When to use VFR guides instead of AIP?

[peterh337]

Phoning (or otherwise contacting) airports is a very variable thing...

In the UK, where they speak English (well usually ) a phone call is so trivial as to not be worth worrying about.

Abroad, I am normally planning the flight some days ahead and being lazy I just shoot off faxes+emails to all published contacts (half of which will be duff anyway) and see what comes back. Take a trip like this and you get all kinds of stuff back... a hundred lines about getting the local CAA permission to go there, perhaps. For most of France, no prior contact is needed. Germany is almost as good. N Europe as a whole is pretty good. S Europe much less so and various forms of PPR/PNR are needed.

MANY airports are Customs PNR, everywhere, and in some places (Italy, Spain, Greece, etc) the f******s will deny a landing clearance even if you are on short final when they realise.

In general, with the big H24 airports (e.g. Prague) you can just file and fly. Exceptions known to me are Gatwick, Luton, Stansted (which are 24hrs PPR but they set up their handling cartels to rip you off ~£600 which takes care of removing the "unwanted business" nicely ) and various ones in S Europe.

I know there is a widespread culture among UK pilots against PPR, and indeed most cases of PPR are so obviously pointless, but really it is no big deal especially given the English phone call is so easy, and if you want to fly abroad, you can't pretend aviation is much different across the water, because it isn't.

This is for example what I got from Belgrade LYBE (and I've seen much much longer):

WE ACK & CONFIRM GROUND HANDLING, FUEL FOR FLT
xcxcxcxcxc / 19 SEP 12.

NO SLOTS REQUIRED FOR BEG
NO VHF FREQ FOR HANDLING
FOR OVERFLIGHT, LANDING PERMITS AND NAVIGATION FEES CONTACT
FLIGHT AUTHORITY DEPARTMENT
SITA: BEGTC8X, BEGOMYA E-MAIL: xcxcxcccgov.rs;
FAX + 381 11 311 7518, [phone], [phone]
TEL + 381 11 292 7017, [phone], [phone]
ALL CHARGES HAVE TO BE PAID BY CREW IN CASH
OR BY VALID CREDIT CARD (DINERS, VISA, MASTER,
AMERICAN EXPRESS (AMEX) OR EURO CARD).
FOR PAYMENT ON CREDIT (ADVANCE PAYMENT) PLEASE CONTACT OUR COMMERCIAL DEPARTMENT TO SEND YOU PRO FORMA INVOICE WITH EXPECTED CHARGES.
TEL/FAX + 381 11 2286125, + 381 11 2286 188, [phone] MR. M. VUJADINOVIC
e-mail: xcxcxcxcxcx
OVER COLLECTIONS WILL BE REFUNDED AND UNDER COLLECTIONS WILL BE INVOICED, ADDITIONALLY.
THIS IS LINK FOR PRICE LISTS
Aerodrom Nikola Tesla | Price Lists
IN ARR/ DEP YOUR PAX AND CREW WILL USE GENERAL AVIATION TERMINAL !
GENERAL AVIATION TERMINAL WORKING TIME: 07:00-21:00 LT / 0500 - 1900 UTC
FUEL SUPPLIER NAME :

NIS JUGOPETROL TEL [phone], + 381 11 209 7023
FAX: + 381 11 2286 378, PRICE IS 2, 26614 USDOL/ KG
CARNETS: Jeppesen World Fuel Services Card, Avcard,
US Government AIR card, OR CREDIT CARDS

NB. APROX PRICE FOR HANDLING FOR 1 DAY PARKING AND 1 PX IN DEP IS:
Infrastructure: 18.00 EUR
Handling: 30.00 EUR
Landing: 12.00 EUR
Parking: 3.60 EUR
Lighting: EUR
Use of air bridge: EUR
PAX TAX: 16.50 EUR
Security TAX: 3.30 EUR
DCS: EUR
Cute: EUR
Royality PAX TAX: 0.98 EUR
Royality Cargo TAX: 0.00 EUR
GAT PAX TAX: 15.00 EUR


Total: 99.38 EUR


Airport Nikola Tesla JSC Belgrade
Flight Coordination D Mandic
Tel: [phone]
Fax: [phone]
SITA: BEGOWXH; BEGAPXH
E-mail: cxcxcxcxcxcx

The bits in bold are particularly relevant

OTOH, you never know, maybe you can ignore all that and just file the flight plan and turn up at the IAF... A lot of pilots do that and don't exactly post all over the internet when they didn't get away with it But, to paraphrase C Eastwood, do you feel lucky, to turn up with 2hrs' fuel and be told to s0d off, and the nearest airport is over a few little hills?