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Taking my MU2 to Europe (Mode S EHS etc)

Hi all,

I am a US pilot with a US registered MU2 and I’ve joined EuroGA to find out more about flying in Europe. I am deciding whether to bring my plane to England for 4-5 months at the end of this year for the purpose of flying around Europe as a tourist.

Are there are any operators of turboprops or jets on this forum? Their experience would be most directly applicable to my situation.

I have a lot of questions around required equipment, insurance, paperwork, flight plans, fuel, fees, airports, etc. From what I have read so far, it seems to much easier in the US by comparison that I want to study it a lot before I go.

Have I come to the right place?

Mike C.

KEVV

Definitely yes.

If you have the money and time to do it, I would really recommend it to you. It allows you to combine flying with seeing very interesting, very diverse places. At MU2 speeds, every flight hour will take you into completely different worlds.

Point is: there are loads if differences between flying in the US and in Europe. Actually, there isn’t even anything like Europe in this sense, because countries are a bit different one from the other.

One could write books abouts the differences. One user here (who is from the US) has now been based here for a couple of years, yet is still struggling with the adaption to European GA…;-)

But don’t let that discourage you. After all, it’s flying, and under IFR at least, it is basically doing what ATC says.

Flightplans are a bit different here.
Many airports require prior permission before you can fly there / park there.
Depending on where you fly, you will have to take “customs” and “immigration” requirements into account.
Overflight permits are only required for a few very eastern European countries.
No XM weather.

Last Edited by boscomantico at 11 Feb 16:08
Mainz (EDFZ) & Egelsbach (EDFE), Germany

Although I am European I feel that the US attitude, which I happen to expose quite a bit, of hop in and go does work in Europe.

It does help to speak the local language and have a bit of a “systems view” onto things. Then you understand what a strange rule is supposed to be and can easier deal with it by either complying with it or creatively get around it.

Language related is another detail: in French and Spanish airspace the local language is used for IFR communication. Beware that in Spain there is some flexibility and not everything is being done by the book, eg. ATC may say “cancel IFR” when they want to ask a question. Similar things may happen on handover from one frequency to the next.

Frequent travels around Europe

Welcome to EuroGA mciholas ! (forum rules prohibit me from using your real name )

mciholas wrote:

it seems to much easier in the US by comparison that I want to study it a lot before I go.

Well, something new always seems “harder” than what one is used to …

Vincent in Pulp Fiction summed it up quite nicely :

But you know what the funniest thing about Europe is?
What?
It’s the little differences. A lotta the same shit we got here, they got there, but there they’re a little different

Last Edited by Michael at 11 Feb 16:41
FAA A&P/IA
LFPN

Hi Mike,

Drop me a message through the forum with an email and I am happy to arrange a time to discuss the issues you will face. As others have said, it is definitely worth doing but you have to understand some key differences particularly for IFR operations and planning.

Jason.

EGTK Oxford

Welcome Mike

I posted this in response to your query on Beechtalk

ATC, especially IFR ATC, is required to have English competence but as I said above, it can be variable. They use local language to local pilots but you don’t have to play along with that. I often get called in France with my callsign in French and I ignore such calls; they realise it on the 2nd or 3rd time.

Michael – You can call someone by their name if they used it themselves – see Mike’s initial post

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

“Beware that in Spain there is some flexibility and not everything is being done by the book, eg. ATC may say “cancel IFR” when they want to ask a question.”

In the US, ATC can’t drop an IFR flight, only the pilot can cancel IFR.

Is this different in Europe?

Hope not.

Surprises like that at 300 knots in unfamiliar airspace are no fun and can be quite disruptive.

Mike C.

Last Edited by mciholas at 12 Feb 05:53
KEVV

mciholas wrote:

In the US, ATC can’t drop an IFR flight, only the pilot can cancel IFR.

Is this different in Europe?

Hope not.


It’s not!

ESKC (Uppsala/Sundbro), Sweden

ATC cannot cancel IFR but sometimes it’s a language issue and has happened to me. From the context it was clear what was meant but it does create some confusion at first.

Frequent travels around Europe

As stated, ATC cannot cancel IFR for you (these IFR rules hardly differ between the USA and Europe) but when you have the occassional ATCO working right on the edge of his/her English language skills, misunderstandings are more likely to happen.

I have been flying IFR for 10 years and don’t recall getting this issue. What I do have problems with fairly often is being unable to understand some marginal pronounciations. In the cases I recall, my passengers could not work it out either so it wasn’t just me, although many people are much better than me with working out accents. Perhaps the most memorable cases were some French airports whose ATIS recording was virtually illegible; La Rochelle was one of them.

The main differences by far between USA and Europe are not when airborne. They are ground based operational things. Have a read through this for some tips.

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom
89 Posts
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