Ibra wrote:
UK airspace is not that bad neither, one just have to be careful with CAS/OCAS and plan for both, some of it is ATC attitude but the rest is just no public funding…
I guess my summary of UK airspace is as follows:
It’s playing with the CAS/OCAS boundaries that is extremely problematic in the UK. It’s an impermeable border with one-way valves in the direction CAS→OCAS.
CAS to OCAS can be a torture in IMC if you are not sure you will make it as you may get thrown in some wrong spots or lost count of where you are after being vectored all over the place, one has to be careful there as well, it’s not an issue when it’s VMC but it gets hectic in IMC
If one is going to non-IAP Class G airfield they better push their plan early, I usually file & ask for cloud-break in Southend, maybe close/cancel FPL, fly to home-base VFR/IFR depending on the mood and maybe fly back to Southend if it’s not a good day, it’s far more convenient being abandoned at DET with freecall en-route, it’s way easier to go down in DVR on your own with plenty of time to get weather and make a plan 
Ibra wrote:
Radar Services OCAS, handovers between “non-compatible or far ATSU units”…and one will then get the ugly face !
I think one only realises how outrageously poor the system is when one sits down and examines what you actually get. UK pilots are probably familiar with the idea that you get radar services in some places but not others, although I imagine not many think about why.
The way it works is that whoever is responsible for such things at the CAA/DFT/NATS has decreed that there is no need whatsoever to provide any radar-based ATC to general aviation outside controlled airspace. They do not pay, so they do not get. London Information – a non-radar service staffed by FISOs – is used to meet the ICAO obligation to provide FIS.
The radar services you can get outside controlled airspace fall into two groups:
1) Lower Airspace Radar Services (LARS). This is a hotch-potch of NATS units, private operators contracted to do something, and the military. The key point is that the primary purpose of it is to protect their own operations, i.e. fewer airspace incursions and a better environment for their own OCAS operations if the great unwashed in their area have a radar controller to keep them out of trouble. The benefit to the private GA operator transiting the area is a secondary effect and is not why the service exists. An impressive-looking map is published showing the units, frequencies and their areas of coverage but doesn’t give the true picture because at weekends and after 1700 (when the military doesn’t work) most of it disappears.
2) Private airport operators that are not part of LARS but have an approach/tower controller happy to give a radar service to nearby/transiting aircraft, e.g. Oxford, Gloucester. Again this largely in their own interest – most are OCAS airports with instrument procedures and like to retain some degree of control over what’s going on nearby. You see this distinction clearly because most airports with a Class D CTR offer nothing of this sort.
So that’s pretty much what you get. What little exists is actually there for someone else’s benefit and is not part of any planned infrastructure designed to assist you with your private flight outside controlled airspace. It also explains why most areas have no coverage and in some areas there is more than one unit that might give you a radar service – with no rules about which one you should choose.
One becomes a bit more zen about dealing with it when one appreciates how it works and how little ATC support one is actually entitled to as a private aviator.
Yes I know the politics behind and various group setups but there is also the “UK ATC Radar Rating” barrier
For sure there is Radar Service coverage OCAS everywhere, it’s surely available for getting ID of busts on Class G ATZ & DA areas, but it’s not available to provide meaningful service if you ask though
Ibra wrote:
For sure there is Radar Service coverage OCAS everywhere, it’s surely available for getting ID of busts on Class G ATZ & DA areas, but it’s not available to provide meaningful service if you ask though
Yes – it’s not available to you because you’ve not paid for it! ;-)
Graham wrote:
You see this distinction clearly because most airports with a Class D CTR offer nothing of this sort.
At least one exception – Southend. Always helpful for me.
What happens when you’re GA above 2 tones? Let’s say a Baron, and you are paying for it?
LFHNflightstudent wrote:
What happens when you’re GA above 2 tones? Let’s say a Baron, and you are paying for it?
Well you only pay enroute charges if you access the Eurocontrol airways system I believe. If you stay OCAS you won’t pay and you won’t receive any service.
Alpha_Floor wrote:
LFHNflightstudent wrote: What happens when you’re GA above 2 tones? Let’s say a Baron, and you are paying for it?Well you only pay enroute charges if you access the Eurocontrol airways system I believe. If you stay OCAS you won’t pay and you won’t receive any service.
What happens if you start in CAS and after, say, 20nm you are OCAS for the next 200nm.
What do you pay?
Nice write up. I done pretty much the same route the other day but from Oxford, first solo IFR flight since passing the IR skill test a few days before. :)
Filed with autorouter at FL090, Oxford arranged the clearance and handover to London Control, was cleared to enter CAS on track CPT climbing FL090. Not long after cleared direct SHM. Let London Control look after the descent and handover to Shoreham, who subsequently gave the routing for the RNP.
I guess it’s easier if the departure field arranged that initial handover to London Control, but good point about the LTMA Supervisor if departing from an uncontrolled field.
