[Bob_pipedream]

Like that Flint!

[TractorBoy]

This, presumably, is either incompetence, or some dodgy blighter has got hold of the airport landing details and is using them to try and defraud foreign pilots.
G

To carry out the fraud one only needs binoculars and access to G-INFO....

If you really want to mug a pilot, just write "Premium Handling" on the back of a hi-viz, then when they park, walk over, open the door for them and then charge 50 quid for the service!

BTW In case there are any lawyers reading this, "Premium Handling" is purely fictitious, and any similarity to a pre-existing handling service is purely coincidental.....

[cockney steve]

Perhaps a letter to the Lawyers' society/ umbrella organisation, with both sets of details?
If, indeed, they are acting in an unethical manner, one would hope they would appropriately censure their member.

[Genghis the Engineer]

Hmm, well, yes, there you go.

Having finally got an email address for the solicitor (my bad, I have now found his email address in 3mm high letters on the bottom of his headed paper) it makes some sense. I had paid an invoice for the right amount, to a body in the right country.

T'would appear that invoice I did pay was an extortionate but legitimate bill for for the permission I'd obtained to overfly Belgium in a permit aeroplane. The invoice for that happened to be the same amount as for a tankload of AVGAS and a landing fee at Kortrijk.

So, the only thing that the airport did wrong was fail to point out to me when I sent them the receipt for the fees I had paid, that that was some other Belgian public body. Their solicitor now has pointed that out, and I've said "oops" and will pay up. No fraud apparently.

I am mildly embarrassed, although still have no idea how the Belgian government can justify such an extortionate amount of money for overflight permission in a light single when just about every other country in Europe would just tell you to get on with it.

Ho hum. A lesson of a sort learned.

G

[Irv Lee]

Except for diesel, what has ever been good value in Belgium? Too many people on expenses from our taxes living there, NATO, EU, etc

[patowalker]

I am mildly embarrassed, although still have no idea how the Belgian government can justify such an extortionate amount of money for overflight permission in a light single when just about every other country in Europe would just tell you to get on with it.

Every other country, except the UK. https://apply.caa.co.uk/CAAPortal/terms-and-conditions.htm?formCode=aea

Last time I looked, the fee was £64. There are exemptions for homebuilt aircraft and also all permit aircraft registerd in France and Ireland.

[Dave W]

Edit: Sorry; I didn't write this very well. What I meant to ask below is "What foreign non-homebuilt aircraft does the fee apply to, and are they only identified by exception via patowalker's link?"

patowalker, that link points to a General Exemption for Foreign Registered Home-built Aircraft.

There's no specific permission or fee.

General Exemption – E 3363
General Exemption for Foreign Registered Home-built Aircraft

1) In order to facilitate over-flight and visits to the UK by foreign registered home-built
aircraft, the Civil Aviation Authority, in exercise of its powers under Article 242 of the Air
Navigation Order 2009, exempts, subject to paragraph 2, any home-built aircraft
registered in a Member State of the European Civil Aviation Conference from the
provisions of Article 16 of the said Order.

Conditions of Exemption

2) This exemption is granted subject to the following conditions:
a) The aircraft is flown under and in accordance with a valid Permit to Fly or
equivalent document issued by the State of Registry.
b) The aircraft must not be flown for the purpose of public transport or aerial work.
c) The aircraft must be flown by day only and in accordance with the Visual Flight
Rules.
d) The aircraft must not remain in the United Kingdom pursuant to this exemption for
a period of more than 28 consecutive days in any one visit, without the prior
permission of the CAA.
e) The owner of the aircraft must ensure that the documents specified in Schedule 1
to this exemption are valid and available for inspection by the CAA on demand
when the aircraft is in the UK.
3) The exemption to Article 16 of the Air Navigation Order 2009 dated 26 February 2010 is
hereby revoked.
4) This exemption shall have effect from the date below until revoked.

J C McKenna
for the Civil Aviation Authority and the United Kingdom
Dated 5 March 2012

What other aircraft are subject to a charge? EASA Permit?

[patowalker]

The link I posted quite rightly points to the three categories of permit to fly aircraft that are exempt. That is to avoid people asking for permits they don't need.

All factory built permit to fly aircraft, unless registered in France and Ireland, need permission and have to pay a fee.

http://www.caa.co.uk/default.aspx?catid=1407&pagetype=90&pageid=8129

[Dave W]

Thanks; I hadn't realised that detail, and it is disappointing.

The logic of homebuilt vs factory built resulting in the factory built aircraft being treated in a more restrictive manner is illogical, and whilst I can see the bureaucratic route to it being in place it seems that it would benefit from a blast of the Red Tape Challenge Pragmatron to cover any Permit or ECAC equivalence regardless of pedigree.

That said, I guess it's not pressing issue for the majority of us, so probably won't reach the top of the pile very soon.

[patowalker]

Funnily enough, Belgian microlight pilots complain as much about this as their UK counterparts do about the Belgian fee.

[Dave W]

So they should!

[TLRippon]

Aside from the real cause of this incident. The issue of continual demands for payment of paid invoices from certain French (In my experience) airports does go on. I've come across this several times. A lot of the confusion is caused when the airport has a staffed tower but has cut all of the on-site admin personnel and moved into a central bureau covering several airports in a group. In some cases there are no facilities whatsoever to pay fees at the airport, a bank transfer is often the only payment method accepted and leads to a further disconnect in a inefficient system.

On the other hand, I've landed at a few places with a published fee structure where no invoice has ever turned up.

[skydriller]

On the other hand, I've landed at a few places with a published fee structure where no invoice has ever turned up.

Thats probably because it gone to someone else!! Our Aeroclub often gets sent bills for our aircraft when they were nowhere near the airport in question, a typo with the Reg.. France is a great place to fly and its relatively cheap, but the bEurocracy is carp...

So, always keep any bills from French airports for about a year or so....

Regards, SD..

[golfcharlie]

Amongst the LAA Permit aircraft owners it has been well known for years that the Belgian CAA requires a 100 € fee for overflight / landing in Belgium. This fee is not levied for aircraft on a regular C of A. I was told that the reason was embedded somewhere in their Air Law. Be that as it may, I think that the charge is raised on receipt of request for overflight/landing permission. That being so, Belgium is easily avoided. A shame, because the rally at Schaffen Diest is a nice annual fly-in destination.
Germany also requires a request for LAA Permit aircraft to overfly/visit. But the LBA readily (and efficiently) gives permission free of charge.

[SteveN]

Germany also requires a request for LAA Permit aircraft to overfly/visit. But the LBA readily (and efficiently) gives permission free of charge.

For Factory built Permit aircraft. Amateur construction Permit are covered by ECAC(1980) of course so don't need individual permission to fly in Germany.

TL2.08 - TRAVELLING ABROAD IN A PERMIT AIRCRAFT