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Germany - departure from Schengenland police control

I will be flying shortly from Erfurt to the British Isles, leaving Schengenland so require an exit police control somewhere on a line from Erfurt to Dusseldorf say. I’d rather not fly direct from Erfurt as it’s boring for my passengers to fly for many hours uninterrupted. Thus I am looking for a suitable friendly German airfield with authority to clear us out of Schengenland somewhere on that Erfurt-Dusseldorf axis. Preferably with avgas and a nice restaurant!

Is there a list somewhere online of the German airfields with this in/out police authority?

I want to avoid some otherwise-suitable Netherlands airfields due to the higher avgas price.

Bluebeard
EIKH, Ireland

Paderborn works.

EGTK Oxford

Dortmund EDLW also. Not sure about a restaurant though.

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

Bonn-Hangelar EDKB has avgas (100LL and 91UL) and a decent restaurant, and has the passport control authority. If you want IFR, Mönchengladbach EDLN is a possibility (not sure about the restaurant, though). Also, at the airfields not designated as border crossing points, you may be able to obtain a one-time departure clearance – I did it on one occasion at Leverkusen EDKL, which took me a couple of phone calls and a couple of e-mail messages (the police did not even come – I received the permission letter by e-mail).
You may also cross the border in Belgium – e.g. Charleroi EBCI, Antwerp EBAW (restaurant right in the terminal), Ostend EBOS – all IFR.

LKBU (near Prague), Czech Republic

First of all, there is no real list of German airfields which are border crossing points for leaving Schengen unfortunately. The German Federal Police used to publish one, but no longer. You have to trawl through the various airports‘ AD entries in the AIP to check. Generally, all the civil controlled airports (i.e. all those with a CTR) allow this. But many of the smaller GA only airfields also do (albeit usually with some sort of PPR requirement).

Dortmund and Monchengladbach unfortunately are no longer very suitable for such short tech stop. They both really hiked their fees at the beginning of this year. Sad story.

Bonn-Hangelar is suitable, IIRC correctly, there is a catch: police controls are PPR, and they charge a hefty PPR charge for that. Suggest you check that in advance.

Münster-Osnabrück has very cheap landing fees (but expensive Avgas, don‘t leave that out of the equation). Stadtlohn-Vreden is a very popular, small GA type airfield with the possibility of clearing out of Schengen. Just remember: the smaller the airfield is, the less keen on speaking English they might be. But generally, some basic English is spoken everywhere in Germany.

rather not fly direct from Erfurt as it’s boring for my passengers to fly for many hours uninterrupted

Personally, but that‘s just my experience, it is the other way around. Any „unnecessary“ stops should always be avoided, as they merely add time, waiting time, faff, possible turbulence during descent, etc. Pax don‘t get „bored“ just because the flights is merely half an hour longer. If I had the range, I would just go direct and actually save time.

Last Edited by boscomantico at 13 May 05:33
Mainz (EDFZ) & Egelsbach (EDFE), Germany

boscomantico wrote:

Bonn-Hangelar is suitable, IIRC correctly, there is a catch: police controls are PPR, and they charge a hefty PPR charge for that. Suggest you check that in advance.

That’s customs, not police – you only need that if you fly outside the EU. Passport checks are done directly by the AFISO.

LKBU (near Prague), Czech Republic

Must be a recent change for Hangelar EDKB because a few years ago one could not do a UK flight to/from there. I flew to the main one instead, EDDK.

I agree with Bosco: fly direct if possible.

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

Why not choosing EDDL Düsseldorf if you would like to stop over somewhere. S-Bahn to the town is a 6 minutes walk. If you only want a cup of coffee or snacks, you will have JetAviations Pilot Lounge. Only fuel is normally not cheap and a kind of hassle. If you take fuel there do it immediately after arriving, that will save you a lot of time.

EDDS , Germany

I would go for Paderborn (EDLP) as well. Smaller, relaxed airport with everything one needs…

LSZF Birrfeld, LFSB Basel-Mulhouse, Switzerland

Update on my flight yesterday from Erfurt to Ireland (about 4.2 flying hours):

Whether or not to stop somewhere en route, for Schengenland exit police control: a poll of passengers unanimously voted yes!

Paderborn seemed too close to Erfurt. So we stopped at Seppe EHSE, as near to halfway as possible and good for a late lunch.

So now I had to deal with a Dutch Gendec for the Koninklijke Marechausse. While Skydemon and (I think) OnlineGAR will produce a form for Dutch requirements, it appears this will only work if the flight involves a UK departure or arrival. So that was no good for me. Seppe ATC sent me a link to AOPA UK’s website, which led me to www.gendec.eu a Dutch website. So at the cost of considerable time I registered on this, activated an account, collected and entered details of all the plane’s occupants, sent the Gendec form, got an acknowledgement email and (luckily as it turned out) forwarded a copy to Seppe ATC.

On landing at Seppe, we were greeted by three courteous but firm policemen: the authorities had not received any Gendec. What they really wanted was a piece of paper, a printed Gendec. Showing them the emails on my computer did not satisfy them. Eventually, after much time was wasted, Seppe’s ATC found a copy of my forwarded email, printed it and the police departed.

I have sent details of the Koninklijke Marechausse personnel and office involved to www.gendec.eu, and asked how this happened.

This sort of thing is a complete PITA, each country having its own unique procedure, and a distraction from practical flight planning. All we wanted to do was leave Schengenland, I’ve never understood the logic of exit controls. We should have landed at Paderborn after all, or gone nonstop …….

Bluebeard
EIKH, Ireland
22 Posts
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