Bureaucracy in your Country

The only advantage France has over the UK seems to be the ability to check what the authority has on your file.
Another MIGHT be regional offices, like the US FSDOs. The UK CAA has few regional offices, and they don’t handle GA.
In the UK we can land anywhere with the landowner’s permission, and probably on beaches below high water mark.
PS In the Scottish Independence Referendum, I voted to separate, and hoped that Aviation might be outsourced to the French DGAC rather than the English/Welsh/N Irish CAA.

For Germany, on the con side:

• No uncontrolled IFR unflying, unless on a published procedure
• Off-aerodrome landings only as a precautionary/emergency landing or with a specific approval by the authorities (so “no” under normal circumstances). Not easy to setup an aerodrome for yourself on your farm
• Usually no take-offs and landings from unattended aerodromes

On the pro side:

• Fly VFR where you want at day and night – to a very large degree (very limited share of restricted areas, control zone crossings usually approved)
• Night VFR with FPL – many medium-sized airfields that do have runway lighting close too early, though. But N VFR is a good option to come home to a 24h airport, if practicable
• Generally, easy and affordable access to most larger airports/cities (exeption: Munich)

For The Netherlands:

- Fly VFR at night: Not yet, it will finally be allowed from July 1st, 2018. Source
- Fly IFR out of controlled airspace: Yes, two-way radio contact highly recommended.
- Land out of an aerodrome: Definitely not.
- Land without a PPR: No problem most of the time, few airports require PPR.
- Takeoff from and land at an unattended aerodrome, without anyone to command it: Not allowed.
- Built your own aircraft and fly it : Yes, allowed.
- Fly where you want: No, vast areas of the country are covered by the Schiphol TMA (class A), making VFR above 1500’ impossible. Nowhere in the country can one fly VFR above FL095. Crossing CTR’s (including EHAM) on the other hand, is generally allowed.

Estonia:
- Fly VFR at night:yes
- Fly IFR out of controlled airspace: Yes, two-way radio contact highly recommended.
- Land out of an aerodrome: yes
- Land without a PPR: yes
- Takeoff from and land at an unattended aerodrome, without anyone to command it: yes
- Built your own aircraft and fly it : yes
- Fly where you want: once a year large areas closed due to military exercises,usually no problem. also no problems with CTR/TMAs .

For the UK:

• Fly VFR at night. Yes.
• Fly IFR out of controlled airspace. Yes, non radio, no clearance, no flight plan needed
• Land out of an aerodrome. Yes, with landowner permission
• Land without a PPR. Depends on where (some bigger airports are PPR, some of them don’t enforce it, and many irrelevant little places with a “little Hitler” with a handheld radio are PPR)
• Takeoff from and land at an unattended aerodrome, without anyone to command it. Yes, unless it is closed (it isn’t clear why any of them need to be closed, but non-payment of landing fees is reportedly one reason)
• Same at night. As above
• Build your own aircraft and fly it . Yes – the LAA system (only a range of types is acceptable, similar to most countries)
• Fly where you want. Yes, OCAS and away from prohibited areas. Very little “military” airspace in the UK
• Have your pilot full dossier made available online by the authority, so that you can check that they took into account the paperwork you sent to them. No (there is the G-INFO aircraft database but people complain about that too). There is no pilot database like the FAA has
• Lighter that class 2 LAPL requirement: Yes – the NPPL with a medical self declaration (scheduled to be killed by the “standardisation” bastards people in Brussels in April 2018 for ICAO-certified aircraft)
• Easy rules for microlight: I believe there is a microlight PPL and AIUI most microlights are flown on the NPPL which then probably uses the medical self declaration

Worth adding that DIY approaches are legal; at least in a G-reg. Also you can fly virtually everywhere in the UK wholly in Class G, non-transponder, non-radio (not all airports allow non-radio ops).

Its a close tie with GB and Estonia. Leaning more to GB but I really like the fact that no PPR is required in Estonia.

For Sweden(which I think is also quite liberal):

- Fly VFR at night: Absolutely, has been since forever
- Fly IFR out of controlled airspace: Yes, happens all the time
- Land out of an aerodrome: Yes, anywhere as long as you have land owners permission
- Land without a PPR: No problem most of the time, few airports require PPR.
- Takeoff from and land at an unattended aerodrome, without anyone to command it: Absolutely, no radio contact required
- Built your own aircraft and fly it : Yes, allowed.
- Fly where you want: Yes. We have no Class A airspace so a VFR pilot can fly anywhere he/she get a clearance to. We only have Class C and G, lots of G.
- IFR approach into non-instrument runways: Legal but no airport have it yet, looks like we will have the first two during 2018.

I know that night VFR was not permitted in the Netherlands historically; but what is the situation now under SERA? Have the Netherlands filed a difference, or is night VFR now permitted?

Fly310 wrote:

For Sweden(which I think is also quite liberal):
….
- Land out of an aerodrome: Yes, anywhere as long as you have land owners permission

I just found out that the law was changed at some point. Today you need permission only if the take off or landing would cause “noticeable damage or inconvenience” to the landowner or tenant.