Flying Bull describes the perfect world in Germany. Well, perfect depends who you ask, the pilot or the employer.
There are however countries that are in the unfortunate position of having clueless people acting as their aviation authorities.
It can go something like this:
The customer calls and wants to go from A to B.
1. write a letter stating route and time of flight, name of the passengers.
2. Fax letter to government
3. wait for fax to come back with „approved“ stamp
4. write letter to local government in charge of landing site
5. wait for approval
6. write same letter to police in charge of landing site
7. wait for approval
8. write flight plan
9. go to atc min1 hour before t/off, show all approvals in hand, only then will he fax flight plan to ais
10. have atc sign letter so that your customers vehicle can enter airport
11. wait for clearance from ais
12. ais sends flight plan to military officer
13. wait for his approval
14. get mil clearance
15. get into helicopter, ask for startup
16. wait 15 to 50 minutes to get startup clearance
17. take off
Want to go to C instead of B because customers plans have changed?
Impossible, because you do not have clearances and permissions.
Land at B, call office make arrangements for C and hope it works out.
Your job as pilot is to fly. No talking to customers, no presence in office.