This is the 3rd World. Of course you will get conned and ripped off 
One pilot I know got a queue of officials (in Calcutta, I believe) all lined up as he peeled off the US dollars from a big roll as he walked past them into the terminal. A handful to each.
There are of course exceptions but taking advantage of somebody and bribery is the default position in most of the world.
It is only in some places like Europe, USA, AU, NZ and some others where there is a more transparent behaviour, and even that varies. Some practices in what is more or less “N Europe” are pretty amazing…
Rwy20,
Thanks for your snake oil, I already have plenty of, thanks to a friend of mine who sold me about 10 gallons at unfortunately a much higher price than yours.
Next time, I’ll be warned that you are a better oil snake choice.
Apart that, i do not know well flyeasy as I’ve used their services only for the flights mentioned in my previous post.
But thanks for pointing this to light!
Emmanuel wrote:
FlyEasy told me that a permit was required
I love their operations room shown on their website:
It’s the same as here, here and actually looks a lot like the one of American Airlines.
Emmanuel wrote:
FlyEasy told me that a permit was required but I never had to show it since I’ve never had physically this permit. They did the paperwork and everything worked out fine.
Can I sell you some of this? Since I am an approved snake oil dealer, I can guarantee you that overflight of Lake Constance and especially the very scary parts of Germany such as Bavaria will be possible with my snake oil without being shot down if you carry a can of this in the plane. It’s only 250 €, but it’s really good snake oil, believe me.
FlyEasy told me that a permit was required but I never had to show it since I’ve never had physically this permit. They did the paperwork and everything worked out fine.
Custom / police officers cleared us each time after seeing our passports.
I agree we’ve been screwed by locals concerning the handling. This was the sole unpleasant event of these wonderful flights in Morroco.
In Tangier, Tetouan, avgas is pretty expensive because pilots are landing from Europe there before flying to other places. Authorities apply a tax on avgas because of this.
Essaouira doesn’t so avgas is a little less than 2 euros if I remember correctly.
Why not think of Mauritania as an alternative to Algeria? It has some really great places to visit like Atar, Chinguetti and the eye of the Sahara.
See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richat_Structure
Or: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinguetti
I have written a kindle e-book called “Crossing Boundaries” on how to cross borders in places like Africa with your aircraft, deal with customs/immigration, pay cash or by card, where to get the permits etc. If you have plans to go that way, it might be worth the read. It sells for less than 5 dollar on Amazon.com.
I was in Essaouira a few month ago… No handling required… I agree, you get screw…
Even in Marrackech wich is quite busy, No handling required. You get park at the end of the commercial apron (East) and walk to the arrival terminal by yourself…
Romain
Emmanuel wrote:
a permit was required to land
What kind of permit? Who did you get it from? What was written on it? Did they want to see it? Did you show it to anyone?
Emmanuel wrote:
they asked us around 200 € each time
Did you come in a swiss registered plane? Sorry, but you got screwed.
BTW it reminds me of a walk we took through Marrakech. There was a group of guys hanging around who offered to show us the way, which we politely declined (sometimes you wish for pepper spray or the like to be able to be even more polite) and they went away. Then after 30 min or so, right at the point where you really were wondering if you’re going in circles, they appeared out of nowhere, walked along the last 100m showing us the way and then asked for some money for this “service”… I think the person having screwed you over in Tetuan called his buddy in Essaouira that there’s some stupid foreigner coming with too heavy a purse.
I have been in Tetuan and Essaouira last summer, and a permit was required to land on both.
If the landing fees were cheap, handling was mandatory for us and they stole asked us around 200 € each time for no services at all (the guy in Tetuan had however a temsi chart for us. In Essaouira, he just had the credit card reader. Period!!)
I used flyeasy.aero for the administrative paperwork
We have been to Algeria with our Mooney in 2013. Our only srop was Algiers. You need a permit to get there and it was rather hard to get it. The Algerian AIP is online, but it’s French only. You’ll need to speak some French anyway. The contact nuber for the permit is in there, but it took countless phone calls and faxes to get it. DAAG is not the most GA friendly place. They do have AVGAS but it took hours of waiting for the fuel truck. The fuel was cheap and the cost for landing and handling was OK, 60€ IIRC. Actually visas are required to enter Algeria, but we were able to obtain a permis d’escal for our stay. No bribes were required but a lot of patience.
If you’re interested I can try to dig out the contacts. Algiers is a place well worth visiting.
All has been said about Morocco, we’ve been there a couple of times. The trip in 2013 took us on to Tunesia, which was not as easy as Morocco but not as difficult as Algeria.
