How to amend flightplan en route?

[Lauri Uusitalo]

Last night I was flying EBBR-LEPA when real-life intervened and I decided to divert to LSGG. I was under Unicom so there was no-one to contact. Nearing LSGG Swiss radar came alive and we managed to sort it out.

 

But is there a "better" way to prepare both sides for flightplan change under Unicom?

[Andreas Fuchs]

Hi Lauri,

 

as long as no ATCO has amended your flightplan in any way, you will be able to modify it and re-submit. But if it has been modified by ATC at some point, your FPL will be locked and you cannot change it yourself anymore.

[Lauri Uusitalo]

Thanks, so do not cancel the plan, but make the changes and file the plan again? And even if there is a plan for same call sign it will work, unless the plan has been locked?

[Andreas Fuchs]

Correct, try to change it. Unfortunately, within your pilot client you will not be able to see whether your requested change went through or not. You could check programs like VatSpy, Qutescoop, Vatmap or any other "status program" to see if it has worked or not. If not, don't worry, ATC will do it for you, just like in the real world: in the real world, inflight changes are always done by requesting ATC to perform it - I fly a business jet and we regularly divert for operational reasons and always talk to ATC for this.