I am having tremendous flight planning problems relating to a Jetprop quirk.
The Jetprop is certified to FL270.
However, whenever I try to validate a FPL on Rocketroute at 260 or 270 I get back the following message:
CRUISING FLIGHT LEVEL INVALID OR INCOMPATIBLE WITH AIRCRAFT PERFORMANCE [IFPS_ERR_CODE: (R)ROUTE179].
I have talked at length with Rocketroute about this and they say that this is not caused by them, but by Eurocontrol who do not accept that this aircraft is certified at these levels. Eurocontrol seem to think that the Jetprop is in fact a PA46b Mirage, which is indeed certified only to 250.
In the past this has not caused me problems as I file the FPl for 240 or 250, and then in the air always ATC always allow me to climb to a higher cruise level on the same, or essentially the same, route.
However, I am now in Cyprus and planning a route back via Rhodes. ALL the routes I need to file back via Serbia, Macedonia or Bulgaria absolutely require me to fly above 250 but I cannot get any flight plan to validate at that level for the reason above.
Are there any Jetprop drivers on this forum who have experience with this issue please.
ALL the routes I need to file back via Serbia, Macedonia or Bulgaria absolutely require me to fly above 250 but I cannot get any flight plan to validate at that level for the reason above.
Are you really sure? I flew the area only a couple of weeks ago and had no problem filing routes between 120 and 180. Piston though, but anyway.
Yep, absolutely. I cant get anything better than flying all the way to near Corfu and then back NE. Its 23% more than straight line. At 260 and above it would be almost perfect straight line.
Rocketroute spent many hours overnight trying.
They say the only thing I can do is call Eurocontrol!!
@eal may know.
Indeed this is done via eurocontrol. The TB21 had the same issue; it can do FL250 but EC had the FL200 of the TB20 set up for both. I got it raised. I am sending you a PM with the contact, but it is very old.
OTOH this must have been solved. Is there not a type like P46T?
Eurocontrol seem to think that the Jetprop is in fact a PA46b Mirage, which is indeed certified only to 250.
Seems to me like a valid reason to force a validation…in AutoRouter, if you think it’s a bug and you can force “validate yourself” by clicking few times until it goes but not sure about RocketRoute?
Alternatively, if it’s an emergency to file, you can file with “RTECOORATC” in remarks section but you need ATC to agree to it or to be dead sure they would (this means your route is coordinated or accepted by ATC and you simply have a bug in validation: aircraft bad performance model in database would be one example, you can also call Eurocontrol help desk to “force it” but you still need ATC go ahead or acceptance, I would not mess with this for other reasons)
you can file with “RTECOORATC” in remarks section but you need ATC to agree to it or to be dead sure they would (this means your route is coordinated or accepted by ATC and you simply have a bug in validation: aircraft bad performance model in database would be one example, you can also call Eurocontrol help desk to “force it” but you still need ATC go ahead or acceptance
Is that some actual capability?
ATC will let you depart if there is an FP in the system, otherwise they won’t. They don’t care about anything else to do with the aircraft.
Of course, they don’t care about how you got validation as long as FPL is in system
I can file FL270 direct in piston Mooney and ask to fly at FL100 or file direct IFR at 2000ft in every RA or ATZ (I can “force it” using one of 3 methods), I should not be surprised if ATC comes back on how the FPL was validated?
I file direct I-FPL between IFR airports in Paris with “POGO” in remark section (one can do the same with “RTECOORATC”), without these FPL gets rejected, ATC still give you proper route to fly with no drama, if you do the same between VFR airports on I-FPL, you will get crucified 
Not a Rocketroute user. For European flights I use a combination of Autorouter and EuroFpl. Autorouter has a specific aircraft type for a PA46 Jetprop, that has a FL270 ceiling. I use PA46T for my aircraft type in EuroFPL which is a Meridian and a higher ceiling than the Piston PA46.
I am not sure if that makes any difference, but can only suggest you try to get a valid routing through Autorouter and then file it via them rather than Rocketroute.
It has been three years since I tried this however, so Euro Control validation may well have changed adversely from my experience back then.
Good luck – E
but you need ATC to agree to it or to be dead sure they would
Of course, they don’t care about how you got validation as long as FPL is in system
Are there some words missing? This is going round in circles. If there is a FP in the system, you can fly, otherwise you can’t! Nothing to do with ATC, surely?
This issue is prob99 with the aircraft type used. If @Buckerfan has no AR account maybe someone here can try it. I can’t because I have TB20 set up and have no clue how to change that. Foreflight is another option – could probably try that.
FWIW, this is why when I do a trip I pre-route all expected routes and save them because one never knows if/when the “routing service” will be offline.
I just tried LCLK – > LDZA (Zargreb) using AR, with Turkey overflight added as an exclusion and got this suggestion which validates with a 9% overhead.
LCLK N0260F270 PHA2D PHA M31 GENOS DCT PEDER DCT EVENO UM601 RDS UL995 RIPLI UN137 SKP UL617 MAKED DCT LONTA L608 DOLEV DCT TIVNU/N0260F240 DCT TEBLI/N0242F240 TEBLI3B LDZA.
@Buckerfan, Let me know if you want me to try any other combinations.
Cheers – E
