Primarily for general aviation discussion, but other aviation topics are also welcome.
#1631645
I recall this 2008 fatal involving a local Staverton pilot (aircraft shared our hangar at the time) who closed his FP while still airborne:

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/worl ... 74786.html

Ability to activate (or close) FP by internet aviation App (eg SD) available to private fliers and small GA aerodromes (eg those for whom NATS made AFPEX too expensive for limited use) would be great. However, is there a safety case for saying that both sorts of message should be sent only by people safely on the ground, eg 'responsible person' (in the jargon used in Canada when I was flying there) who has observed a take-off apparently free from mishap, or who has observed (or has carried out) a safe landing ?

Yes, I am aware that for VFR flights to/from UK airfields without full ATC, failure to close may not necessarily initiate 'overdue' action.
#1631702
Wth universal mobile phone availability a quick call to close the FP to the usual AFPEX 24 hour number, once landed is so easy !
Airborne virtually any FIS will open ones FP, it doesn't have to be London Info, Farnb. has three frequencies, Lydd - or wherever you happen to be within radio reach of.

Personally I found all the AFPEX system fine this year
[but admit it won't work with the required JAVA version on my old XP portable computer].

mike hallam.
#1631708
mikehallam wrote:..
Airborne virtually any FIS will open ones FP, it doesn't have to be London Info, ...


But some won't, notably Exeter for traffic leaving Dunkeswell to cross Channel, so requiring possibly sole pilot possibly with a single radio to cope with complicated navigation around Exeter's Zone while trying to get a word in edgeways to London Info, and while courteously talking to Exeter to enable latter to be aware of their position and intentions. This because Dunkeswell decided that maintaining Afpex access was too expensive, and Exeter (reasonably ?) decided that opening FPs for others' traffic was not something they were paid nor staffed to do. It was, to me, one of the clear safety issues if Exeter had got the Class D they had wanted. In that part of the world, what FIS other than London and Exeter would be audible from a typically low GA altitude, and then willing to help ? Yeovilton might be audible, but active, staffed and willing at a weekend ?

A further symptom of a disjointed system where the management at each provider, for businesslike reasons, staffs and funds a service that is the minimum needed to deliver only for those who pay them. It probably makes perfect sense to the internal accountants :roll:

I imply no criticism of the ATCOs at Exeter in the above, of course