Coup des Douaniers?
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Carbonfibre-based lifeform
Joined: Mar 2002
Posts: 747
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From: London
Coup des Douaniers?
Anybody else notice a bit of a blitz of Customs activity in France on Sunday?
Two of us flew to Arras on Saturday via L2K and the delightful private airfield at Verchocq. On Sunday morning as we were preparing the aircraft three Customs men appeared from behind the hangar and not only checked all our paperwork, but wiped down various parts of both aircraft with little swabs, checking for traces of nefarious substances. The back of my aircraft was by then delicately perfumed by my haul of fishy delights from Perard in L2K which had been in there all night, so I don't know what the labs will make of that.
Anyway, they were thorough but polite and not unfriendly, and in the end we shook hands and flew off to Calais.
We landed there to find another group of Douaniers checking people's papers again.
Was this simply a coincidence, or was something going on? I know that there is a big military flying exercise going on this week and wondered if it might have been part of that.
Two of us flew to Arras on Saturday via L2K and the delightful private airfield at Verchocq. On Sunday morning as we were preparing the aircraft three Customs men appeared from behind the hangar and not only checked all our paperwork, but wiped down various parts of both aircraft with little swabs, checking for traces of nefarious substances. The back of my aircraft was by then delicately perfumed by my haul of fishy delights from Perard in L2K which had been in there all night, so I don't know what the labs will make of that.
Anyway, they were thorough but polite and not unfriendly, and in the end we shook hands and flew off to Calais.
We landed there to find another group of Douaniers checking people's papers again.
Was this simply a coincidence, or was something going on? I know that there is a big military flying exercise going on this week and wondered if it might have been part of that.
Thread Starter
Carbonfibre-based lifeform
Joined: Mar 2002
Posts: 747
Likes: 0
From: London
2D,
Just to add some weight to a previously-expressed contention of yours, we were not asked for evidence of VAT payment on our aircraft, both of which are G-registered. This contrasts with a similar ramp check I had in Carcassonne in June in an N-registered machine where they were very keen indeed to see the VAT receipts.
Just to add some weight to a previously-expressed contention of yours, we were not asked for evidence of VAT payment on our aircraft, both of which are G-registered. This contrasts with a similar ramp check I had in Carcassonne in June in an N-registered machine where they were very keen indeed to see the VAT receipts.
