Peter wrote:
This was the result of this and even the Eurocontrol tracking didn’t start until the end of the VFR section
Luckily you have tracking in ADL 
which is much more reliable than Eurocontrol tracking.
Is there an alternative service to https://www.ctot.app/ ?
Ctot.app says
Currently we can only accept airlines as customer due to Eurocontrol rules. I am unfortunately not allowed to approve your account.
That sounds like some weird BS. It might be that only airlines can be trusted with “private data”?
OTOH who in GA cares about airline CTOTs?
I have found the biggest problem with this is that it is hard if you have just a phone to look at that delay area (mostly “staff shortage”) map and modify the FP interactively. Even with a laptop, which is by far the fastest way to do anything, it takes maybe 15 mins to hack around, and that assumes you actually can … e.g. in much of France you can’t have a VFR segment above FL115.
It would be pretty easy to write some code which would insert the VFR … IFR sections (by touching the two points on the route, not automatically which is a lot harder) and immediately resubmit for validation. So why has this not been done? It is so obvious. Probably one reason is that it would p1ss off Eurocontrol, and anybody who does autorouting has to maintain a relationship with them, to use their B2B validation interface. All other interfaces have been shut off over the years – example. Another reason is that it is not so easy over a web interface such as the AR which just presents a non editable route.
It would doubly p1ss off Eurocontrol because they know, like everybody else knows, that once you are airborne, the entire ATC system does not care or even know you had a CTOT. The whole system works by causing “maximum pain” (the words of one autorouting provider) before departure, only. So people based at non-towered airfields can disregard CTOTs.
The same argument has been made regarding an autorouting program which supports rubberbanding. It would work because validation takes about 1 second, so a route which fails validation would be immediately notified to the user. Yet nobody has done it.
The difficulty of doing this with just a phone is why I have repeatedly suggested doing a FP which starts VFR and then changes to IFR, because all you need to do is move the “IFR” further along the route Although to be fair this probably works best for a UK-departing pilot, going into France. You probably can’t do it going into Belgium.
Actually a solution could be done outside any current routing tool. Once you filed a route, say 5 hrs ahead, you can expect a CTOT after a couple of hours, not before. So you could copy/paste the route into a special app which displays it, together with the Eurocontrol-published delay map, you could do the “VFR”/“IFR” fixups in that, and then file the result using any other app e.g. EuroFPL. One gotcha is that you need to cancel the previous route first…
Another reason is that it is not so easy over a web interface such as the AR which just presents a non editable route.
It’s pretty easy in FF on iPad.
It would doubly p1ss off Eurocontrol because they know, like everybody else knows, that once you are airborne, the entire ATC system does not care or even know you had a CTOT.
Last month when flying to Belgium I got CTOT delaying my flight one hour. When I called ATC for initial clearance (mandatory for my base on Z plan, preferably from ground because controlled airspace nearby), a friendly controller told me just to ignore it and takeoff when ready.
Snoopy wrote:
Ctot.app says
Currently we can only accept airlines as customer due to Eurocontrol rules. I am unfortunately not allowed to approve your account.
Weird!
“Individual
€1,90/month
*includes VAT”
“Perfect for individuals and small businesses who want to get started with the CTOT platform. Signup now and get access to all the features of the iOS app and this browser based app.”
Snoopy wrote:
Is there an alternative service to https://www.ctot.app/ ?
What is the advantage of this app compared to just using autorouter? It tells you what the CTOT is and you can freeze / unfreeze it. Is there anything else which can be done?
Peter wrote:
and modify the FP interactively
Is this really the best way to deal with such slots? Filing early and then trying to use a combination of delay and freeze seems to be the alternative
If the reason is “staff shortage” (by far the most common) then you get the same CTOT anyway, and if you delay you get another one. The one thing which might work is file early and freezing the CTOT.
What is the advantage of this app compared to just using autorouter?
It might be a way to freeze CTOTs when not using Autorouter.
Anyway, no biggie, Autorouter is fantastic with Telegram, I can just resort to using it more frequently again during those CTOT contaminated summer months.
Is it possible to get access to NOP as an individual?
It might be a way to freeze CTOTs when not using Autorouter.
Interesting. I personally mostly use FF for the whole integration. never tried autorouter for filing. So wonder if it ctot.app would be useful to get the extra information from what was filed from FF. But when trying to log in it says you need to have a business aviation email… I don’t.
Is it possible to get access to NOP as an individual?
I applied, it got denied saying it’s not available for individual…
Peter wrote:
The one thing which might work is file early and freezing the CTOT.
File about 45 min early and wait.
If you get a slot it could by in the desired range. Then freeze it.
If you get no slot delay by 30 minutes and then depart on the end of the grace period.
If you get a slot just a few minutes after the original EOBT, delay a tiny bit so you would just miss this slot to make the computer issues you a new one which will most likely be around the desired time. Then freeze that.
Obviously this does not work all the time. Esepecially if the reason is weather the slot delay can grow rapidly and the slot can actually be pushed back even when freezed. But if ATC is pushing around a constant delay during the entire day this often works ok.
You can depart -5 to +10 around the CTOT. We did record a bit the time it actually takes us from startup to take off so we can plan better when we will actually depart. For us getting seated around CTOT -15min usually work quite well on small and medium airports. We then depart CTOT -5 to CTOT 0min.
