Lionel,
thanks for putting all this together. It actually proves the point that this kind of treatment of GA is totally beside any reason, particularly the amount of tax levied on an airplane which subsequently left the EU again without any intent to import it in the first place.
It also proves something else: Maybe you would share how long it took you to look all this stuff up, already knowing a lot of the case. Now imagine a pilot who takes the AIP as he should his primary source of information and gets shafted the way this guys did? Can we reasonably expect to have any faith in these publications if they are this badly written?
IMHO this case should be made public and possible action should be initiated to make DFS aware of these things, so they can update their publications to avoid this kind of horror. Similarily, it would be good if this kind of thing gets widely published into all aviation journals around, including P&F. Maybe Bosco, can you make Jan aware of this or should I write to him? I think this is something which would actually be right up your street to make one of your excellent articles about, how about it?
Lastly, people who have had such stuff happen to them should not sit in a dark room of shame but come forward and warn their fellow pilots about it! IAOPA now is trying to migate the consequences for one of our flock and also is rising awareness, but it is by far not enough.
If the consequences are as we now read, then these things need to be in the AIP and Jeppesen (and wherever else) published CLEARLY. Similarily, it would be much better for ALL airports with customs / immigration PPR to employ a system where you can request PPR online and get a confirmation or can at least print out the screenshot of what you sent.
I had a case like that at Speyer a couple of years ago, when we landed we were told we had not given the PPR but I had the printout of the request, which got them to find out that their system was down. I shudder to think what would have happened if I had not had that printout. I will definitly do the same when I fly to our usual training aerodromes at Leutkirch or Memmingen, both of which also have an elaborate PPR. I also have very bad memories of customs officials in Germany at Mengen, where we did get the proper customs authorisation but the airplane and our luggage were taken apart by two obviously unwilling customs guys who were angry to have been called out of their comfy office to see one idiot GA pilot, they took almost one hour to spread all our belongings including the contents of my wifes handbags over both wings, while keeping us at a distance and then simply said, “you may go now” and left everything like that. When I wanted to take a picture, one came back and shouted at me. I have not been back to that place since.
Best places I have seen are Friedrichshafen or Augsburg for customs in Germany.
lionel wrote:
Then, there is this somewhat mysterious category of “other approved aerodrome”, where Würzburg is, which (my guess) allows customs with PPR on a legal basis of “one-time authorisation for each movement”, subject to conditions specific to that aerodrome. This is similar in mechanism with the UK “Certificate of Agreement” airports. That is “part B” in the link above.
Correct. The category “B” lists all airports on which customs can be done via “one-time authoristation”. But only using a special form and by permission of the responsible central customs office “Hauptzollamt”.
The whole process is described here:
Incredible. Horrible, and very German.
I agree with you Mooney_Driver, why is IAOPA trying to help pay the fee instead of publicizing it and suing the relevant authorities in Germany?
This is how change is enacted…
Something tells me this is a political shift akin to the 500CHF departure fee in Der Schweiz.
Somehow I can see this happening in Germany. My experience was that when I made innocent mistakes which were cultural faux pas there, at times the response would be so harsh, and I realized it was because they somehow thought that I would go back and tells others how to behave in Germany.
Quite the contrary, it doesn’t make me (nor anyone I know) want to warn others about how to behave in Germany, it makes us warn others not to go at all.
Reading this makes me think hard about taking the Alps route to Austria via France, rather than overfly (or land in) Germany.
I’m also surprised that local pilots aren’t upset as well.
I’ll warn others to be wary of Germany. Cheaper to fly around than through at this point.
Thanks a lot for posting this.
Mooney_Driver wrote:
Maybe you would share how long it took you to look all this stuff up, already knowing a lot of the case.
Well, it is the needle and the haystack. If you had asked me before, I would have been utterly unable to find the relevant German regulations (the European ones, I’m able to), and within the relevant (German or European) regulations, the relevant articles. I would have been in front of a haystack, and unable to find the needle in it.
Basically, thomas_witt sent me the direct link to the court decision, and the court decisions have precise references (law or regulation name, article, paragraph), so I had to read only the court decision and these exact law & regulation paragraphs. Thomas gave me the needle, and I just had to use it to sew a bit. With my limited German, it still took me maybe two hours, actually.
Mooney_Driver wrote:
Similarily, it would be good if this kind of thing gets widely published into all aviation journals around, including P&F. Maybe Bosco, can you make Jan aware of this or should I write to him?
Yes, I am already at it.
lionel wrote:
They look at the Bundesanzeiger
Sorry, the vocabulary got a bit muddled.When I was writing about the court decision, and German law, “customs airport” is the translation of “Zollflugplatz”, a precise notion in German law. The airports that are designated as such, in a list published in the Bundesanzeiger and are listed at https://www.zoll.de/DE/Fachthemen/Zoelle/Erfassung-Warenverkehr/Befoerderungspflicht/Zollstrassenzwang/liste_zollflugplaetze.html. The equivalent UK term would be “Airports designated as customs & excise ports of entry”. The general rule is that you have to land, and depart, from there. There, you have permanent Customs facilities, you can import/export all kinds of cargo, etc. Very clearly, Würzburg was not that.
