Back to the topic, does anyone know anything about the thread subject?
We have various threads on the general topic of ramp checks.
Is the subject customs in France or entering and flying in France on N reg.
There is for instance a customs agreement in France where anything.you normally would need to show customs when passing in and out that you can take the documentation to a customs office, and get an attestation which lasts 10 years. You then only need to show this attestation to customs. I don’t see why this would not apply to the aircraft, whatever the reg.
The latter. French ramp checks.
The claim was that there was a French govt address or department to which you could send your documents and then they would not hit you with a ramp check.
You then only need to show this attestation to customs
I can see how that may work for VAT but I fail to see how it works for other stuff, maybe it’s ok for the FCC radio certificate (valid 10years) but surely not ok for VOR checks (valid 30days) or WnB calculations (valid for 1 day)
I only had one ramp check where it was pointed that the FCC radio station has expired by 3 months ago, we just failed to notice it that, it was a none issue, we did have it somewhere just not at our hands to show it…
Many modern planes won’t need the VOR check.
Yes I doubt such a scheme would be generally useful beyond proof of import VAT paid, but that was exactly what French customs officers were looking for. Definitely the ones at the Biarritz customs police training school 
You have to be super clever to do a proper “FAA inspector ramp check” where they even check placards IAW the POH… reportedly… and you would struggle to find anybody at an airport in Europe who is that well briefed. I was once asked by 2 police officers at Poitiers what N-reg was for, and after 5 mins their eyes glazed over and they politely walked away. There have been reports from France and Italy mentioning police with briefing sheets, on what a pilot license looks like, but that is still simple stuff.
The customs document I posted about is one which would cover the aircraft and the items you would normally carry in it. Eg tools. I don’t think customs are interested in whether or not.your radio or VOR works properly.
I imagine the 2 police at Poitiers were simply interested in what or where N stood for or came from, just as they may have asked about OU.
Offhand I couldn’t tell you which country has which registration and I hang about on forums.
So why should the police know?
Police activity has to be intelligence based, because they can’t go and hit every plane which lands and get the owner to lay out the entire content on the concrete next to it (this happened in Italy not long ago, and only N-regs got that treatment).
So they need to know “something” to make an assessment of who to look at. And we all know the standard anecdotes about that 
If they know nothing about anything, they cannot do their job at all.
I thought they wanted to know why I was N-reg and not G-reg. Of course the explanation, even a quick one, is more than 5 minutes. You start with the route to the IR, year 2000…
Does anyone have a contact in French Customs? Maybe @Nestor may know.
I don’t think customs are interested in whether or not.your radio or VOR works properly.
They do, as matter of fact, VOR checks are done solely by pilots because customs asks to see signature done by PIC no later than 30 days…of course, you don’t need to do VOR check if you fly IFR PBN GPS or operate under VFR but you really don’t want to get into that discussion while sitting on 40C deg tarmac
I’d be interested to know which airfields in France carry out these sort of ramp checks so that I can avoid them.
Never had any problem myself. The police do turn up on occasion for a chat, see what’s going on and sometimes have a coffee, but they have never checked anything.
The air police arrived by helicopter a couple of times but that was because someone reported the gliding club for using a car, airside. But they showed the orange flashing light on top and it came to nothing.
The other time was because of people parking their cars outside their hangars, again airside.
IIUC they were fined.
