AIP/Air Law Customs/Immigration in PPL training

I did my PPL less than 10 nm from the Dutch border, yet never learned anything about how to fly internationally, except perhaps that you need to file a FP to do so…
I was already unusual for doing the English LP for my R/T certificate. During my entire training I never once crossed the Dutch border even once (or any other border for that matter).

arj1 wrote:

I’d hoped that there is something in the PPL theory talking about some basic things, like:
1. Immigration (for example, between say, France and Ukraine)
2. Customs (for example, between say, France and Switzerland)

Are there any other activity/profession/recreation (requiring some kind of “certificate”) where you learn these things as part of some syllabus? Disregard the obvious ones of course as police/customs/immigration officer or travel agent.

There is a difference between flying an aircraft and being a globetrotter. Most globetrotters are not pilots. Besides, I don’t see the problem. If there is a high demand for pilots who want to learn the differences between customs and immigration, then start a customs vs immigration course. Nothing is stopping you. Nothing except there probably is no demand Actually there is a demand. Club evenings with international flights on the agenda are always popular, and so are fly outs across the border. IMO, that is were this kind of things belong, in the community, NOT as syllabus in the PPL.

From my point of view we should look at nonsense to take out of PPL to make it simpler. We should not look for nonsense to put into the PPL to make it more complex.

I agree we shouldn’t be adding more BS to the ppl theory. That being said I can think of a lot of things included in the ppl theory that I would happily replace with valuable information such as crossing borders. The ppl theory could really benefit from trimming a lot of fat and adding in a lot of actual valuable information.

Surely the situation regarding crossing borders changes too often to make it part of a syllabus.
There wasn’t even a need for ELP some 20 years ago. That being said I seem to remember a question in the PPL exam was on documents needed on board. The question related to whether you needed to carry a passport if there was a risk of having to land across a border in the event of an emergency. Geneva was always used as an example.

Some of the German pilot magazines regularly organize workshops for pilots about flying cross border. Some of them are even taking it to practice organizing “guided trips” to do that.

There is the argument that a PPL should teach only circuits and short local flights – because some people only want to do aerobatics.

The problem is that most people who get a PPL chuck it all away pretty quick. Many previous discussions… And teaching how to fly to another country is a huge benefit in enabling pilots to get value out of the 10-15k they paid for the PPL.

Peter wrote:

The problem is that most people who get a PPL chuck it all away pretty quick. Many previous discussions… And teaching how to fly to another country is a huge benefit in enabling pilots to get value out of the 10-15k they paid for the PPL.

True – still I don’t think that is a role for licensing, though. If we look at other (competing ?!?) activities: Scuba diving organizations are quite good at keeping their members engaged by a more or less open concept of “one rating a year”. Obviously these are not ratings in a licensing sense but more like “Boy Scout badges”.

In aviation we have kind of a similar thing (at least in Germany) in glider flying. It was absolutely clear in the club I learned glider flying, that after you got your license in the next year you will work towards your Silver-C. And after that, there is the Gold-C and diamonds, etc…

Might more be a role for pilots organizations / sport organizations (so basically the local FAI-organizations) to offer something like this. An “international flying badge” could be one of many ideas….