Are pilots taught in the NL that filing a flight plan is PN/PPR compliance? That’s bizzare!
I have posted extract of Dutch AIP (and Belgian AIP), FPL is accepted as PN in those corners of earth, not surprising that the pilot thinks it’s the case everywhere? just a guess
FPL for PN does not work for “European VFR” unless you know what you are doing with AFTN addressing? what flight plan app is doing? the guy receiving flight plan may not know how to parse information and customs may not have own AFTN address, or how to use FPL system or monitor it, it’s just “too good to be true”
The other thing FPL 1h before flight when PN is 72h how does that work? then good luck as FPL gets lost & deleted if filed before 24h in some systems…it work brilliantly in H24 airports in 3rd world or some European countries that are run as such, the FPL (VFR or IFR) will get manually validated by someone and if you depart from a grass strip and put DEP=ZZZZ, the whole country will prepare to war and people gets enlisted and when ATC clears you to land, customs gets notified automatically 
the person receiving the flight plan will not walk along the corridor and advise the police/customs, and even if he did, the police (who in France generally have no interest in the airport function, and waste no opportunity in letting the whole world know this) will tell him to get stuffed; in any case the FP doesn’t contain the names, passport numbers, etc which France is requesting in these “breach of schengen” airports
I fully agree, it’s the difference between dream & reality 
I can’t see how it would reliably work? as not many on the ground know how to handle FPL especially in airports without ATC and with lack of organisation? and no way for pilot to check that the system works…
Just think of the “good old days” when we had to live with this nonsense for every international flight in Europe. Today it is essentially gone within EU+Schengen countries except when some country decides to “suspend” Schengen for more or less sensible reasons.
Well, yes, but the general flying patterns around Europe mean that almost nobody from Sweden (where most activity is aeroclub based and thus mostly local-flying) flies to France, whereas a lot of Brits do, and quite a few of the German “regular tourers” do too.
Very few from Spain also fly to France, for several reasons.
In turn, very few French pilots fly outside France, probably for the same reasons as Sweden plus the severe lack of ELP which should not be the case in Sweden.
So these things matter to some people a lot more than to others. If say you never leave France then this topic is completely irrelevant – along with most others like filing flight plans, carrying a transponder, etc
And if you go further back in time, France was not enforcing immigration/customs and one could just fly there… and airports were incredibly cheap, too.
You still need to file a FPL within France when going to an from the mainland to Corsica.
From my point of view, being in Schengen is liberating for just popping down to St Sebastien or over to Munich. I can leave and return via LFFK with just an FPL, which with Autorouter, or Skydemon is pretty immediate, whereas when I started one had to file 30mins or 1hr before EOBT. It also means I can take off before sunrise and return at sunset +30mins, needing no one to see me off or to be there on my return.
I agree.we don’t see many aircraft from Sweden in this part of France, but there are no major barriers to them doing so.
Reading through all this, the question in my mind for flying to France currently would be which airports suitable for GA offer Airport of Entry facilities without PPR and loads of red tape currently. As for me, the “logical” way to do it would be to land at one of those and then go on “free as a bird” within France.
IMHO, PPR/PNR and all the associated crap has become the MAJOR obstacle to GA flying these days and should be addressed with a massive effort by all concerned: AOPA, National Aeroclubs as well as EASA for the safety aspect of it.
Haven’t the rules just changed regarding Switzerland? If they are, as I have understood, you don’t need to fly to a POE unless you have something to declare, at least on the French side. But maybe I am misunderstanding the new regulations.
On French side from Switzerland you “still” need to use an AIU (aéroport international de l’union), it does not have to be POE, there are about 10 airports
On flying between Switzerland to any airport in France, I am not sure about that? other than Annemasse which is bizzarly not in AIU list but has AiP entry that says it’s ok with 1h PN
Haven’t the rules just changed regarding Switzerland? If they are, as I have understood, you don’t need to fly to a POE unless you have something to declare, at least on the French side. But maybe I am misunderstanding the new regulations.
Maybe you are thinking of this (see at the end) where all German (actually all EU) airports are supposed to offer Customs on a PN, and predictably not many people are willing to believe this and take the risk…
gallois wrote:
Haven’t the rules just changed regarding Switzerland? If they are, as I have understood, you don’t need to fly to a POE unless you have something to declare, at least on the French side. But maybe I am misunderstanding the new regulations.
There is a big discussion about this, particularly with regards to flights to Germany. It is still very much in it’s infancy, as nobody really believes in it (too good to be true) and everyone is trying to not only cover but bury their backsides under a concrete layer worthy of a missile siloh. Last thing I heard was is really absurd insofar as that airports who had prior PNR (customs forms with all sorts of data) still demand that data (PNR) such as Memmingen or Leutkirch, whereas you can land on airfields like Nördlingen or similar without any problems. But nobody believes that just yet.
And while this is supposed to be valid for all of the EU, most other countries afaik simply ignore it and continue as before. With the situation being what it is in France, I don’t think anyone has tried without inquiries and possible letters stating that yes, it is ok that you land there and there without customs. Italy, no surprise, I hear that people who asked were told, we have no idea what you are talking about so we’ll refer it up the ladder and never heard anything back. Anyone might want to try to convince the Greek that it is ok to land from any EU place to Meghara without customs and immigration and they’ll probably get kicked right back to Italy…
It is a situation not unlike in the Danny Boon comedy “Rien a déclarer” with the Belgian and French customs folks trying to get to terms with the open borders when Schengen came into force. Everyone knows it is supposed to be thus, but nobody wants to be the first to try and get busted by someone who has conciously not read the memo.
I don’t think anyone has tried without inquiries and possible letters stating that yes, it is ok that you land there and there without customs
I am sure you can get a written confirmation it’s ok for say Sion-Lognes but nothing in national law or AIP yet, l’arrêté 2017 is being edited as we speak with the new EU regulation…
It’s worth getting your own confirmation from the guys who may turn up for you (nearby AIU) rather than relying on someone else pirep as “each flight is different”
This only applies for Switzerland & Norway, without goods to declare including the aircraft,
Here is another example that seems to work,
PS: apparently Annemass LFLI is using a similar concession as it’s not an “aéroport douanier”
