Indeed 
The Germans must have coordinated that with Belgium.
Actually, it was Belgium who offered it to the Germans. Hoping to break you personal record for longest DCT
That’s amazing – thanks
I had a fun conversation with Langen regarding the track required to reach KOK. I will write it up when I am awake…
That was an interesting day. Fueling took about 5 minutes longer than it should have and so I missed the CTOT. Sabadell Tower expressed how sorry they are and suggested to go back to operations.
I filed another IFR plan just to receive a CTOT past 1900Z. So I filed a VFR flight plan to my destination and called them up again. No problem. 5 minutes later I was in the air. Called Barcelona Approach and received a squawk together with “climb FL180 direct KANIG”.
As I approached KANIG I was switched to the French IFR controller and everything went just as usual.
Only when I was handed off to Langen Radar – Germans :-) – confusion kicked in. But thanks to SERA air filing is not a problem and the computer systems were happy once again. At the destination there was the question VFR/IFR? again as I was getting vectored to the ILS. I explained that there was a “hiccup” with the French.
Thanks to the great tool VFR I was able to arrive with almost no delay. Nice flight in good weather. Could have been made as actual VFR :-)
Oh I almost forgot. I was given two 200+ NM directs by French ATC as well. It was quite up there and the sectors were large …
Bloody French. It seems to be a national sport. They spent most of January throwing out slots like confetti as they went to electronic strips, and now they absolutely hammer us with no warning. I heard some horror slots being given out yesterday, and it basically shafts anyone from N Europe to Spain or Africa, as well as routes across the north med which clip their airspace.
I would have thought the political pressure from other European countries would be high given basically everyone gets shafted – passengers, airlines, surrounding ATC agencies &c
Glad I am heading to Hamburg today. Should stay well clear of the French.
Josh wrote:
I heard some horror slots being given out yesterday
If you think what the french do is horror, try to file a flight through LSZH TMA or LSZB TMA on a normal day…