Then, there is a notion of “special aerodrome”, a bit similar in effect (but not in mechanism) to the UK “Certificate of Agreement” airports. You can land / depart from there, but only if you have only persons and no cargo, and the flight is non-commercial or occasional, and the importation is temporary. That concession is in the regulations. That is “part A” in https://www.zoll.de/DE/Fachthemen/Zoelle/Erfassung-Warenverkehr/Befoerderungspflicht/Zollstrassenzwang/liste_andere_verkehrsrechtlich_zugelassene_flugplaetze.html
Then, there is this somewhat mysterious category of “other approved aerodrome”, where Würzburg is, which (my guess) allows customs with PPR on a legal basis of “one-time authorisation for each movement”, subject to conditions specific to that aerodrome. This is similar in mechanism with the UK “Certificate of Agreement” airports. That is “part B” in the link above.The difference between type 2 and type 3 is simply not made in the AIP, and this makes it a real trap waiting to swallow you.
This last bit was not quite correct.
Teil B is simply all other public aerodromes, where no regular customs clearance is possible (except by special approval).
In the case of these airfields, the AIP VFR will simply say nothing at all about customs availability (meaning customs clearance not possible).
So it’s not true that you can’t distinguish between the two by looking at the AIP / AIP VFR.
The issue seems to be that EDFW, at a certain point in time, went from Teil A to Teil B (as many other GA airfields did in recent years), and for some reason, this did go unnoticed, so the AIP remained unchanged.
boscomantico wrote:
This last bit was not quite correct.
Teil B is simply all other public aerodromes
Darn. That’s quite a bit more than “not quite correct”. That’s confusing. The customs office publishes a list of all aerodromes existing?
My VFR AIP is rather out of date but e.g. Leipzig(-Altenburg) EDAC has customs in the AIP (under Hauptzollamt Erfurt), but is in Teil B on archive.org’s oldest snapshot of the zoll.de. The same about Wyk auf Föhr EDXY, Diepholz ETND and Dessau EDAD. Are these changes that happened between my AIP copy and the archive.org snapshot? Other errors in the AIP?
But also, the zoll.de list doesn’t contain Kiel-Holtenau EDHK at all, nor Worms EDFV? So the “Teil B” list is incomplete?
I cannot find Bayreuth EDQD in the zoll.de list. My AIP says “CUST 48 HR Voranmeldung”
The thing that is so horrible about this case is that the amount payable is in no proportion to the “crime”.
The maximum fine for not landing at a customs airport is 5,000 Euros. If not done deliberately, that maximum goes down to 2,500 Euros.
But here the customs authorities use a minor transgression to trigger high duties, which cannot be challenged on grounds of proportionality or fairness because they are not a fine.
German customs are not alone in this attitude – UK customs had in the past use the right to seize a car used for “smuggling” (without compensation to the owner, it was “forfeit”), and did so on several occasions when people did not declare what was above the limit at the time. In some instances, cars were seized even if the person making the illegal import (basically, a few more packs of cigarettes than allowed at the time, worth a few hundred pounds) was a passenger unrelated to the car owner – the owner lost the car.
This was ultimately found to be “disproportionate and unlawful” by the courts, so now the car can only be forfeit if it is “proportionate”, but you will still have to wait to get it back until the case is over.
In a common-law jurisdiction like the UK, a challenge was possible because the judges could override the written law by applying the principle of proportionality.
Is there a challenge under any codified law in Germany, without resorting to human rights law?
lionel wrote:
My VFR AIP is rather out of date but e.g. Leipzig(-Altenburg) EDAC has customs in the AIP (under Hauptzollamt Erfurt), but is in Teil B on archive.org’s oldest snapshot of the zoll.de. The same about Wyk auf Föhr EDXY, Diepholz ETND and Dessau EDAD. Are these changes that happened between my AIP copy and the archive.org snapshot? Other errors in the AIP?
I guess I now understand where you are coming from. Sorry.
Well, they offer that because even those airfields CAN under certain conditions be used for flights normally requiring a Zollflugplatz. The reason is that for these airfields, you can get a socalled Einzelbefreiung. That however is not a matter of just making a simple Zollanmeldung a few hour prior to the flight. I requires an adminitrative act, fulilled via an elaborate customs form, and this act is also charged for.
So yes, you are right, from the AIP you can’t directly see whether the airfield is Teil A or Teil B.
And yes, the list seems to be incomplete.
Peter wrote:
Interesting how little input there is from the huge numbers German pilots who read EuroGA. One would think this would be a matter of some concern.
Maybe, maybe not. Yes, it is one small concern, but not that much thought to it, actually.
I have been to non-EU places on a regular basis – you know that customs in Germany is a PITA and arrange accordingly.
Being Southern Germany, the best option are often small Austrian airfields, where you can pre-arrange immigration and/or customs with short PNR, reliably.
Hohenems LOIH, Schaerding LOLS, St Johann LOIJ, Wels LOLW are quite handy for me, but have no instrument approach. Some even have a form on their website.
Alternative are medium size permanently staffed airports, EDJA Memmingen (not nice, all bagagge has to be driven over to terminal). LOWL Linz, LJMB Maribor, longer opening times, no notice, but slightly higher landing fees. Portoroz is quite handy for South-East Europe as entry point.
Outbound to Switzerland, I do not need a customs airport with a German based, D-reg plane.
So, why should I be concernd about customs ?
If anything, I am concerned about entry permit etc outside the EU.
