That’s because it’s a pro GA environment over there, unlike the charlatans that frequent the corridors of Brussels spewing out page upon page of bile aimed at destroying GA in Europe. The more that we accept, the more they will succeed with their agenda
NCYankee wrote:
I have been flying in the US for 47 years and have never been ramp checked by the FAA.
In my 35 years of on-and-off involvement in US light aviation nobody I know personally (including myself) has ever been ramp checked. There are a lot of stories to make people wary, but a limited amount of action… which is probably an effective way for them to do business. Also, the mechanisms for FAA (i.e. federal) punishment of anything they might find illegal are by constitutional design slow and clunky: FAA has limited linkages to enforcement – which is mainly organized and funded on a state and local level, notwithstanding the recent growth of Federal agencies like the Border Patrol. That may be part of the reason too.
Phobos used the expression:
Wind your neck in
One of the things I love here is that you can learn all kinds of new expressions, and this is one I was not familiar with. Does not sound too bad to me, but maybe there are regional nuances.
The more I read about how foreign airplanes (and not just N-Regs) are treated in France, the less I have the drive to fly there. Pity, France used to be my favorite destination but they appear to be on the warpath on GA out there. Granted, all of this is not by own experience, but given what I hear from people I do trust not to talk rubbish, it appears to me that it is systematic and quite a harassment with the clear goal to give the message: Stay Out!
Phobos wrote:
That’s because it’s a pro GA environment over there, unlike the charlatans that frequent the corridors of Brussels spewing out page upon page of bile aimed at destroying GA in Europe.
The pro GA environment has a lot to do with the fact that there is a very powerful lobby organisation who takes care of this. And while AOPA Europe is catching up vs EASA a bit, it is a very long way off from what the US organisation has managed to preserve. European GA has for years been asleep and gone a way of apeasement instead of full confrontation the US AOPA did. It is much harder to gain back what has already been lost than preserving what is still there.
Last year I visited Florida and some airparks there, simply paradise for Europeans and full of expat Europeans too. No wonder. I hope at this stage that I can also do that the moment I get retired.
Mooney_Driver wrote:
The more I read about how foreign airplanes (and not just N-Regs) are treated in France, the less I have the drive to fly there. Pity, France used to be my favorite destination but they appear to be on the warpath on GA out there. Granted, all of this is not by own experience, but given what I hear from people I do trust not to talk rubbish, it appears to me that it is systematic and quite a harassment with the clear goal to give the message: Stay Out!
Just because the OP decided to ’dig around" on the french scene ? What a pity, because IMHO, France is the most GA friendly country in Europe, bare none.
Just because the OP decided to ’dig around" on the french scene ?
I don’t understand which you mean by “dig around” – can you explain @Michael?
Most people flying to France (myself included) have not had any problems, but these inspections are worth reporting because if somebody gets one and they don’t have the right documents they will be in big trouble. The fines must be substantial, to justify the expensive operations.
The most important aspect however is the policy e.g. the briefing packs used. This has implications for post-April-2016 too.
My question about where one is least likely to get problems was also worth asking. There must be places where they can’t be bothered to travel.
If this happened in say Germany or Switzerland it would be just as valuable to report.
BTW: Every time I fly GA to the UK I get the massive run-around with Customs & Immigration, far more than any other Country I’ve visited in Europe.
let’s just say that I get the impression that there is some latent “British vs French” antagonism in your posts re. France.
No; I am happy to be critical of anything 
I am probably more critical of things which are “random” in the sense of the police having no known rules and having a free run to harrass people. Here in the UK, the police used to work like that in traffic offences. But otherwise their powers are very limited and they know what they are, and they would not try something where they would not have a leg to stand on.
Every time I fly GA to the UK I get the massive run-around with Customs & Immigration, far more than any other Country I’ve visited in Europe
You get GA ramp checks? At which airfields and what did they do?
The airline/airport situation is a totally different thing. In the UK, immigration (especially illegal) is a huge hot potato / political football. But GA doesn’t have significant troubles with it. I have had a few inspections here; usually just a passport check, and on the last one they asked me what documents need to be carried!
Michael wrote:
Just because the OP decided to ’dig around" on the french scene ? What a pity, because IMHO, France is the most GA friendly country in Europe, bare none.
No, not because of one thread. Information on how GA is treated in France has been coming in over the last several years, none of it inviting. Ramp checks, French Language Proficiency for FR only airports, reduction of customs and immigration airports, and so on. Add the chaotic airspace and it is not that easy to simply say forget it, there are places which have much less hassle.
And btw, after all I read in all the forums, not just here, I would not think that it is very accurate to think of France as the most GA friendly country in Europe. I have not heard of any hassles like this in Croatia or Slovenia for starters, very few comparable hassles in Switzerland, Austria and Germany either, even though the latter has quite a few ramp checks but a much friendlier airspace.
