First edition here. I need to fix the audio volume in places… If there are any place names worth adding, I would really appreciate them.
The GPS data shows the aircraft 550ft above the summit. Presumably this is legal under SERA, even though it became apparent there were climbers on top.
It is obvious from re-listening to French ATC that they didn’t have my flight plan at all. It was ACKed by IFPS, it was opened by Shoreham (I have the confirmation in record) but somehow France didn’t get it. Maybe circular flight plans, maybe specifically the same route there and back, break their system. Maybe someone in French ATC can look it up?
Very nice trip with amazing shots! Surprised it’s still such a “mess” with the flightplans between different sectors and especially between UK and Europe. Did you add the flight plan address for the VFR parts of your flight separately?
The route filed was an “I” flight plan
EGKA SFD/N0145F040 VFR DCT KUNAV DCT ABB/N0151F140 DCT BILGO/N0151F140 IFR B3 VATRI G40 ARSIL B13 SOMDA A6 DJL A1 LISMO VFR DCT MOBLO DCT LISMO IFR A1 DJL/N0151F090 A6 SOMDA B13 ARSIL G40 VATRI B3 BILGO H20 XORBI H40 NEBRU/N0150F120 H40 ABB VFR N20 KUNAV DCT WAFFU IFR EGKA
The VFR sections are in bold.
So the entry into France (KUNAV) was VFR. Why that should not work, I don’t know. Maybe @Guillaume has an idea?
The VFR bit for Mt Blanc (MOBLO) was fine; Swiss were ok with all that. Well, you have to say something to Swiss ATC only once and they immediately understand you. And on the way back nobody cared anyway; IFR was never formally cancelled at ABB.
I have never before seen any generic issue with FPs UK-mainland. I thus suspect that they got confused by the fact that a given ATC sector can see only a small part of a route displayed on their screen (and even though they can look up the whole filed route they usually don’t recognise the waypoints outside their sector; this is obvious from talking to ATC generally) and perhaps the return route confused the system.
Congratulations on the pics!
Just a remark about the “Garmin beeps regarding a danger / restricted area” when overflying the Mt Blanc – you seem to be under the impression that it is “ok because coordinated with ATC” however at that point you were VFR in uncontrolled airspace and not under ATC coordination. The coordination only covers Geneva TMA / CTR.
If you bust that area when it’s active (i.e H24 in summer) and your callsign isn’t Dragon 74 or REGA 15 or some other official acronym doing mountain rescue and you get caught, it is on you. And there’s a lot of peeping toms there reporting everything from wingsuits up… 🙄
I am not under any “impression”. The “coordinated” bit (both my request and their response) is on the recording and that’s good enough for me, and would be good enough for any lawyer. Also 100% on radar the whole time (evidenced by the “no right turn” request).
The Garmin beeps all the time when flying IFR, because most of that is in CAS.
Are you a pilot, T28?
FPL with mix VFR/IFR will need special addressing in France, a friend had the same departing LaBaulle to Étampes, no reason not to file whole thing I-FPL rather than Z-FPL even from “VFR only” but he did it his way 
I would have expected Lille ATC/FIS to have it even if it’s not sent for them? they deal with VFR crossing UK FIR boundary, but I recall one day they did not have “OCAS Y-FPL” once from UK to Belgium while overflying France, so I just add the main FIS guys manually to my flight plans…
Which Danger & Restricted areas one can’t fly near Mt Blanc H24 in summer?
Or is it some Prohibited Area?
Peter wrote:
The route filed was an “I” flight planEGKA SFD/N0145F040 VFR DCT KUNAV DCT ABB/N0151F140 DCT BILGO/N0151F140 IFR B3 VATRI G40 ARSIL B13 SOMDA A6 DJL A1 LISMO VFR DCT MOBLO DCT LISMO IFR A1 DJL/N0151F090 A6 SOMDA B13 ARSIL G40 VATRI B3 BILGO H20 XORBI H40 NEBRU/N0150F120 H40 ABB VFR N20 KUNAV DCT WAFFU IFR EGKA
That should be properly have been a “Y” flight plan. Was it accepted as an “I” plan?
Peter wrote:
I don’t know. Maybe @Guillaume has an idea?
I can think 2 possibilities :
Anyway, after listening to the COM, it seems that it was fairly straightforward.
By the way, you can’t plan FL140 (which is an IFR FL) VFR over ABB per NOTAM :
F0591/21 – VFR PROHIBITED ABOVE FL115 WITHIN SECTORS CONTROLLED BY PARIS CTL
EXC SPECIAL ACTIVITIES AUTHORIZED BY PARIS CTL. 23 APR 13:58 2021 UNTIL 25 OCT
23:59 2021. CREATED: 23 APR 13:59 2021
That should be properly have been a “Y” flight plan. Was it accepted as an “I” plan?
I did wonder about that, but it seems that a route which starts IFR and ends IFR can contain VFR sections within it, and you get an ACK. Remember that the UK does not enforce Z or Y anyway (to non IFR airports) unlike say Germany.
I played around with the route (as described earlier in this thread) with Z and Y (and changing the two ends appropriately) and both were being rejected for some reason.
There might have been an error in the processing / adressing part.
This is possible; however EuroFPL is used by Skydemon and that is all (?) VFR flying, so one would think the addressing is sorted.
you can’t plan FL140 (which is an IFR FL) VFR over ABB per NOTAM :
Ah yes, the FL120+ VFR ban in the “Paris area”. Should have thought of that. IFPS doesn’t chuck it out, presumably because it doesn’t validate VFR sections. The originally attempted route (further back here) was FL090. I changed it to FL140 manually and it “worked”. Maybe something in the system chucked it out, so ATC didn’t see it.
That is probably the explanation – many thanks.
Peter wrote:
This is possible; however EuroFPL is used by Skydemon and that is all (?) VFR flying, so one would think the addressing is sorted.
For France, EUROFPL sends the VFR to a single flight information emission office (BRIA/BTIV) where it is manually processed.
