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Thats is not correct, nobody closes their airspace for anyone, there still are the freedoms of the air. Also cabotage is allowed within the union so one member state can’t prohibit another member state airline to operate domestically within another country. Neither are there different entry requirements for each country within the union. The cluttered mess is mainly because a lot of populated areas are close together, not because of sovereignty. Eurocontrol has done a good job in making the upper information region one common Europe. Also Eurocontrol is implementing free route airspace, some countries already have it, others are in various stages of implementing it.
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Must have been long time ago, I’m flying primarily in EU airspace and I have never had such issues. It happens every once in a while that you would need to reroute due to military exercises but not 8 times. Especially in upper airspace that wouldn’t happen nowadays.
I’m not sure why you need overflying permit, that is a freedom of the air, unless you were transporting weapons of war or fly a state aircraft should not be required. Nothing is free for anyone, also not for EU registered aircraft.
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From what a pilot friend told me everything comes to you from the aero control. Maybe in the VFR you present the flight plan as a pilot and this must be approved. For the IFR you are given everything from above, indeed sometimes they could even change the track or star at the last moment. For example, if when you are landing the star you have to travel has become impassable due to adverse weather conditions (strong thunderstorms with downburst dangers) they could tell you to change the approach or they could also change the entrance track. On a scheduled flight from Catania to Tessera we had to reach the LAREN fixpoint and do the ILS, but because of an ugly thunderstorm cell… arrived on Umbria they changed course. Instead of arriving from Ferrara they let us enter the Croatian airspace along Dalmatia and landing in Tessera passing on Lignano-Ceggia-San Donà and then landing. From what I know it is the controller that tells you new route, new heights, new fixes and the right odds to land correctly.
Da quello che mi ha detto un amico pilota ti viene tutto fornito dal controllo aero. Forse nel VFR presenti tu da pilota il piano di volo e questo ti deve essere approvato. Per l’IFR ti viene dato tutto dall’alto, anzi qualche volta potrebbero anche cambiarti la pista o star all’ultimo momento. Ad esempio se quando stai atterrando la star che devi percorrere è divenuta impraticabile per avverse condizioni meteo (forti temporali con pericoli di downburst) ti potrebbero dire di modificare l’avvicinamento o ti potrebbero cambiare anche la pista di ingresso. In un volo di linea da Catania a Tessera dovevamo raggiungere il fixpoint LAREN e fare la ILS, ma a causa di una brutta cellula temporalesca… arrivati sull’Umbria ci hanno cambiato rotta. Invece di arrivare da Ferrara ci hanno fatto entrare nello spazio aero croato costeggiando la Dalmazia e atterrando a Tessera passando su Lignano-Ceggia-San Donà e poi atterraggio. Da quello che so è il controllore che ti dice nuova rotta, nuove altezze, nuovi fix e le quote giuste per atterrare correttamente.
ATC is not responsible for weather avoidance and most ATC stations don’t even have weather radar. The pilot is responsible for weather avoidance and requesting a more suitable route or a heading to avoid. Maybe it is caused by translation but I understand from your post that ATC is responsible for rerouting the aircraft due to weather, that is incorrect and I can’t remember a single instance where ATC has amended my route due to bad weather.
@trex5365 out of interrest: In the US if you file an IFR flightplan, do you guys have to adhere to airwais? In Europe that is a bit confusing since some countries do have them (Germany for sure 
) and some dont (Austira and Pland for instance). So I was wondering if you guys (excuse my ignorance but I simply assume you are an American 
) have to take the possible airways into account too when planning a route IFR style, do you?
However - we do use VORs or well known waypoints to create our route (GA) in AT for instance.
In Europe countries are moving to implement “free route airspace” which means airways are being phased out, some countries (like you mentioned) already have this implemented. You would still have to adhere to some rules when filling via directs but overall its easier and more economical.
Ah - well TIL!
I was of course only applying my limited GA aircraft knowledge. In the world of small planes a tailwind can become quite a problem - most planes have significant longer landing distance (or 50ft obstacle clearance on takeoff) when a tailwind is involved. Of course - Airliners can make a lot of that go away by their engine power - that makes sense
Thanks for sharing @anon50268670
Its not any different between GA or flying a bigger aircraft. They might have more thrust / power, but that thrust / power is used to carry more load. An overpowered aircraft does not exist, it simply means you could add more load 
. Eventually you run into the same kind of problems. Maybe for climb out its less of a penalty, but then you always need to take engine failure into account so even that can be limiting when heavy.
Obviously you need to calculate the take-off and landing performance using 150% of the tailwind component or 50% of the headwind component before accepting take-off or landing with a tailwind, and never exceed the aircraft tailwind limit (usually 10 / 15 kts). As a rule of thumb, a 10% increase in landing speed increases the landing distance by 20%.
In most cases it is sacrificing a little bit of performance for operational efficiency, like with everything in aviation its a risk assessment. Sometimes it could even be safer, for example to avoid weather or when there is a low level inversion where headwind would otherwise turn into tailwind after take-off (windshear). Avoiding high terrain or obstacles by taking off or landing in a tailwind.
I don’t know what fields you normally operate from, if the take-off / landing distance is limiting than you don’t accept a tailwind of course. When I was an instructor we used to calculated the take-off / landing distance using forecasted wind (50% or 150%), slope, surface and condition (e.g. wet or dry), than factor take-off distance times 1.25 I believe, for landing times 1.43 (landing within 70% of the LDA), so we always had plenty of margin.
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Watch YouTube videos setup flight plan
Thanks for the question @ActionTux
Yes, I am a US-based pilot. Over here, we can request in the flight plan whatever we want. The route ATC actually clears and assigns is a completely different matter.
