Where have you been? What have you seen?
By EAG
#1641475
I would say it was special. Really not very many GA pilots from the UK make that trip.

I got into trouble down there last year. Myself and another pilot flew down to Tangier but because my friend was mugged in the street there we decided to cut our visit short and return home through Portugal instead of heading straight back through Spain according to the detailed plan we'd made before leaving the UK. Planning at the rush, we missed the fact that Portugal is one of only a handful of European countries that insist on prior permission before entering their airspace. It cost us 10 days of delay, with the associated expense and inconvenience, before the Portuguese CAA would allow us to leave their airspace.

It did not matter that we had filed a flight plan and spoken to both civil and military ATC on route to our first destination in Portugal. Nor did it matter that we were allowed to land and spend 2 days at that airfield (with the associated paperwork) before moving on to a second airfield in the north of the country - again speaking to military ATC - which is where we were stopped. And that was only because we submitted an electronic form to the Portuguese CAA - which we would not have done if we had been up to no good.

I only mention all this in the hope it might help anyone else thinking of flying to Portugal - seek PPR first!

You may also wish to know that there is a small airfield about 8-10 miles from Oradour-sur-Glane, as I recall, at Saint Junien which has a tarmac strip of almost 600m. Oradour is definitely worth a visit.
#1641490
Sorry to hear about your most unfortunate experience last year. First that mugging in Morocco, and then learning the hard way in Portugal that "aircraft departing to or coming from an aerodrome located outside the customs territory of the Europen Union, must first land or finally depart from an international airport from EU. When an aircraft outside of Schengen agreement lands in non-international airport, it may be retained until the proper authorisation is received from INAC and customs authorities."

We did not visit Oradour, as we could not find if there was a bus going there from Limoges. Thanks for the tip :idea:
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By GolfHotel
#1641515
When we visited Portugal and Tangier I though we only had to seek permission because we were a permit aircraft. Is that not right? we landed in Spain on the way to and from Portugal.

I ask as I'm thinking of going next year in a CoA aircraft.
By EAG
#1654463
dppintr - I am sorry, I should have mentioned in my first post that between Tangier and Portugal (Portimao) we stopped in at Sevilla, ie a Spanish international airport (Schengen and inside the customs territory of the EU) where we used a handling agent. And when we were stopped from leaving Portugal (Coimbra) we were heading for Spain again (San Sebastian).

GofHotel - I think you are correct to say that Portuguese permission is required only for permit aircraft and not certified aircraft but I am not sure where to look to confirm that.