MU2 in Europe - Dispatch services - Local copilots - Trip itinerary

mciholas wrote:

I need to cross the chasm between the “it’s not hard” comments and the actual doing of it. Are there tutorials, guides, books, etc?

Some contributors to EuroGA have in the past made claims that another set of contributors to EuroGA were too elitist. Some have also made claims that we tend to make things sound too complicated. Maybe there is some truth to that, but I think that is true for any forum with more than one contributor . Someone writes something which is not accurate enough to the taste of somebody else who chips in and pretty soon you have 10 posts about a little detail, you get totally confused and are under the impression it is a lot more complicated than it is.

I learned to fly in Norway and got my IR at American Flyers in Hayward, CA. Before starting to fly IFR in France I had an afternoon’s “differences training” with a FAA CFII who also has a EASA CPL/IR. He introduced me to some of the practical and legal differences there are between the US and Europe. He got me jumpstarted with tools like EuroFPL (for flight planning and filing – I have since moved to the EuroGA router), AUGUR (for RAIM prediction including planned satellite outages), RAD (Route Availability Document – a set of route constraints that make manual flight-planning a nightmare) etc.

I still remember my first IFR flight in France. It was a non-event.

Most of the IFR-related differences concern flight planning and filing the flight plan, getting acquainted with the different tools (the only thing you would really need is the EuroGA router which also gives you access to AIP – the European equivalent to AFM (which contains everything you really need to know about an airport, operating hours, customs, fuel, types of operations, whether handling is mandatory, whether PPR is required…). Other than that conducting the IFR flight is pretty much the same as in the US.

Some notable differences are:

• For IFR you need a start-up clearance from Clearance/Delivery (?), Ground or Tower prior to engine start.
• Unlike the US where you may not even need to file in order to get an IFR clearance, you need to file at least (theoretically) one hour before estimated off-block time and get the flight plan accepted by the Eurocontrol computer – hence the need for tools like RR or EuroGA router.
• Pop-up IFR clearances although theoretically allowed everywhere since SERA are frowned upon in many places.
• You may be allocated a slot (for flow management) in which case you need to take off between CTOT -5 min and CTOT +10 min so you need to adjust your off-block time accordingly.
• Some countries do not allow landing or departing outside of ATS hours.
• In France, outside aerodrome OPS hours, a circling approach is mandatory.
• In some countries you will be expected to switch from Tower to Departure frequency upon reaching a certain altitude. You will not get the departure frequency in your clearance, but it will be in the text section of the AIP AP charts. Other places the frequency will be included in your departure clearance “when advised, contact …”
• Alternate minima are different from the US but if you apply the US ones you should probably be OK. The regulations for whether or not you actually need an alternate are also a little bit different. But if you are like me you probably always file an alternate.
• Transition altitude is generally around 5000 feet AAL
• You may need PPR for landing/parking at your destination
• Handling may be mandatory and they won’t waive the handling fee if you buy gas.
• In the US, getting in and out of an airfield which is unattended is no problem. In Europe a number of airfields tend to be gated so if you plan to go in or out outside of operating hours you need to call ahead and get the gate code.
• Probably not an issue for you at all, but in many places ATC seem to want you in controlled airspace and will issue warnings about you having to ensure own separation from VFR traffic if you are about to leave controlled airspace, even into class E.
• Departing from an non-towered VFR airfield it is preferable to obtain at least a squawk code and departure frequency before departure. In order to do so you would need to figure out the phone number to the appropriate ATC unit which may not be straight-forward and require a little bit of digging.
• NORDO procedures are not completely standardised. You find them in the Jeppesen Airway Manual – Emergency section – listed by airport, bu country

You appear to intend to fly to regional airports with good operating hours (so probably within their operating hours), customs, ATS, instrument approaches (not Lausanne)… PPR may be required in a few places like Barcelona El-Prat, Munich and Oslo (ENGM) but not Rygge (ENRY). I think most of the airports in your list would not pose any problems, although in some cases you will have several alternative airports to choose from.

I think that at this point one of the things you need to figure out, and that you can get on this forum, is what airport to use for each of your destinations, and whether any of them poses a particular challenge/constraint like lack of customs, VFR only, PPR etc.

Given that the majority of flights require customs, I assume notice for that needs to be even longer.

Not necessarily. At most of the big airports in Europe, you don’t need to give customs any advance notice. Just fly. In mist cases, hey won’t even come to visit you after landing. That’s one thing which is definitely more pain-free in Europe than in the US.

What is “ATS”?

Air Traffic Service. It’s a term summing up ATC (Tower) or AFIS, which is some kind-of quasi-tower. So, in other words: “when there is nobody there”.

Transition Altitude is where you change to 29.92 (1013). This level is much lower here in Europe (often more or less at 5000 feet), but it depends from country to country, and even from region to region.

AAL= above aerodrome level.

Does this mean you can’t do an IAP to a runway, you have to break it off and circle around once uselessly?

In a nutshell, yes. Only in France though. What they want to make sure is you check for other traffic (NORDO!), runway condition and the windsock. Likewise, even on a VFR approach to a deserted airfield, you can’t just enter “on the 45” and land. Must go overhead first.

ATS is air traffic service.

Transion altitude (resp. level) is where you change from altitude (QNH) to flight levels (1013 hPa or 29.92 inHg) when you climb (resp. descend). It is not harmonised in Europe or even within a country.

AAL above airport level

Hth,

Xtophe

As in the USA there are freelance, self employed pilots out there that fly aircraft like King Air and Citation on the basis of a certain price per day plus expenses. I would suggest that suggest you simply hire someone like that for some or all of your trip. Any freelancer will be used to all the wrinkles of the system, to the extent that is will be simple for you. If they are being paid it is not unreasonable for you to ask them to sort out all the flight plans, fuelling, and so on, while you go and visit your family etc. Then all you need to do is jump in and fly.

I’m not sure it would be easy to find a type rated MU2 pilot, but anyone flying light jets or King Airs would be perfect.

I think once you had done a few legs you would feel fine about the whole thing, and a return trip another year would hold no fears. I would comment that in Europe I have no worries about any problems with officialdom, as in my experience the stories are highly exaggerated. However, for me the USA seems to be a very adversarial place as I frequently hear that one shouldn’t even speak to the FAA without a lawyer because they are out to get you. I expect that’s an exaggeration too.

I don’t think you are at serious risk of your aircraft being impounded. You clearly live in the US, the aircraft is based there. Europe is not a place where assets are summarily taken. Plenty of people come here on holidays in their own aircraft and fly with locals. Please don’t get the idea that it is like Central America and your aircraft will be impounded by the corrupt airport officials. There is some alarmist stuff out there on VAT, broadly if you are here for a holiday you are fine.

Your issues are going to be the far more mundane logistics of operating in lots of small countries where local knowledge is important.

That OPMAS website (written by the lawyer who used to run the Danish zero-VAT scheme) is quite interesting.

This bit especially.

Remember this relates to getting the full import VAT exemption, not to generally flying around the EU (it would be silly then, obviously).

My Q would be: how strict is this? Does it mean that a US based corporate jet, popping over to Europe for a week, is not allowed to carry EU citizens on an internal flight? I think one needs to read that carefully because that would be impractically strict.

Neil’s suggestion is quite practical, but this person would be a safety pilot, not a second in command or co pilot as understood in a multi crew context. If you are not an instructor he/she should not fly, especially if not type rated.

I know it may be stating the obvious but you would need to clarify that the role is only that of an ops/dispatch assistant.