achimha wrote:
You won’t stop until everything about life is bad and miserable, will you?
I will not close my eyes to quite obvious facts. But anyone has his own risk assessment.
achimha wrote:
France is GA heaven
That is NOT the impression one gets when hearing all sorts of stories like that. And mind, in recent history I mostly hear them from France. Yes, France used to be a GA heaven, absolutely. But that appears to have changed. Me, I can do without this kind of hassle, and anyway from Switzerland I need an airport of entry which usually are also with english ATC, which eliminates the FR only problem most of the time.
achimha wrote:
lots of (mostly free) airfields, H24,
How many of these “free” H24 hour airfields are “FR only”? In which case, they may well be free and H24 but as I do not carry a French Language Proficiency they are useless to me. I have also noticed that quite a few flight schools from here who used to fly to France to do night flights and other such things don’t do it anymore after some rather massive experiences with the French law.
achimha wrote:
Maybe there is more freedom for GA in the Midwest of the US but France beats the Midwest any day for me.
Apples and organges. The US is a territory where you can more or less operate unrestricted by “local” laws which make things so difficult here. France is definitly not like that, not even close. I’d even think that there are less legal minefields in Germany and most of Southeastern Europe than there.
Well, one of the most restricted places you can fly your GA plane to is definitely Switzerland. Zurich ATC is the least helpful for VFR pilots 1000 km around
France has the big advantage that you land in places where you want to BE
Mooney_Driver wrote:
How many of these “free” H24 hour airfields are “FR only”?
A better question would be at how many of those is R/T mandatory?
There are still capital controls in Europe – in Cyprus in particular. At the bizjet handlers in Larnaca they have big signs (in English, Greek and Russian – go figure) stating the maximum amount of hard currency allowed to be carried.
I can count in the fingers of one toe the number of times I’ve seen pax or our aircraft inspected while flying private ops round the EU. Even on ramp checks they haven’t looked in the back!
On the general subject: during my time in southern Spain, there were regular press reports about airborne smuggling of dope from Morocco to Spain. Mostly done with Microlights and Autogyros. Why anyone would fly a few kilos if you can transport a ton on a fast Zodiac, I don’t know. However, the Guardia Civil did hide in the shadows at LEAX pretty often. Never bothered me, though.
Apparently more than a few kilos are involved. A guy that had been restoring a AN2 for months (‘so why are you stripping every piece of the interior’) flew with an interesting PAY-load from Morocco to some deserted strip in Spain. He got caught though..
And a few years back some unidentified light aircraft dumped a rucksack full of drugs on Menorca. By sheer luck, a police car was nearby and they intercepted it. As a result, every light aircraft landing at LESL was ‘checked’, by the police. Meaning showing your papers. It became a bit irritating having to spell out all the same data (including the place of birth of your parents) for the 30th time, so I asked “what about a sniffing dog instead of this senseless paper exercise”. Wrong remark. Here I am on the list for the next 30 trips, I guess 
Previously mentioned on the Bagby thread. In addition to quite good monitoring of suspicious flights, police helicopters work closely with ATC. As Bagby lies under a MATZ with good radar the pilot might not have been the sharpest.
France is very GA friendly and the state is still very supportive of grassroots aviation. Aeroclubs are incredibly hospitable even if you mangle the language using some dog eared R/T French crib sheet.
Flyer59 wrote:
Well, one of the most restricted places you can fly your GA plane to is definitely Switzerland.
At least you may use English as RT language at all our airports and airfields. There are no minefields like what language may be used at what time of the day and similar stuff. Also almost all small airfields have some sort of customs clearance for flights from /to Schengen, which is more than can be said in France, where customs able airports have been massively reduced due to the Schengen regime, as they are no longer needed for flights from/to the Schengen AND EU. Mostly planning flights in Switzerland are easy, as easy as in Germany and Austria. Whereas for France, a lot more data and read up is necessary which airport or airfield is open when and under what conditions.
Another one:
How come I never get an offer for such a flight?
Jan_Olieslagers wrote:
How come I never get an offer for such a flight?
Because you’re flying an UL – not enough cargo payload
