Ibra wrote:
Why the existing CFPL slots like CTOT & ETA time are not enough?
The CTOT comes from some tactical ATC sector capacity issue, nearly always that’s an enroute sector. Those happen on the day itself.
The ASL remark in the flight plan is for scheduling slots, they’re there to make sure there aren’t more flights scheduled than the runway (or ground) capacity at an airport. The ones I know from the Slot-coordination Netherlands system are planned per IATA season (summer/winter schedule), so the airline slots are arranged months in advance.
On top of those scheduled flights they keep room for unscheduled GA flights, which is just some number per hour that can fit in on the runways they have. They’re first come first serve, you just log in and request one and if it doesn’t fit the system will give you one that’s maybe 5 or 10 minutes later. In practice nobody really cares if you arrive earlier or later, since that is something ATC controls on the day itself by giving you vectors and speeds.
When talking about slots. Which type of slots are we talking about here?
There are the slots allocated to airlines (by governments I think). At Heathrow for instance when an airline goes bust their slots get auctioned off. AFAIK this does not affect GA other than the fact that we either get frozen out by the airport itself or priced out.
Then there are the slots where we get a CTOT. As far as an airfield is concerned we should be able to mitigate problems here by taking a look at the airport timetable.
AIUI these CTOT slots are also governed by the need for separation in CAS. This seems to have become a much bigger thing (anectdotally speaking) in the past 2 or 3 years. Why?
The problem is that we are not given enough information or our flight planning software is not given enough information in order for us to mitigate the problem when making our flight plan. If its CAT then surely this is tied to the ownership of slots at airfields and the routes they take on a regular basis which IMO don’t vary greatly week by week.
IMO what we need is information which tells us that we would be better off planning a flight and hour earlier or an hour later, 1000ft higher or 1000ft lower or perhaps add a dog leg.
Is there any reason why a flight plan once validated should need to change other than those that occur outside of planning. Eg An aircraft,due to take off before you has had to cancel and they offer you an earlier slot, which you can accept or not?
On top of those scheduled flights they keep room for unscheduled GA flights
If they can fit arrival & departure of unscheduled flights why they need AD slot for them?
Parking space, handling requests, prior permission are not enough 
Hi All,
I’ve got the following information from SLOT COORD in Spain.
GCR
/GES(Random number)
KGZANY 18AUG18AUG 0004000 004DA40 LFMU1550 D1
What’s the GES(Random Number)?
What’s the 0004000? Not the cost I hope 🤣🙈
pilotrobbie wrote:
GCR/GES(Random number)
KGZANY 18AUG18AUG 0004000 004DA40 LFMU1550 D1
What’s the GES(Random Number)?
A message identifier.
What’s the 0004000? Not the cost I hope
It means Thursday.
The message format is described in the document linked to in post 11. Only in Spanish, but with some effort and the help on translators, you can make out what it says.
Airborne_Again wrote:
A message identifier.
Okay, I’ll have to try and translate all of this. I sent it last night and they ignored it because I didn’t put my wingspan in and the return trip (Due to parking restrictions) but AENA said it’s not a problem. SLOTS wanted it as per the NOTAMS/AIP or whatever it is. I rang them earlier, and this is what I was told.
Presume the K means accepted and approved so I’ve gotta land at Ibiza for 1550 UTC (1750L)
But what’s the D1? This document won’t let me copy and paste to translate.
Airborne_Again wrote:
A message identifier.
Additionally do I need to send a reply ACK this?
pilotrobbie wrote:
Presume the K means accepted and approved so I’ve gotta land at Ibiza for 1550 UTC (1750L)
Yes. According to the document, “K” means that the message is to inform the operator of an allocated slot.
But what’s the D1? This document won’t let me copy and paste to translate.
The “D” means GA. The “1” means that the slot is valid for a single week. (And in that week, valid only on Thursdays as the 0004000 code shows.) The format is originally intended for airlines and of course they usually have the same schedule several weeks in a row and potentially flies several days in a week.
I can’t imagine what the designer of this format was thinking. Even if you want minimum size for telex transmission, machine-readability etc, it could have been done so much better.
This document won’t let me copy and paste to translate.
That is really idiotic, but it is technically trivial to remove that protection and lots of tools can do it for you, e.g. https://www.cleverpdf.com/unlock-pdf. I attach an unlocked copy
(EDIT: Correction about the meaning of “K”.)
pilotrobbie wrote:
Additionally do I need to send a reply ACK this?
That I don’t know.
Airborne_Again wrote:
The “1” means that the slot is valid for a single week.
Upon a closer reading it seems to mean “every week”, as opposed to “2”, meaning “every other week”. But that doesn’t matter for a single flight.
