP in the circumstances being discussed; please can you point us at the specific legislation that says for night vfr ocas a full flight plan, not notification to the tower or booking out, is required.
I would be surprised if the CAA does anything to which it is not entitled. Things rarely work that way, civil aviation authorities simply do not turn a blind eye to things like this that they should ( if indeed it is the case) enforce if for no other reason that legal consequnces can be forseen.
I am very happy to be proven wrong, but some specific legislation needs to be cited that contradicts the CAAs very clear statement.
Peter wrote:
That’s a mysterious statement
Ok. Let me put it this way. There are usually ATS reporting offices (ARO) run by your CAA or national ATS provider. They will accept flight plan submissions by telephone, fax, e-mail, web page or whatever. Some (most?) countries have centralised this to a single ARO (e.g. Sweden). From discussions on EuroGA I’ve been led to believe that this doesn’t exist in the UK so that the only way you can submit a flight plan is by using some agent that has AFTN access (unless you have AFTN access yourself).
Fuji_Abound wrote:
please can you point us at the specific legislation that says for night vfr ocas a full flight plan, not notification to the tower or booking out, is required.Let me quote from SERA:
SERA.4001 Submission of a flight plan
(a) Information relative to an intended flight or portion of a flight, to be provided to air traffic services units, shall be in the form of a flight plan. The term ‘flight plan’ is used to mean variously, full information on all items comprised in the flight plan description, covering the whole route of a flight, or limited information required, inter alia, when the purpose is to obtain a clearance for a minor portion of a flight such as to cross an airway, to take off from, or to land at a controlled aerodrome.
(b) A flight plan shall be submitted prior to operating:
[…]
(6) any flight planned to operate at night, if leaving the vicinity of an aerodrome
The clause (6) makes no mention of airspace class or controlled flight, thus it applies OCAS as well as in CAS. Clearly the requirement also applies to the entire flight.
I guess that “booking out” (a concept unique to the UK) can be regarded as providing “limited information” for the purpose of departing a controlled airport and its CTR/ATZ and thus being a flight plan in the sense of SERA.4001 (a). But in that case it would not cover the entire flight.