Once upon a time in the US, following airways was critical because of radio-based navigation. The routes were defined by omnidirectional beacons (NDB) and then more routes were added through the rise of VORs. Following a route made life easy for the pilot to navigate (fly OBK 270 radial outbound for 30 mi and then switch to DPA inbound) and easy for the controller (J244 traffic 5 mi in trail, both at 250 kts, 16000 ft).
We used to have big wall charts of IFR routes in order to figure out cross country routing.
When SatNav became dominant (GPS, GLONASS etc), the routes no longer needed to follow low or high airways as navigation became markedly easier. Additional GPS-defined waypoints began to pop up and color the map. Then RNAV based GPS routes (Q-routes) showed up.
ATC needs to deconflict and manage the flow of traffic around the country. So while we now have a blend of old style routing and point to point routing, the FAA publishes several different routing mechanisms:
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coded routing: primarily intended for turbine engine/Jet and airline use 15 years ago. You punch in to the FMS a string of characters. As bad weather befell an area, these are a predefined playback of alternative routings. Imagine you’re in queue for departure and weather is moving in. ATC is now offering reroutes around severe turb. Rather than typing in “KEWR NEWEL J60 DANNR RAV J64 BURNI TYROO QUARM AIR HVQ BULEY J91 ATL YUESS Q79 MOLIE WLACE4 KPBI” while in queue for the runway, ATC simply gives you EWRPBI64, which contains all the above routing. I don’t think coded departures are used as frequently as they once were due to the significant fuel reserves required. Routing can sometimes be 50% longer. If you’re going to accept coded routing, you better have full tanks.
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TEC Routing: Tower Enroute Control - low level routing from Approach to Approach and ATC towers along the way. Rather than transition to the enroute Center control and be log jammed at times from packed airspace. These routes can be found in the Charts Supplement Publication (formerly known as the AFD Airport/Facility Directory).
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ATC Preferred Routing there is a listing of origins and destinations along with government preferred routing. These routes can be found in the Charts Supplement Publication.
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Recently assigned I think this is what most GA pilots select. Modern tools allow the pilot to select a predefined routing based on what ATC reports back to major navigation institutions as having recently been cleared and categorized by airframe.
Today, although a lot of navigation happens primarily through GPS, much navigation still happens through radio based. As a result, pilots are now able to request routes appropriate to the equipment they are flying with.
A lot of information there, but the long story short is that we stuck to routes once upon a time but today have more freedom to go waypoint by waypoint.
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This is fantastic information. Thank you for taking the time to write it up.
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Logged into a navigation provider and pulled CDRs from KORD…KTPA. Here’s what it spit out and here is the advisory data that goes with it:
Coded Departure Route (CDR) Procedures
- CDRs are meant to reduce workload between various ATC facilities. They are also meant to reduce frequency congestion by minimizing read-back time between ATC and pilots when alternate route clearances are needed due to weather conditions.
- Each CDR is assigned an eight-character code to represent a predefined route between specific city pairs.
- A city pair may have more than one CDR.
- There are roughly 15,000 CDRs in effect at the present time.
- There is also a button on the Main Page which will allow you to enter city pairs and check for any existing CDRs.
Information on CDR Routes
- Request a full route clearance if there is any doubt of understanding the abbreviated clearance.
- Tell the controller you are unable to accept a CDR if the aircraft is not properly equipped or capable of flying the issued CDR. For example, some CDRs may require HF communication or Area Navigation capability.
- You must have on board the aircraft all current CDRs for the specific city pair you are expecting to fly.
- Put the phrase ‘CDR CAPABLE’ in the remarks section of your flight plan. You may still receive a reroute if ATC deems it necessary but no abbreviated clearance” will be issued.
- Some CDRs add hundreds of miles to your expected/normal route between city pairs. Special consideration MUST be given to fuel requirements and IFR fuel reserves.
- The flight crew is responsible for maintaining a current database of CDRs
|ORDTPA0S|CMSKY CARYN CYBIL PXV J73 LGC GOONS BULZI HEVVN MAATY1
|ORDTPA1S|EARND ELANR EMMLY ETAME EMEGE FLM J43 VXV ATL HONID HEVVN MAATY1
|ORDTPA1W|PEKUE PIGGG QUANE CARET ROEZZ SGF J41 MGM ACORI Q104 HEVVN MAATY1
|ORDTPA2E|MOBLE ADIME OTENS ANEWA APE J83 SPA JEFOI GEEYE JAYJA DADES7
|ORDTPA2S|EARND ELANR EMMLY ERECO IIU J99 VXV ATL HONID HEVVN MAATY1
|ORDTPA2W|PEKUE PIGGG QUANE CARET ROEZZ MCI J41 MGM ACORI Q104 HEVVN MAATY1
|ORDTPA4S|DENNT DARCY DREGS DONVE BWG BNA J73 LGC GOONS BULZI HEVVN MAATY1
|ORDTPA6S|BACEN BLOKR BEKKI ENL PLESS BNA J73 LGC GOONS BULZI HEVVN MAATY1
|ORDTPA8S|ACITO ADELL ARLYN STL J151 VUZ J41 MGM ACORI Q104 HEVVN MAATY1
|ORDTPASB|CMSKY CARYN CYBIL PXV J73 LGC GOONS BULZI HEVVN MAATY1
Here is a Northeast TEC route listing from KBOS to various destinations:
Here is a page from the FAA Chart Supplement, showing government preferred routing starting from Chicago O’Hare Intl (KORD):
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