[Ibra]

I believe London do issue a DEP message under these circumstances, with the airborne time you give them. If the system waited for the first appearance of the airways squawk to do it automatically, would it not screw up the ETA calculation?

There's no need to issue a 'DEP' message or airborne time unless you pass an approximate one before you depart; whatever transponder code you are issued with will, when you dial it up, automatically 'trigger' the activation of your FPL and this in turn will activate your FPL for your entire route.

Is this UK specific or also applicable to other countries in Europe?

[chevvron]

I believe London do issue a DEP message under these circumstances, with the airborne time you give them. If the system waited for the first appearance of the airways squawk to do it automatically, would it not screw up the ETA calculation?

There's no need to issue a 'DEP' message or airborne time unless you pass an approximate one before you depart; whatever transponder code you are issued with will, when you dial it up, automatically 'trigger' the activation of your FPL and this in turn will activate your FPL for your entire route.

Is this UK specific or also applicable to other countries in Europe?

I can't honestly say it will for every FIR in Europe but it will for most of them (f'rinstance Russia still sends 'DEP' messages) and it's a system which has been used in the UK for over 20 years.
When I retired from Farnborough in '08, I found that Fairoaks still sent a 'DEP' message so I pointed this out; you'd be amazed how such a little thing can reduce FISO workload.(No rude remarks about FISOs being unable to hack it )

[chevvron]

I can't see any good reason to change squawk unless told to. If the controller meant to tell you and forgot then so be it, it's not going to do anyone any great harm. If you start second guessing then you risk changing it when there was actually a reason you weren't told to in the first place.

I never had any qualms about retaining a CAS code when you 'dropped' out of CAS both as an ATCO and a FISO; it was one less thing to do with the pilot and the CAS controller could see your code if anything untoward happened. By the way, when 'dropping out', the controller at Terminal Controller will normally tell you to fly on a fixed track while inside CAS until you are clear or until they tell you to resume your own navigation while still inside CAS, perfectly normal procedure which has been in use since the '60s ; this is known as a 'release'.
It's useful sometimes too. I once had an aircraft call me 'approaching COWLY at FL80 descending'. It had been transferred to me by Brize; no handover. I asked it's last transponder code and when they passed it, re-activated it and discovered the aircraft was well within CAS and heading towards WOD, descending towards the inbound stream for Heathrow which happened to be on easterlies .
TC had been searching for this aircraft for some time so when I re-identified it, we were able to keep it clear of the Heathrow inbounds.

[GrahamB]

I believe London do issue a DEP message under these circumstances, with the airborne time you give them. If the system waited for the first appearance of the airways squawk to do it automatically, would it not screw up the ETA calculation?

There's no need to issue a 'DEP' message or airborne time unless you pass an approximate one before you depart (known as 'passing a DM' or departure message); whatever transponder code you are issued with will, when you dial it up, be recognised by the computers at Swanwick/Scottish and will automatically 'trigger' the activation of your FPL , convert the code to a callsign label and activate your FPL for your entire route.

Yeah, but yeah but, if I don’t set the airways squawk until some time after departure, which is not uncommon for me based where I am, then surely London Info will issue the DEP message so my ETA is calculated appropriately?

[chevvron]

Yeah, but yeah but, if I don’t set the airways squawk until some time after departure, which is not uncommon for me based where I am, then surely London Info will issue the DEP message so my ETA is calculated appropriately?

London Info wil not activate the DM without you specifically asking them to; unless you have some overiding reason, I would suggest that if you obtain your airways code before takeoff or asap afterwards you set it straight away because this will activate your FPL thus calculating your ETA for you.

[GrahamB]

London Info wil not activate the DM without you specifically asking them.

Which is what I said I did at the outset.

[chevvron]

London Info wil not activate the DM without you specifically asking them.

Which is what I said I did at the outset.

So it gets activated automatically by London Control not London Info.

[GrahamB]

I give up.

[Sir Morley Steven]

Happened to me yesterday Blackbushe to Cumbernauld IFR at FL120. Controller said she could vector me down to 3500ft but after that I was on me own! I saw the airport around 4K and as 2d said, no mention of changing squawk was made so I kept it on till I landed. I was still IMC above 3000ft as distance from cloud was below minima. Once I was below 3000ft I was VMC and OCAS so 2000 or 7000 could have been squawked depending on what rules I decided I was flying. I kept the assigned one till the end of the flight though.
I thought my action was correct. Quite honestly nobody cared and I gave it no thought until coming across this thread.

[chevvron]

Happened to me yesterday Blackbushe to Cumbernauld IFR at FL120. Controller said she could vector me down to 3500ft but after that I was on me own! I saw the airport around 4K and as 2d said, no mention of changing squawk was made so I kept it on till I landed. I was still IMC above 3000ft as distance from cloud was below minima. Once I was below 3000ft I was VMC and OCAS so 2000 or 7000 could have been squawked depending on what rules I decided I was flying. I kept the assigned one till the end of the flight though.
I thought my action was correct. Quite honestly nobody cared and I gave it no thought until coming across this thread.

Totally agree Morley; when working an inbound either when I was a controller or later as a FISO, I always left the inbound aircraft's squawk selected rather than instruct the pilot to change to another code; let's face it, you can't actually 'see' the inbound when providing a FISO service (apart from Barton )so why bother?