Hi all,
I have a great work opportunity in Switzerland next year. Also, I really enjoy using my plane as a means of travelling on whim.
That seems impossible operating from Switzerland with customs etc. I remember one Swiss poster saying he’s now reduced to a handful of locations abroad now. Also, the weather sucks 9 months of the year.
So the question is: How bad does GA suck in Switzerland?
Would love to get some perspective from people living in / frequently flying to and from CH.
Cheers
Welcome to the forum! Don‘t be afraid from flying within Switzerland as well as flying across the borders. With proper planning there are many ways to fly internationally. Weather for longer VFR trips is certainly better from Mai to September, but this holds true for many parts of Europe.
DM if you want it to discuss in more detail.
Paul
I remember one Swiss poster saying he’s now reduced to a handful of locations abroad now
Could you ask him for detail on that?
CH is non EU but it has always been non EU, so one has to be careful (that situation is AIUI no longer quite applicable). The UK is in a slightly worse position being non-schengen also but the main consequence (which applies to CH pilots also) is that most French airports are either inaccessible or are on a 24/48hr PN. The rest of Europe is basically doable.
I think one need to cover both EU and CH sides, my understanding, it’s CH side where choices are very limited to Sion, Lausanne, Lugano…maybe there are two others? that no one can locate on a map or need “airport type rating”
On EU side, it’s complicated with outdated national regs but at least at EU level, legally there is no requirement for using customs airport (Germany, France), if one has nothing to declare assuming they can sort PN somehow…
Ibra: We have plenty of airfields in Switzerland – even many smaller untowered ones- which are open for international traffic, at least when travelling wihout goods to declare and within the Schengen countries. So the restrictions are in the countries you want to fly to, as Peter mentioned, France has now way more airports with PNR/PPR regarding custums services as some years ago.
Paul, Peter, Ibra thanks for the replies.
Maybe I should have been a bit more specific. My post was not necessarily about the technicalities, of which I am aware (mostly). It is more about losing the “sense of freedom” which I enjoy so much now.
The majority of my destinations, esp. in CEE would become inaccessible or only on a PN basis (incl additional costs). E.g. going to places in Hungary I frequent would mean getting shafted at LHBP or arranging for customs at Budaörs for ~€200 each time, then an additional final hop to get to where I want to.
It all just seems like such a killjoy.
How do Swiss pilots deal with it? Do you just get used to it?!
Sorry for rambling, but it really zaps my enthusiasm for Switzerland, which is otherwise such an incredible place.
Well, Swiss GA sucks as much as the individual pilot chooses to.
Inland flights: bureaucratic, more or less on par with Germany
Flights abroad: same as above, with the added complexity of entering the EU, correct details by @Bleriot
JoeShmoeWithaPlane wrote:
going to places in Hungary I frequent would mean getting shafted at LHBP or arranging for customs
Well, you write not the technicalities… but you could leave whatever field in Switzerland, make that first landing on whatever field in Germany, and hop on whatever field to Poland. And yes, I’ll have those €200 – say 10% finder’s fee, please PM for bank account details, thanks.
JoeShmoeWithaPlane wrote:
How do Swiss pilots deal with it? Do you just get used to it?!
Say that if you wanna, or need to, fly, there’s no choice. Worldwide that is… either you dance in unison with the regs, or you don’t and your time is counted.
JoeShmoeWithaPlane wrote:
such an incredible place
Not sure what you mean here? Alluding to the vastly overbuilt concrete poured flatlands, the daily increase in traffic jams, the deforested plains and hills, or the mountains with fast receding glaciers spoiled by power cables/luxury hotels/condos/ski slope trenches. Switzerland is on the verge of becoming the first country that morphed into a city.
Ibra: We have plenty of airfields in Switzerland – even many smaller untowered ones- which are open for international traffic, at least when travelling wihout goods to declare and within the Schengen countries.
Does that applies to arrivals? or departures? or both?
Do you have an example where AIP says customs NIL and one can still fly intra-Schengen to that place in Switzerland?
Here is the link with a list of all Swiss airports with customs service. The ones which are listed as category D are restricted to intra Schengen/no goods to declare. Usually you then find in the repective web page of the airport a online form to announce your arrival/departure.
Thanks a lot !
