Are you allowed in you country to
- Fly VFR at night. Yes in France, FPL required.
- Fly IFR out of controlled airspace. Yes in France, but need an IFR flight plan + radio contact
- Land out of an aerodrome. In France, yes for helicopters & microlight, no for an aeroplane, but it’s easy to setup a private aerodrome.
- Land without a PPR. Yes in France, most aerodromes don’t require a PPR
- Takeoff from and land at an unattended aerodrome, without anyone to command it. Yes in France, no PPR most of the time
- Same at night. Yes in France, with PCL, unfortunately, due to dishonest people who didn’t pay the fee, a PPR is usually required
- Built your own aircraft and fly it . Yes in France, with minimal bureaucracy
- Fly where you want. No in France, many ZIT P and other forbidden zones everywhere + high height required
- Have your pilot full dossier made available online by the authority, so that you can check that they took into account the paperwork you sent to them. That’s what we have in France.
- Lighter that class 2 LAPL requirement: non in France. In my Gliding club, several pilots have lost their class 2 medical certificate, a LAPL medical is as difficult to obtain as a class 2 medical, so they can’t fly a glider anymore.
- Easy rules for microlight: Yes in France. No medical required, no currency required, no minimum training required to get a licence. In my Gliding club, the pilots who may not fly a glider anymore due to their poor health are allowed to tow us with a microlight, and they do so. In fact all the towing pilots have lost their medical certificate, that’s why they tow us instead of flying, it solved the usual issue when everybody wants to fly and no one wants to tow.
Any other point?
The only advantage France has over the UK seems to be the ability to check what the authority has on your file.
Another MIGHT be regional offices, like the US FSDOs. The UK CAA has few regional offices, and they don’t handle GA.
In the UK we can land anywhere with the landowner’s permission, and probably on beaches below high water mark.
PS In the Scottish Independence Referendum, I voted to separate, and hoped that Aviation might be outsourced to the French DGAC rather than the English/Welsh/N Irish CAA.
For Germany, on the con side:
On the pro side:
For The Netherlands:
- Fly VFR at night: Not yet, it will finally be allowed from July 1st, 2018. Source
- Fly IFR out of controlled airspace: Yes, two-way radio contact highly recommended.
- Land out of an aerodrome: Definitely not.
- Land without a PPR: No problem most of the time, few airports require PPR.
- Takeoff from and land at an unattended aerodrome, without anyone to command it: Not allowed.
- Built your own aircraft and fly it : Yes, allowed.
- Fly where you want: No, vast areas of the country are covered by the Schiphol TMA (class A), making VFR above 1500’ impossible. Nowhere in the country can one fly VFR above FL095. Crossing CTR’s (including EHAM) on the other hand, is generally allowed.
Estonia:
- Fly VFR at night:yes
- Fly IFR out of controlled airspace: Yes, two-way radio contact highly recommended.
- Land out of an aerodrome: yes
- Land without a PPR: yes
- Takeoff from and land at an unattended aerodrome, without anyone to command it: yes
- Built your own aircraft and fly it : yes
- Fly where you want: once a year large areas closed due to military exercises,usually no problem. also no problems with CTR/TMAs .
For the UK:
Worth adding that DIY approaches are legal; at least in a G-reg. Also you can fly virtually everywhere in the UK wholly in Class G, non-transponder, non-radio (not all airports allow non-radio ops).
Its a close tie with GB and Estonia. Leaning more to GB but I really like the fact that no PPR is required in Estonia.
For Sweden(which I think is also quite liberal):
- Fly VFR at night: Absolutely, has been since forever
- Fly IFR out of controlled airspace: Yes, happens all the time
- Land out of an aerodrome: Yes, anywhere as long as you have land owners permission
- Land without a PPR: No problem most of the time, few airports require PPR.
- Takeoff from and land at an unattended aerodrome, without anyone to command it: Absolutely, no radio contact required
- Built your own aircraft and fly it : Yes, allowed.
- Fly where you want: Yes. We have no Class A airspace so a VFR pilot can fly anywhere he/she get a clearance to. We only have Class C and G, lots of G.
- IFR approach into non-instrument runways: Legal but no airport have it yet, looks like we will have the first two during 2018.
I know that night VFR was not permitted in the Netherlands historically; but what is the situation now under SERA? Have the Netherlands filed a difference, or is night VFR now permitted?
Fly310 wrote:
For Sweden(which I think is also quite liberal):I just found out that the law was changed at some point. Today you need permission only if the take off or landing would cause “noticeable damage or inconvenience” to the landowner or tenant.
….
- Land out of an aerodrome: Yes, anywhere as long as you have land owners permission