Tips for Norway, Finland and Sweden

SkyDemon will show most of the airfields as well.

Last year I did an IFR flight from Denmark to ENFL. (Florø)
A few hours before departure I got a call from Stavanger Air Traffic Control:
“You can’t go”
me: “why?”
“There is no customs on ENFL”
me: “not needed for aircraft under 5.7 tons”
“ok……..but you still can’t go”
me: “why?”
“Airport is closed at your planned arrival time”
me: “Is the Notam published arrival time not valid?”
“Is is different. They will open 5 mins after you planned arrival”
me: “Ok – so I will delay my flight 10 mins”
“OK”
me: “goodbye”

Actually you do need customs under 5.7 tonnes as well. Got told that when I tried to fly to a place without it two weeks ago. The customs told me that in an email and attached a copy of the regulation.

You “need” customs even if you come in a paraglider, or walk for that matter. Norway is not part of EU. But, we are part of Schengen, so no immigration if coming from a Schengen country.

Fly310 wrote:

SkyDemon will show most of the airfields as well.

Not exactly. They will show lots of fields as “Microlight Sites”. The term does not exist in Norway, not semantically and not functionally. You can land in whatever aircraft on whatever field. Lots of the fields that SD mark as “Microlight Sites” have been there for 60-70 years. In fact, the term “Microlight” will disappear from 2020 together with the increase in MTOW to 600 kg. The more “garden chair” variety (“classic”, simple microlight) will probably get another term as well.

Also, fuel prices (AVGAS) has increased terribly the last year or so, similar to continental/Swedish levels. This has happened after BP took over the pumps from Statoil. What is happening now is that people have started to arrange fuel themselves, and then preferably MOGAS. The reason is that MOGAS when used for aircraft is less taxed, so it becomes half the price of AVGAS. Fuel is available lots of more places than what first seems the case, but probably not the kind of fuel you want, and with no easy accessible pump.

Not much to add to the above, only two thing from my west coast trip whic may be useful:

• VFR to IFR transition is very easy. You will typically be in radio contact with somebody anyway, just ask for a change to IFR and a clearance, and you should get it, either immediately or after one handover. A lot easier to set out VFR and then change to IFR if you don’t like the weather than in most countries. Just keep in mind that other than over the sea, it is, ahem, hilly, so don’t wait for too long.

• Bodø is an obvious fuel stop, but if you are up there for a few days, I would recommend the Lofoten (we went to Svolvær). Caution, no Avgas there, fill to the max at Bodø!

• Tromsø is really wondeful, well worth a day or two.

AeroPlus wrote:

Avinor sells a week pass that is valid at almost all their airports (except Gardermoen) and allows you to land at any of their airports without paying landing and parking fees. You could use it to fly up North via Bergen and through Norway.

The state airport company Swedavia does the same in Sweden. The week pass is valid at all Swedavia-run airports except Stockholm/Arlanda, Stockholm/Bromma and Göteborg/Landvetter. Check here: https://www.swedavia.se/globalassets/flygplatsavgifter/airport-charges-and-conditions-of-services-2019_20181219.pdf

LeSving wrote:

What is happening now is that people have started to arrange fuel themselves, and then preferably MOGAS. The reason is that MOGAS when used for aircraft is less taxed, so it becomes half the price of AVGAS.

That’s interesting – In Sweden the taxation on AVGAS is substantially less than for MOGAS (no VAT is charged on AVGAS and energy/environment taxes are the same) but AVGAS is still some 35% more expensive.

Regarding Finland,

Landing at controlled airports after tower closure is possible in VFR, assuming no other restrictions apply. Pls check the AIP: https://www.ais.fi/aip/en/

You might also be interested in non-towered VFR fields, which are many: https://lentopaikat.fi/en/ Plenty of VFR hours in a day in June, especially up north.

Airborne_Again wrote:

That’s interesting – In Sweden the taxation on AVGAS is substantially less than for MOGAS

I think you misunderstand. There is no more tax on AVGAS then there is on Jet A1. It’s just that the price to the distillery for AVGAS has gone up 5-6 NOK per liter the last year. The end price ends up to be 20+ NOK per liter. MOGAS is taxed about the same in Norway and Sweden. However, in Norway the tax is linked to road use. When using it in an aircraft (or boat for that matter), we get the tax back. MOGAS is what? 16-18 NOK per liter or something. That’s what we pay at the pump. Then, because the fuel is not used on the road, we can slice off the tax, which is 5-6 NOK per liter (or something, maybe a bit less, don’t remember). So, MOGAS used on an aircraft becomes around 10+ NOK per liter. This is half the price of AVGAS, and similar to Jet A1.