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Flying in Europe for the first time!

Hello all,

I am an US Pilot with instrument rating. I currently own an 2020 Cirrus SR 22 with total of 350 hours (300 in Cirrus SR22) and fly within the busy NY Bravo airspace. I have managed to find a rental 2005 Cirrus SR22 with Avidyne Avionics Garmin (430 without WASS). My plan would be to pick up the airplane near Paris then fly to south of France, Corsica, Sardinia and Ibiza. The idea of flying in Europe seems very excited however I am few concerns.

1. Is there much paperwork that need to be filled out when crossing over to different country? Covid forms, customs, immigration etc
2. I use Foreflight exclusively and prefer to use it in Europe. Is that sufficient or I should get familiar with other apps or websites such at Autorouter to file IFR?
3. Am I required to file IFR when cross borders into different countries.
4. Any GA friendly airport in South of france, Corsica, Sardinia and Ibiza.

Thank you in advance for any help!!

New York, United States

1. No paperwork at all really. Print a couple of blanc Gen Decs but I’ve only needed them once in Rotterdam in alö these years.

Scenarios:

*EU/Schengen → EU/Schengen
eg France → Italy
no customs required
no immigration required
(except in France if NOTAMd and Greece which needs airport of entry)

*EU/Schengen → EU/Non Schengen
eg Italy → Croatia
no customs required
immigration / border control required

EU/Non Schengen → EU/Non Schengen
eg Croatia → Cyprus
no customs required
immigration required

Non EU/Schengen → EU/Schengen
eg Switzerland → Germany
no customs required unless goods to declare
no immigration required

2. I use Foreflight exclusively for Europe VFR and IFR. Happy to set up a video meet to give you some hints and tricks.

3. Generally, a vfr or ifr flightplan is required, but there are exceptions (eg some countries accept border crossing without flightplan outside controlled airspace).

4. Use google translate for Philip T‘s excellent www.fliegen-in-Frankreich.de website

Last Edited by Snoopy at 29 Jun 18:31
always learning
LO__, Austria

You will certainly get much more positive answers to this than mine. I’m in a similar situation to you – FAA CPL/IR, moved to France last year and brought my 182 with me, though sadly I no longer have it.

Flying in Europe is NOTHING like flying in the US.

Airspace is a nightmare – certainly in France. If you fly VFR you will spend hours trying to figure out a route, including constant altitude changes, that keeps you clear of stuff you’re not meant to fly through. You MIGHT get a clearance for something better, but you can’t count on it, and better always have a plan for if you don’t.

I flew in California, where the weather is predictable days in advance. In France – all of it, including the Cote d’Azur – you’re lucky if a 24 hour forecast comes out as predicted. That makes it very hard to plan “flying to go somewhere”, which is likely to turn into “sitting in a hotel or friend’s house for days waiting for the weather to turn decent”.

Small plane IFR is pretty much unheard of. There are a brave few on this forum who do it, for whom I have the utmost respect. But as you can see from the discussions on here, every flight plan is a work of several days choosing routes. ATC here does it so rarely that they don’t really know how to do it. And good luck finding a CFII and airports for retaining instrument currency. Pop-up clearances are unheard of, and flight plans have to be filed an hour or more in advance. I gave up on IFR pretty quickly when I realised what the hassle/usefulness ratio was.

Every country has its own variations on the rules and procedures. One example: in France you are not allowed below 3300 feet over any town or large village. You just have to know that. And see the recent thread here about "flugleiter"s in Germany. To be safe from certificate action there, you basically have to write up your log book while you are on roll-out down the runway.

The net of all this is that “flying to go somewhere” is almost unknown, certainly in France and I suspect throughout Europe. People fly with an aeroclub and do local sightseeing flights or at most a “€100 confit de canard” at a nearby airport.

You will certainly get answers saying I’m all wrong, and flying in Europe is a piece of cake. Maybe if you “grew up” as a pilot in Europe it all seems fine. Like I said, I have the utmost respect for the handful of people on this forum and elsewhere who do actually manage to make flying useful.

LFMD, France

Is your rental aircraft N reg? (Does the reg. matter?)

Maoraigh
EGPE, United Kingdom

Thank you for the input.

Yes the aircraft is N reg

New York, United States

To my understanding if you have a US FAA license then you can fly a N reg aircraft if Europe without any additional European Pilot license

New York, United States

Yes, as long as you are not an EU resident, that‘s correct.

On the practical aspects: while the post of johnh is mostly nonsense, he has a point. If you have had no exposure/training in European flying, then this trip is going to very challenging, to say the least.

If this is going to be in July in August, it will likely also be impossible. In that season, getting permission to park a small GA plane in any of the bigger airports (yes, you need a permission for that, called PPR for short here), will be very difficult on the Mediterranean coast of France, Corsica and Sardinia. It will also be pain with hotels, probably.

Last Edited by boscomantico at 29 Jun 19:37
Mainz (EDFZ) & Egelsbach (EDFE), Germany

To my understanding if you have a US FAA license then you can fly a N reg aircraft if Europe without any additional European Pilot license

As long as you’re not “resident” in EASA land, that is true. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a legalese definition of what that means, but if you’re just here for a few weeks, then you’re fine.

LFMD, France

johnh wrote:

You will certainly get answers saying I’m all wrong, and flying in Europe is a piece of cake. Maybe if you “grew up” as a pilot in Europe it all seems fine. Like I said, I have the utmost respect for the handful of people on this forum and elsewhere who do actually manage to make flying useful.

I don’t want to argue with johnh’s opinions, but much of what he writes is factually incorrect.

ESKC (Uppsala/Sundbro), Sweden

Many US pilots fly across Europe every year, I have come across few in Cirrus & Mooneys, the majority are very experienced pilots though, they have already flown Canada, Caribbean and Mexico…so they know about landing fees, permission and handling, rare expensive avgas, airport closures and flight plans

Last Edited by Ibra at 29 Jun 19:59
Paris/Essex, France/UK, United Kingdom
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