C210_Flyer wrote:
You got to be kidding me they were actually so cheap as to cancel cause they will have an out of pocket expense of 5 Euros?
Considering how you yourself feel about the €4.20, why are you surprised other pilots use to cancel IFR to avoid it?
In my opinion, the problem with EDMS is not in the existence of an IFR fee but in its deceptive application. I arrived IFR and paid the fee, but the guy at the counter would also have charged me an IFR fee for a departure on a V flight plan, had I not expicitly asked him to remove it. I was also charged a high noise fee despite me showing him my noise certificate. The guy said my noise level was “too high”, which certainly wasn’t the case at any other German airport; only later did I understand that he must have taken my noise measurement (74.2 dB) but assumed my MTOW to be 999 kg instead of 1089 kg (because the AA5 type designator covers both the 999-kg AA-5/AA-5A and the 1089-kg AA-5B).
Airborne_Again wrote:
Considering how you yourself feel about the €4.20, why are you surprised other pilots use to cancel IFR to avoid it?
Well its basically a user fee and if I use it Ill pay for it. If I need the practice and its a clear day Ill do the IFR approach and pay for doing so. Why would you want to add time to your flight by doing an approach? THERE WERE MANY MANY TIMES (sorry cap locks) when I would cancel and proceed VFR or do a VFR approach in the states. I do the same thing here in Germany usually when I fly into EDMA.
achimha wrote:
There is an even better case — EDTY Schwäbisch Hall. If you just perform a practise approach on their ILS or LPV in VMC under VFR without a flight plan, they will charge you an IFR approach fee (> 10 € per approach) if you land or in case you do not land if they have your address on file!
I have a little story about LHPR. Gyor. A really nice Hungarian airport used and paid for primarily by Audi motorcars whose factory is in the city. Well it was 2 weeks since I had taken the plane up and I usually like to put an hour on it but to be productive I decided to do some practice approaches to a miss. Got my safety pilot and out we went. Now Ive done this for the past 3 yrs over at LHPR. So Im finishing my last approach and heading back when the engine lurched. Immediately when that happened as I was about to exit the ATA I get a call form the Unicom (info) asking me to give them my Credit Card info over the radio. Hey I wasnt born yesterday and I was checking the engine so I told him Id get back to him as I flew back to LHTL. When I landed I asked around, What was all that about? Oh they started charging for practice approaches. Gee they didnt tell me that when I called the tower and asked them if it was ok to fly over for a few practice approaches. I wish they had, I would have had a lot less running around plus I could have given them my CC info over the phone and not over the radio. So I found out now, the local flight school is using a military airport which dosent charge for practice approaches and they are happy to have them because they do have a real tower and not enough approaches to document in their logs. So a week later I was in the area by car I stopped in and paid my 5 approaches.
achimha wrote:
EDTY trapped me once because it’s a RMZ (radio mandatory zone) and I said “D-EXXX just checking ILS needles after maintenance” — a week later I had an invoice in my mailbox.
Have you tried using Alexis call sign. Works like a charm nobody ever bothers me. 
I don’t do practice approaches at EDTY, I do them at ETSI (for free if I don’t land) and at EDMS, sometimes at EDME. Every now and ten I do an ILS in EDMA.
Ultranomad wrote:
In my opinion, the problem with EDMS is not in the existence of an IFR fee but in its deceptive application.
Finally some who gets it. I thought I was the only one these guys were banging.
Achim are you paying attention? Look below.
Ultranomad wrote:
but the guy at the counter would also have charged me an IFR fee for a departure on a V flight plan, had I not expicitly asked him to remove it.Ultranomad wrote:
I arrived IFR and paid the fee,
Did you do an approach or cancel inside the IAF or just arrive on an IFR flghtplan and then do a VFR approach without cancelling your flight plan?
C210_Flyer wrote:
Did you do an approach or cancel inside the IAF or just arrive on an IFR flghtplan and then do a VFR approach without cancelling your flight plan?
I arrived under IFR and did an honest-to-goodness RNAV approach in IMC. About 6 hours later, I departed under straight VFR, on a V flight plan.
Ultranomad wrote:
I arrived IFR and paid the fee, but the guy at the counter would also have charged me an IFR fee for a departure on a V flight plan, had I not expicitly asked him to remove it. I was also charged a high noise fee despite me showing him my noise certificate. The guy said my noise level was “too high”, which certainly wasn’t the case at any other German airport; only later did I understand that he must have taken my noise measurement (74.2 dB) but assumed my MTOW to be 999 kg instead of 1089 kg (because the AA5 type designator covers both the 999-kg AA-5/AA-5A and the 1089-kg AA-5B).
I have to say they have always just asked me if I am departing IFR. If not then they either dont put it on or if I notice a mistake I tell them. The noise thing seems like an honest mistake. I am still struggling to see the grand coonspiracy to steal €4 from the stupid foreigners…..
Yes, and that is what i don’t like here: The airport and its crew have been badmouthed for a year now in an international pilot forum by the OP because of a € 5 fee that is not perfectly logical. Additionally it looks like they sometimes make mistakes. Wow.
OTOH there has always been a complete price list on the airport’s website. I agree that I might not have read the price list the first time either. But if this fee made me suffer for such a long time i would not go there again (IFR) after i learned about it.
There also other solutions: File a FP to EDMA without an alternate and if the weather is nice cancel IFR, let FIS close the FP and fly VFR to EDMS. If the wx is bad ask the controller for EDMS as the alternate, which is no problem.
