In flying outside Europe, it is normal to use the “overflight agents”. I have five URLs on my website, though I have never used any of them.
They are not cheap but at say €100/person for a trip to Egypt, not completely outrageous. If you want to fly to Africa…
I would have thought homebuilt pilots (who need permits within Europe) might use a similar one-stop service to get their permits arranged, though obviously they would not want to pay anything like these amounts which are little more than a bribe to some aviation ministry official, and would not be workable in Europe where that sort of thing is technically illegal.
Take a trip like say UK-Croatia. In theory, you need to get a permit from Belgium, Lux, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Slovenia, Croatia, or whatever. This 23-page UK LAA document (local copy) contains the various contact details.
Do the pilots really contact the CAA in each of these countries (which could take weeks unless it can be done by phone) or do they just fly and not worry about it? In the latter case, the ICAO aircraft type designator on the flight plan could get them into trouble – if any country implemented some software to check it.
Yes – I posted that same link in my post.
Are you saying that a homebuilt can fly freely all over Europe, with no admin work at all beyond the CofA type, except
That LAA doc lists a load of CAA contact details and other stuff for other countries.
I guess you can’t fly to Spain, or perhaps they don’t care?
I’ve heard repeated rumours that the Belgian fee, while being in the law and insisted upon by officials at every inquiry, is not enforced in daily life. Some have it that BE authorities only instated this ruling to be able to get any money at all from the many Belgian microlighters who register their craft in France – easier both on tax and on the pilot’s license.
Of course it never hurts to be on the safe side. For mere overflight I wouldn’t bother, though, I can’t imagine our CAA analysing the ATC logs. But if you wish to be prudent, you can always cross BE NORDO, have to remain below 4500 and mind the CTR’s, TMA’s, and what not else.
I’d be interested to hear what people do for Spain. Do you just fly, or never go there? What about Czech Republic? Since most of the aircraft of this type come from there I guess it isn’t much of an issue?
I asked someone who has an aircraft in Spain what I ought to do. He suggested just fly there and don’t worry about it.
I think the “Spain: who never reply” means Spain has never sent anything official to the LAA (did the LAA send their enquiry in Spanish? According to some surveys I’ve read conducted by the Spanish themselves, they are even worse at learning foreign languages than the English – and a few of my friends who were growing up while Franco was still alive only had French as a foreign language option – so it’s quite possible the LAA haven’t had a reply because there wasn’t an English speaker handy at the time).
They might reply to an actual pilot who writes to them in Spanish. I probably ought to try it.
In the latter case, the ICAO aircraft type designator on the flight plan could get them into trouble – if any country implemented some software to check it.
Currently, the only software implemented to to this is in the brains of the ramp inspectors 
For example, these days France will send quite a few of those to Le Mans as the 24hr race in ten days will attract loads of business traffic into a shortish runway. A good opportunity to generate some W&B and performance related findings. Lots of shuttle flights several times per day with possible duty time violations and of cause quite a few illegal/semilegal/whoknowshowlegal commercial transports – people and spare parts. An El-Dorado for every ramp inspector who takes his job seriously. So they sit in their office on a hot mid-June afternoon, looking at their screen with the CFMU data of the arriving aeroplanes and decide which ones to harrass: “That one is French, we leave him alone”, “No way that German CJ 1 with five passengers can land here legally, let’s give him a hard time!” “Did you ever see the type designator of that Brit? I think we’re going to have a lot of fun with him – I bet a box of red Bordeaux that we can hold him here for at least two weeks!”
I have had permission from Spain. Although having applied 6 weeks in advance, the permission only arrived in the week before departure and Portugal wasn’t much better.
I believe they now insist on a written postal application for obscure bureaucratic reasons!
In principal, you should find the requirements in Gen 1.2 of the AIP, but there seems to be no consistency in obtaining the information.
Flying a US ‘experimental’ to Europe, I got all the information from the AIPs and AICs for each country.
Unfortunately a US homebuilt isn’t covered by the ECAC agreement and the fees charged for permissions varied considerably. i.e.:
Canada – No charge, simply print and carry the general exemption form
Greenland (and Faeroes) – 3,170 DKK (£350) plus evidence of EC785 insurance and search & rescue coverage
Iceland – 19,960 ISK (£105)
UK – £64
The other major expense was getting EC785 level insurance coverage for Greenland. US annual policies cover US and Canada territory and European policies extend to Iceland, so you need to negotiate single trip coverage for approximately the 700 NM gap between those territories
European policies extend to Iceland,
Our insurance now excludes Iceland, the Faeroes, Greenland, and Svalbard. The company is Danish, the Broker is UK. This restricts our bacon butty trips to just Jan Mayen, which isn’t excluded.
Our insurance now excludes Iceland, the Faeroes, Greenland, and Svalbard.
I found it to be no problem to ask the insurance for coverage for a one-off trip. A request to the broker with some details on the itinerary and they were happy, at no cost. Also went to Egypt in the middle of the revolution (there was no airline service so had to use GA, hehe). They wanted a detailed log, copies of the flight plans and daily updates.
