Practice approaches - getting harder (and pre-booking)?

I am sure ATOs press for a guarantee of availability.

Peter wrote:

I am sure ATOs press for a guarantee of availability.

It might be the other way – ATO is given what airports wants to sell, and ATO has got no choice…

I have never booked an approach, whether in training or simply flying to somewhere.
I just file a flight plan, and go when the FPL is validated.
(Of course I have to do GAR and C+I if travelling to and from UK)
But I never had a problem flying in to Southend or Biggin Hill.
Where would it be listed that I need to book an approach slot? Would it be in the AIP?

I think one can generally “just fly” or “just divert there” if on a “real IFR flight”. These airports are not closed to IFR traffic just because some FTO has booked a 1hr slot.

I am thinking particularly of Lydd EGMD which is a really nice friendly airport, but which gets a lot of these “FTO slot bookings”. You definitely cannot book an IAP during a booked slot by someone else, but you can ask when airborne and > 50% of the time they let you do it because a) there is no sign of the booked customer; b) the full procedure takes > half an hour so squeezing somebody else in is trivial work for any approach controller

I have never booked an approach

You don’t need to book anything for private IFR flights, just PPR file and go

I think the context is training, sometimes done on “VFR FPL”, for these in UK you need to book IFR approches (even in France for training in Paris area you need to book, you also need to book these days in Havre, Deauville, Cherbourg, Caen or stick to times, see their NOTAMS, you also need to call by phone for instrument training in military airfieldslike Lorient, Evreux or Landivisiau…I have filed IFR to practice at Evreux once and I was told “it’s ok today but call us by phone next time”, in the other hand, at Caen, we were told they need 24h ppr for instrument training even when you are not landing )

I agree that IFR approaches to military fields need a PPR. Normally we used to just ring say Landivisiau and asked them what the chances of a PAR were at sometime during the day. If not busy they would say no problem or best between xxhrs and yyhrs. Going into Brest you would probably be talking to Landi app anyway and they would say yes or no.
I also accept if it says no IFR training in the Notams, but training at Toussus or Pontoise I have never been required to prebook an approach and certainly not at Caen, Le Havre or Cherbourg.
When did all this happen and why?

Ibra wrote:

You don’t need to book anything for private IFR flights, just PPR file and go

@Ibra, depends on airport – for some you have to book it separately and you could be refused…
Most often, I agree, you say you will come in on certain date/time and then on arrival just “XXXXX inbound IFR information Y QNH ZZZZ request R/V ILS AA”

for some you have to book it separately and you could be refused…

I never had that: Newquay, Oxford, Biggin, Blackpool, Southend, Oxford

I was refused to come to Cambridge two times but I don’t think it was due to being on IFR flight rules? maybe you mean for Lands End (reserved for twotters), Kemble (with AOC) or Sywell (6 per day), yes filing IFR with God in RHS does not help

When did all this happen and why?

I think it has to do more with money than planning with people starting to charge for approches (definetly everywhere in UK & even in few places in France) and with lot of pilots, including me, forgetting to pay if they “go missed” (no pun intended), unlike making full stop landing, so this booking requirement starts to creep in !

It’s only making sure some phone number will pay for it, lot of airports got privatised (Cherbourg, Havre, Deauville, Caen) and it’s money after all for military, it seems to do with some security requirements?

Should we pay when going missed without landing? (VFR or IFR)