No idea “how” the local border forces can demand anything from me beforehand, but I have flown several times DE→ Colmar (&retour) and m, moving within Schengen and EU Customs Union, not requested anything beforehand.
FP must suffice. And has.
That said, in some cases, it makes things easier at known difficult airports, if you can state a small French airfield as departure or destination ;-) there are dozens from any direction.
Which bits of the LFLP AIP are unclear? We’ve done this before re the fly-in but I will post it again
It directly states that Immigration (in France, “police” = Immigration) is not available. It turned out to be BS (as expected) but it took a few emails to confirm it.
And I am not the only one who posts this – example.
Another thing is that France does not have this law but still the police at LFLP do operate as if it had, and so does the reception desk. So upon arrival I had to wait a couple of hours. And didn’t even get a stamp because I was “crew” 
Yes it says that police are not on based at the airport and so if you need them you are going to have to PN24hr. What’s so difficult about that?
If I fly there from here I don’t need police so I don’t have to PN24. Someone coming from Germany does not need police or customs qo doesn’t need to PN24.
The confusion lies with aircraft from Switzerland. Without baggage they shouldn’t need police/douaniers so shouldn’t need to PN.
With baggage needs further clarification.
Anything on top of this is possibly local gold plating and have no legal status.
Yes it says that police are not on based at the airport and so if you need them you are going to have to PN24hr. What’s so difficult about that?
It absolutely does not state that. The word NIL is clear e.g. – for St Yan LFLN
The police can be based, or be a flying squad. This is never in any AIP or NOTAM. You merely need to comply with any PN, etc.
Anything on top of this is possibly local gold plating and have no legal status.
Not if they carry a 9mm.
Peter the VAC states customs/police on request from the operator. The operator then directs you to a form which you.fill out and send to the address on the form. I believe its the local bse bureau.
The police are not there and of you need them to be aware of your arrival, as you would from the UK. Customs might be there and might not, they are not committing themselves either way.
I tend to do it like Peter, to get the things right before departure, because I don’t want any hassle.
#me too, as they say.
And that means official sources of information – Eg the AIP, VAC etc.. Not the word of a forum or an airport website, or a secretary answering the phone at the airport.
@UdoR Why did you contact the douanier if flying to/from Germany? Or was it Switzerland?
Regards, SD..
We have wires crossed
Not the word of a forum or an airport website, or a secretary
I agree in theory, but in reality one does need to deal with sources which throw doubts on your previous info.
So if e.g. AIP says some place is 24hrs PN for C+I, NOTAM is silent, but you have just heard a PIREP of some sort saying that it is 48hrs, you would need big brass balls to just ignore that. Yes, the PIREP could be somebody wanting to feel important by screwing people around, but do you feel lucky? I would email or phone the airport to check it. Otherwise, as I like to say, you are gonna be dealing with a 9mm carrying chap (or a gurl!) who ~prob90 cannot speak a word of English.
Of course you speak French so you can risk it.
We live in a world where information is very easy to promulgate (via the internet; much better than fax or, hey, telex) but the % of completely useless stupid waste-of-space people has not improved as a result so a lot of published info is just crap.
Then you have a limited reporting incentive. I am not sure of the correct word for it but if e.g. the 24hr PN is for C+I then prob99 not a single pilot based in the “EU+schengen ~27” is going to comment on it anywhere – because it doesn’t affect him. It affects (of the pilot communities actually going anywhere for real, outside the 27) Brits or Brits. And for some people Brits are not exactly the flavour of the month… It’s the same idea as say a Skydemon user from Italy is very unlikely to write a problem report (in English!) to SD. Probably the only such reports will be from a Brit flying around Italy, and the numbers of those are gonna be awfully small!
I am surprised I am typing up something I would consider an obvious policy for dealing with conflicting information sources. In my business (electronics) if one data sheet for a 2N3055 says it is good for 30V and another says it is good for 20V then I will do more checking
You’re right I didn’t realise we had switched airports. LFLN St Yan does not have any customs or police and can not be used to enter France from the UK or to depart France to the UK
But, unless somebody knows different there is no reason why someone coming from a Schengen and EU country or departing to it can not go direct.
The case of Switzerland being outside the EU needs further clarification. There is no reason why they should need police as part of Schengen but whether or not they need to send a custom declaration of nothing to declare or whatever is one of the things I am asking the FFA to get clarification on
skydriller wrote:
Why did you contact the douanier if flying to/from Germany?
Of course everyone is free to do whatever he/she/? wants. But I can tell you: if you were to fly with family, full cabin, you’re not into looking for trouble. So I contacted them because, first, the information popped up here in the forum, and, second, it is written expressis verbis on the homepage of the airport. By the way: just like the homepage of the airport also the AIP is not a legal binding document. So it’s the same type of source.
The only legal binding information source in order to not get into trouble is to ask the border police, in this case.
So with these bits of information I asked the respective stations whether this is necessary for my flight and got reply from Centre Opérationnel Douanier Terrestre de Lyon:
Ce préavis de vol est une formalité douanière obligatoire qui sera transmis aux brigades de Douane territorialement compétentes.
So yes, it is required to send the document.
But @Skydriller you’re invited to fly to Annecy from abroad (within Schengen) without prior notice to proof that all is going to sort out well.
