SPACE By Captain Martin Chalk, Log Board member A s air traffic in Europe increases, and airspace becomes more congested, short-haul operators are increasingly making occasional use of oceanicairspace. The basic challenge is the acquisition and confirmation of the specific clearance necessary to fly in this normally procedural airspace. In essence, for those using an occasional, random route entering through Shanwick airspace to transit the west side of England/France, clearance must be obtained verbally (VHF check your flight plan for frequency) or by CPDLC Controller Pilot Data Link Communications (EGGX) more than 30 minutes and less than 90 minutes from entering the airspace. Some CPDLC systems will have a page for you to fill in the necessary details, or there is a format laid out in the guidance material. All clearance requests must include the entry point, its ETA, requested fixed Mach number and FL. It is also good practice to remark any maximum FL. After the request, an acknowledgment will be received, followed by the clearance. This must be accepted and, to close the process, an acknowledgment of the acceptance should be received. Company operations manuals will contain the process for checking the FMS is then correctly updated and checked. Find out more There are a couple of good, official documents available for those who wish to polish their otherwise broad knowledge, or for occasional users to store as links: n The first is the Guidance Material for Shanwick Oceanic Clearance Delivery at bit.ly/GuidanceShanwick n There is also a broader guide from the wonderful Skybrary, called North Atlantic Operations ATC Clearance at bit.ly/ATCClearance n Should you want it, the official NAT-Doc 007 can be found at bit.ly/ NorthAtlanticOperations TECH LOG MAKING We explore the increased use of oceanic airspace