boscomantico wrote:
Of course, they speak English.
I feel embarrassed, but remember I’ve not flown outside the sphere or bubble that is the UK IFR, ever. Anyway good practice this, because I think the Ibiza trip for the first IFR long-haul would have been very complicated. One for next year…
boscomantico wrote:
the dreaded GCR format
“Sitzplatzangabe”. Why??
“Im Arrivalslot Format folgt die Flugzeugkennung bzw. Flugnummer grundsätzlich direkt und ohne Leerstelle dem Action Code.”
“Im Departureslot Format muss grundsätzlich eine Leerstelle zwischen Action Code und Luftfahrzeugkennung bzw. Flugnummer gesetzt werden.”
Are they kidding me!?
Now we have a subjet for a ‘Tutorial’ on the Tuesday Zoom meet-up.
As all this is news to me.
Clearly I was In for a whole world of grief I never knew existed. 
boscomantico wrote:
Interesting. So after the freeze command, you have received a slot which is even worse than the previous one?
It makes some kind of sense. Things may get worse that the CFMU initially thought and then they have to postpone given slots – frozen or not. The reason you freeze is to be able to replan your own schedule and not risk a panic if you get a slot improvement.
boscomantico wrote:
The point is exactly that: if you want to get your slots yourself from the Fluko, you need to your request in the dreaded GCR format. See here for the (German only) instruction notes…
Doing a web search engine search yields several document in English. That’s how I learning GCR and got the airport slots when I needed them. IIRC, the explanation by the Czecha slot manager is nicely done, I think I saw one from Greece or Bulgaria, too.
An issue I got is that the German slot manager operates with an incomplete ICAO aircraft type database; so I have to “lie” on my aircraft type, lest my request go to manual treatment, the bottom of the pile, and takes a looong time to come back.
Airborne_Again wrote:
“Sitzplatzangabe”. Why??
You are asking an airport for a slot. The number of seats is an upper bound on the people that will have to disembark, that won’t change last minute, when a passenger drops out or comes last minute. It is a general indication of the size of the airplane.
Airborne_Again wrote:
Are they kidding me!?
No, that’s the GCR standard. Not Germany-specific :-)
Peter wrote:
The Freeze command doesn’t work reliably:
Peter, the freeze command only protects against improvements, not against worsening. Obviously… why would anyone have the option to opt out of worsenings that are becoming necessary?
why would anyone have the option to opt out of worsenings that are becoming necessary?
Good point 
I thought that the Freeze command dismisses all staff which are on strike, and then the slot cannot get any worse
the freeze command only protects against improvements, not against worsening.
I have to be honest, I didn‘t know this. As I wrote, I always thought that once slot has been issued, you will only ever (possibly) get improvements, bit never any worse ones. At least, this has never happened to me.
Thanks also to AA.
Peter wrote:
Actually I departed VFR, which sidesteps the CTOT about 0730 and picked up the IFR clearance from France, while still in UK airspace, and nobody cared about the CTOT. Quite a useful tactic Also a good shortcut relative to the IFR routing
That depends on your departure location and the slot source. My airfield in Switzerland is VFR only with IFR joining and and I often get a CTOT for somewhere in Switzerland, mostly around WIL VOR. Taking off VFR is then a no-go since WIL is only about 30’ away, or in the case below BARIG which is only 7’ away.
Regarding slots as a moving target, this can be a real PITA for a couple reasons. I got the following mid-September departing to France, about 1’ after filing, so a 2+hr delay.
Your flight plan is subject to flow management and a departure slot was assigned.
The details of the flight plan are as follows:
Aircraft ID: N758BK
Departure aerodrome: LSZK
Destination aerodrome: LFMV
Estimated off block time (EOBT): 2021-09-17 09:15Z
Slot time (CTOT): 1133Z
The slot is due to the following regulation:
- ZHAORX17
The following cause was given:
- enroute phase: ATC capacity
The slot time is designed to have you over the congestion at the given time and altitude:
Area: BARIG, time: 1140Z, altitude: F075
About 45’ later I received the following:
Your flight plan is subject to flow management and the departure slot was revised.
The details of the flight plan are as follows:
Aircraft ID: N758BK
Departure aerodrome: LSZK
Destination aerodrome: LFMV
Estimated off block time (EOBT): 2021-09-17 09:15Z
Slot time (CTOT): 0958Z
The slot is due to the following regulation:
- ZHAORX17
The following cause was given:
- enroute phase: ATC capacity
The slot time is designed to have you over the congestion at the given time and altitude:
Area: BARIG, time: 1005Z, altitude: F075
Of course everyone who has gone through this knows the first problem is knowing when to be ready to depart and how much notice one might get. In this case, the second slot was welcome and quite acceptable, compared to the first which was ridiculous. But that is more or less normal here.
The bigger problem was that Speck international departures need at least one hour prior customs notification. One cannot depart before the announced time and then one has a 30’ window to get off the ground. Once the 30’ has passed, a new customs 1 hour notification needs to be made. If one gets a later slot, it is possible to phone customs and have them delay the departure time. But if that slot is then moved forward to less than one hour from “now”, one is royally scr*w*d.
Not sure if this or the Autorouter thread is best for this:
So we are talking about slot CTOT management, particularly with Autorouter. Autorouter states that if you have a slot and you have frozen it, whenever you do the UNfreeze command, then it will have your FPL in the RFI (Ready For Improvement) status. I want to know if there is anyway to send a ready for departure (REA) message through the Autorouter interface (telegram or otherwise). There are some airports were ATC will not do this for you and tell you to get ‘company’ to do it, which is all very well when there is an operations team or handling agent behind the operation, but not so easy when one is by oneself.
