Hello,
I have been an avid reader of this forum for some time now but this is my first post. I am based at a small airfield in France, no tower, no ATC or AFIS and no landing or parking fees, although a radio is mandatory. To fly IR I simply file a zulu flight plan over the phone to the local BRIA. The airfield sits below a military training area which starts at 3000 feet, IFR OCAS in France also starts at 3000 ft, with 2 way communication with an ATS being mandatory. In my case after take off I climb in vfr to about 2000 feet and immediately request an IFR clearance. This usually happens quite quickly and from then to my destination I am guided and advised by one ATS or another in a seemless fashion. Sorry for the preamble but I hope it helps put the reason for my post into some context.
At the end of September I plan to visit friends and family in the UK, and from reading this forum I get the impression that flying IFR in the UK is very different and daunting. For a start Peter has written that if you are below 10000ft London Control can dump you off to London information who have no radar and once you are OCAS you have to negotiate to get back in again which is usually denied. Then there seems to be the issue of whether or not to file a flight plan, cross airways, the best charts to use (I find the CAA 1:500000 vfr chart as confusing as Peter finds its French equivalent. I have never had to book out at an airport is this the same as clearing immigration or filing a flight plan? My plan once in the Uk is to fly to Exeter, Coventry or Sywell, North Weald or Stapleford, not necessarily in that order. Any advice from the experts here on the forum would be gratefully received.
At the risk the newbie’s disease of writing too much, I would like to contribute to an earlier thread in that thanks to our local council and the DGAC our airfield is hopefully soon to get it’s own GNSS approach. No ATS service is planned for the field itself and no major changes to any regional ATS services which might bring extra costs to the airfield or local council.
Hi Gallois nothing to worry about but generally avoid the U.K. airways system and avoid most major airfields.I own a Robin based at Lydd and in the summer Rochester and have been instrument rated for 35 years.Good Flying is still possible in the South East if you know how and where to go.Really good welcoming airfields which I use regularly are.Lydd,Headcorn,Rochester(hotel on airfield)Compton Abbas,Dunkeswell,Henstridge,Sywell(hotel on airfield)Leicester.There are many others but these are full service VFR airfields that really work for me with welcoming staff and sensible pricing.Happy to answer any queries you have and assist if I am about when you visit recently retired from a U.K. airline.Farnborough radar is excellent and well worth using if near London controlled airspace they will endeavour to keep you away from infringing what can be quite confusing airspace it’s the main reason for their existence!
I also forgot to say Southend is an excellent IFR arrival point GA friendly ATC ILS both ends good radar and hotel on airfield.Class D airspace!Lydd has no radar ILS on 21 GPS approaches on both ends.
gallois wrote:
you have to negotiate to get back in again which is usually denied.
Anecdotally, what I’ve heard is “usually approved”. I’ve heard London Info on countless occasions telling someone who’s intent is to continue IFR telling the pilot they are getting a clearance into CAS for the pilot, and succeeding.
The airways system is quite simple: Once you’re inside and remain within the Class A or C CAS, you’ll be fine – it can be much easier to fly than trying to transit through once piece of airspace after another IFR at low levels. Overflight of London has a typical minimum level of FL90 to avoid conflicts with arrivals and departures into the major airports.
The UK has no extensive Class E airspace. If you leave CAS then re-negotiation to re-enter is subject to traffic levels within CAS at the time – harder around London, much easier elsewhere. But if you have important icing issues etc. they will do their best to sort you out.
London Control does not typically provide a service to aircraft lower than FL70 so you’ll be handed over to London Information (no radar) or other LARS facilities (e.g. Farnborough/Southend/Bournemouth) where services are provided on an as-far-as-practical basis.
As someone has already written, the major UK airports have extortionate fees + handling fees. Please check rates before flying there.
Finally IFR departures from UK airports that are NOT connected to the airways network can require a two-stage clearance – initially remaining outside Class A at lower level before being cleared into it.
Enjoy!
I am based at Exeter (EGTE) for a couple of months a year. It is a nice easy airport to use. They are friendly to GA. You get help from Aviation South West who collect the landing fee they are very friendly there is not handeling etc the landing fee is circa £35 -60 depending on MTOW. parking is on the grass during the summer. It is well kept grass but Taxi slowly. Exeter has lots of instrument approaches an ILS at both ends of the runway and LPV. AVGAS is no problem Taxi to pumps.
There are lots of car hire companies at the airfield and it is usually quite cheep (Avis usually my preferred company).
Where are you routing to Exeter from ? If coming along the coast from the east I usually just transit Southampton Bournemouth and then a little section outside controlled airspace to Exeter. You can get a traffic service the whole way.
If you would like to know anything specific please PM
alioth wrote:
Anecdotally, what I’ve heard is “usually approved”. I’ve heard London Info on countless occasions telling someone who’s intent is to continue IFR telling the pilot they are getting a clearance into CAS for the pilot, and succeeding.
I can confirm that. I have had one occasion where London Info was quite proactive in getting an onward clearance for me: I had to drop out of CAS due to icing and was asked to switch to London Info. London Info noticed that on the track at the new lower altitude I would need an onward clearance for the London TMA and informed me of that. I acknowledged that and said I would come back a few minutes later with my decision as to whether I would like to request rejoining CAS or not as I was mentally focused on the icing situation and knew I had another 10 minutes to go to the CAS boundary. Two minutes later London Info came back with “London Control is expecting you on present track at FL70, squawk xxxx, contact London Control on yyy.yy to rejoin controlled airspace”.
Maybe they were overly concerned that I would bust CAS. Whatever the reason was, I was quite happy about them being proactive so that I could mentally focus on flying the airplane.
Be aware that you will need to file a GAR form as well as an FPL inbound to UK. The service that I use Onlinegar.com is very slick, affordable and reliable.Apologies if you know this already!
If you are a member of AOPA France, then AOPA UK finances for you a free account on onlinegar.com, that is restricted to only UK GARs (no Channel Islands, no Isle of Man, no Netherlands).
lionel wrote:
If you are a member of AOPA France, then AOPA UK finances for you a free account on onlinegar.com, that is restricted to only UK GARs (no Channel Islands, no Isle of Man, no Netherlands).
Anyone can get a free account. You don’t have to me a member of any AOPA.
