Europe's craziest airspaces

Peter wrote:

It has long been “known” in the UK that if you sound like you know what you are doing (or are flying a plane which is normally flown by experienced pilots e.g. a twin) you are more likely to get a transit.

I did an experiment on that, many years ago, for a magazine article.

An inexperienced pilot and I planned a trip involving about six or seven zone transits between Stansted and Solent. We flew it four times, in a C172 and in an Aztec, and with him doing the radio and me doing the radio.

There was no discernable difference between the transits we were given (which was almost a full house on all 24-28 requests.)

So some things that are “known” are not necessarily based on reality.

Peter wrote:

Someone suggested asking politely. Well, I can’t speak German.

Switzerland doesn’t really use German for radio. It’s predominantly English — VFR and IFR.

If the other side has discretion to say no or yes, you have to use a bit of emotional intelligence to nudge the person to do something for you. That’s just one of the tricks, another one is imaginary TCUs…

Do you have that article, Timothy? I remember it.

Goodness! There’s a question! It was many, many years ago (when Class D access was claimed to be much worse than it is now.) I am fairly sure it was for Flyer magazine, so I guess in their archives, but I’d be very surprised if the original has survived the many hard disc cleanses I have done in that time.

I do remember that it was not, at the time, considered wise to publish it under my own name, so I used the pen name Will Collins. The great irony is that the then inexperienced pilot now operates a well respected flying school and uses the handle Allan Armadale. (Only the literate will understand the irony. )

Jan_Olieslagers wrote:

Well, I must be the exception, then. It was drilled into my head that ATC are like police, they are there to maintain law and order but most of all they are a public service and I am their client

My view is they are not the police or god or anything like that. ATC and the pilot are a team: we both want the same outcome – to get from some point A to some point B without either banging into another plane, banging into the terrain, or causing disruption. We both want the same thing and we can work together so it can happen.

Jan_Olieslagers wrote:

It was drilled into my head that ATC are like police

Any time I have met with ATC here, they made it clear they are not the police. They are here to help us get to our destination in a safe manner, for ourselves and the others around. This is what we teach to our students.

Sure, but that’s because – again – this is a raster chart. It MUST show everyhing.

Yes, it is complicated. But if you take for example Skydemon (or EasyVFR, or similar) and filter the airspaces dilligently (for example, exclude airspace above 10000 feet if you intend on flying low), then plan a specific route and then zoom around a bit, then use the profile function a bit, then you will get around it, bit by bit. One can’t expect to immediately “understand” all the implications of the airspace on a specific flight wih just a broad look at the big picture.