French Strikes - impact on GA IFR

I cancelled the EGKA-LFBH trip, due to

• fed up with pushing French ATC striker rocks uphill, not to mention the totally mad 48hr PN for “foreigners”
• could not quite get the VFR hack to work; hard to file the short IFR section at the very end so as to entitle me to an IAP (the strike region is very close to LFBH STAR fix)
• wx making an IAP quite likely, and IME French ATC can be slow in giving an IFR clearance (30 mins is possible, and that’s assuming you aren’t in a N2195B situation)
• possible fog tomorrow morning at LFBH – won’t depart until that clears on the METAR (learnt that one many times)
• little or no overlap between me and other(s) there on Saturday
• a return CTOT would really screw me up w.r.t. EGKA closing time of 1900 UTC (I normally work on a 2hr margin)
• too many factors stacking up

Good destination, plenty of accom. Another time!

But in both cases, not long before flight the slot delays diminished to 5 minutes

Eurocontrol software done by unix and java hackers, paid x€ per line of code, whether working code or not. In their world, everything has a solution, in software!

boscomantico wrote:

On autorouter, once a CTOT has been issued, you find a button for this on your flightplans page. You can also trigger the command via the Telegram bot.

Technically speaking, this freeze command equals sending a SWM (“slot improvement proposal wanted message”). After that, CFMU merely proposes improvements and it is up to you to accept or not. Autorouter automatically declines these and doesn’t even pass them on to you. Clever. I don’t think Rocketroute allows that, and Foreflight neither.

A theoretical possibility is to delay the plan to slot time minus taxi time (the one in the Eurocontrol database, not your estimate of the truth) minus 10 minutes, which in effect will keep Eurocontrol to give an earlier slot. However, the difficulty is knowing the “taxi time” in Eurocontrol’s database for the departure aerodrome…

One can also issue a SWM message on the Eurocontrol NOP portal, with a log in; each operator gets two free logins, on condition to actually use them (login at least once every 6 months), else they “reserve the right” to cancel the login (and then a replacement one is not free of charge). More logins than two need payment.

That portal also also allows to file route changes, etc. Autorouter/Achim doesn’t like it when you do that, I think that’s because it means autorouter’s view of the FPL and Eurocontrol’s view get out of sync. But it “works” and allows a cancel/refile to change the route, and thus (as far as I understand) the “late filer” tag. As autorouter doesn’t know your new route, obviously you still get the briefing pack, NOTAMs, GRAMET, fuel computations, etc for the old route…

Generally, the Eurocontrol NOP portal is a “handle with care” tool. You can act on the FPLs of other operators (if they haven’t blocked that, and “some or maybe many” airlines have not)…

https://www.eurocontrol.int/portal/network-operations-portal

However, the difficulty is knowing the “taxi time” in Eurocontrol’s database for the departure aerodrome

I think it’s hardcoded 5min for typical small GA airports (also there is a spreadsheet of actual winter and summer stats on taxi times for various airports)

What is the status of the French ATC strikes? I’ve just done a routing EGKA-LDLO for Monday at around FL100 through France and it looks ok

Surprisingly, no response. It’s been reported in the Aero telegram group that France is still issuing CTOTs, so something is going on. I am going EGKA-EDNY avoiding French airspace.

I had a 1h CTOT yesterday, cause “ATC industrial action”. That’s been par for me since this whole unrest started.

Yeah – still on strike, on weekdays.

French strikes announced this Thursday 20th (and 28th April and May 1st).

They are on strike until May 1st.
Looks like there is less and less restrictions.
Some days (when they call for a bigger movement) there is more restrictions

Today, EDNY-EGKA

This is why you avoid French airspace

We have a new website now to check “ATC Strike Status”

https://cdm.dsna.fr/

Saw it by luck in NOTAMS today (not that I read these things in details)

F0714/23 Created 28/04/2023 14:37
Q) LFXX/QAFXX/IV/NBO/E/000/999/4412N00040E460
A) LFBB A) LFEE A) LFFF A) LFMM A) LFRR B) FROM: 23/05/03 04:00 TO: 23/06/01 04:00
E) DUE TO AN INTER-PROFESSIONAL SOCIAL MOVEMENT AFFECTING ALL AREAS
OF
ACTIVITY, MAJOR DISRUPTIONS ARE POTENTIALLY EXPECTED IN DSNA ATC
CENTERS (ACCS, APP, TOWER) IN FRANCE AND OVERSEAS DEPARTMENTS.
A MINIMUM SERVICE WILL BE ENSURED IN SOME DSNA ATC CENTERS IDENTIFIED
IN THE DECREE NUMBER 85-1332 MODIFIED OF DECEMBER 17, 1985. ACTUAL
ATC CAPACITY WILL BE DETERMINED ACCORDING TO AVAILABLE STAFF.
RMK 1: IN PARTICULAR, MININUM SERVICE WILL BE IN PLACE AT PARIS ACC
(LFFF) ON WEDNESDAYS AND SATURDAYS, INCLUDING NIGHT SHIFTS BEFORE AND
AFTER.
RMK 2: INFORMATION ON THE REAL-TIME SITUATION AND CLOSURES OF ATS
SERVICES WILL BE AVAILABLE ON THE FOLLOWING INTERNET WEBSITE:
HTTPS://CDM.DSNA.FR
RMK 3: ADDITIONAL NOTAMS WILL BE ISSUED IF NEEDED DEPENDING ON THE
EVOLUTION OF THE SITUATION.