Hapend to me in France… Ramp checked and I didn’t has the FCC…
Spent 2 Hours with the “gendarmes” (police) and recived after 4 month a letter that said don’t do it again or you will get a fine…
In fact it’s not 4$ but 40 or 50… Don’t remember
Romain
RobertL18C wrote:
I hope it’s an urban myth but I understand one poor pilot was ramp checked (Holland or Germany?), and failure to produce the $4 FCC bit of paper resulted in a €2,000 on the spot fine.
I wouldn’t be surprised since fines related to telecommunications tend to be steep. I would expect the upper limit to be much higher. Another area where you could run into trouble with them is failure to put your phone into airplane mode. I’m not fluent in these regulation but from what I’ve been told they don’t allow transmitting on frequencies used by cell phones from the air (you would need a picocell in the aircraft). They’re not likely to catch you unless you’re stupid enough to film it and post it online, but it’s still illegal if the information is correct (and the fines will be nice I’m sure).
As an aside, IIRC, people from Czech CAA were not allowed to check your RT licence. It was none of their business (the licence wasn’t required by aviation law, but by telecom law). You had to be checked by people from the telecom regulator (or possibly police). I think this is still true (you need a licence for the aircraft, but not for the operator according to Part-NCO).
Martin wrote:
(you need a licence for the aircraft, but not for the operator according to Part-NCO).
But under FAA rules you need both. An aircraft station licence and a personal one.
JasonC wrote:
But under FAA rules you need both. An aircraft station licence and a personal one.
You need both, it’s just that you’re not required to show it to them. It’s not aviation authority’s business. I found it mildly amusing. 
I have never in my life encountered more incomprehensible forms or maddening bureaucrazy-speak than trying to get a RSL for my aircraft from FCC (a FAA requirement to have if you fly abroad). The bureaucracy in America can be on another level, sometimes. After my 3rd time rejected and returned attempt, I finally broke down and wrote them this letter:
1 July 2017
Federal Communications Commission
PO Box 979097
St. Louis
MO, 63197-9000
In regards to Radio Telephony License for my aircraft.
I’ve now unsuccessfully tried to request a new radio telephone license for my aircraft three (3) times, and I’m now at my wits end. I’m this close to crying uncontrollably in a fetal position. Form comes back with some obscure form or code that has not been filled in properly and it’s proving harder to get this document than the holy Graal. I mean, what is a Lockbox Number and why do I as a customer have to know about that (Form 159)? Why do I need to know if this filing needs a waiver from Commission’s Rules (Form 605)? These both sound like internal things that should not have to be deciphered by your customers.
All I want is a RT License for my aircraft, so that I can travel with it abroad (FAA requirement). That’s it. I beg anyone who processes this therefore to help me fill in this form correctly and correct anything that is missing or wrongly filled in, so that it complies. You have my authorization to do so and charge to my card whatever associated fee there is for this RT license. According to my calculations and following your guide to my best abilities (PAAR, PAAM), it should be $170. If not, please charge the correct sum to submitted CC form
Today, lo and behold, the RSL finally came, so maybe they letter helped…. No idea what they charged the card, but I don’t really care at this point. 
Here in Europe, I think this is normally done by the N-reg trustee. It is the personal FCC radio license which the pilot also has to get and that one he has to do himself.
US officialdom does get extremely picky about some details, for no obvious reasons. I know somebody who had a stent put in and even for a Class 3 they required the serial number and batch number of it. It so happens hospitals record that info routinely but his cardiologist just threw his arms up and walked away from it. He did finally manage to get it, months later, by getting a tipoff where it might exist and following the process for obtaining one’s hospital records and, under close supervision, photographing the lot with his phone If you think Adam your radio license is a PITA, try a Special Issuance medical European expertise is 0.001% (10ppm) of minus zero… most FAA AME’s here don’t have a clue.
You don’t know bureaucracy till you’ve had to get a US visa. (Actually getting a visa for any country is often a tortuous process since the visa processing clerk job seems to attract the worst Little Hitler jobsworths you can imagine. My Albanian neighbour described the UK/Isle of Man process as “kafkaesque”, a person by the way who has a masters in Electrical Engineering and fluently speaks 3 languages including English, so the kind of skilled worker and high bracket taxpayer that we need here. For example the visa interviewer here barefacedly accused her of lying and the interview was conducted in an extremely aggressive manner as it if were a criminal being interrogated. At least it was done behind closed doors. US visa interviews are practically done in public, in front of dozens of other people including all your private details, and the visa interviewer can be just as unpleasant).
Having done the US visa thing a dozen times or so, I find the consulate/embassy part is the least painful. The forms are borderline torture, but the most unplesant is the cerberus-like official at the port of entry. Maybe 10% of the time I feel welcome, mostly it feels like GTFO. Wonder what it will be like this time around, at LAX for a change.
The whole US visa ordeal feels like a government sanctioned extortion^w money making scheme (and not just, although mainly, for USGov, but the whole supporting industry of eg. taking the picture the right way, etc).
The Turkish way I can deal with – pay $20 and done. Credit cards accepted, I think.
Although I am told that the Polish eastern border trumps ORD and JFK with a vengence, which does make me sad.
alioth wrote:
Actually getting a visa for any country is often a tortuous process since the visa processing clerk job seems to attract the worst Little Hitler jobsworths you can imagineThat is not surprising, is it? The whole rationale for requiring visas in the first place is that foreigners are dangerous and must be checked carefully.
