Yes, and if you do find out, please would you let me know as this is something i've often wondered myself. I thought money was money but turns out it's not!

Oh, Englishal - :}

Ah, well, actually the EU is more about free and fair trade, ie. shipping goods over borders without hassles of VAT drawback/duty, import/export restrictions and such.

If you want free passage over the borders for your own person, what you should be looking for is the Schengen treaty. Which the UK, sadly, did not sign. So anytime you leave or enter the UK you've got the hassle of going through an immigration process. Which is, I grant you, made easier on the UK side through the GAR form, but still a bit of a hassle. On the Schengen side, you've got to go through one of the designated "customs" (although in this case "immigration" would be more relevant) airports.

Once you're within the EU, and within the set of countries that signed up to the Schengen agreement (and that's indeed a different list), for private flight essentially all borders disappear. With the exception of the fact that you need to file a flight plan for any flight that crosses an international FIR boundary. Big deal.

I run a fly in and airshow for charity at a private strip once a year. We insist on PPR so we can get a good idea of movements (parking gets tight with 80 aircraft on the ground) and so we can brief pilots on the airfield. (the field is in no flight guide and is built for the event) With PPR we e-mail out a very thorough briefing pack, however every year some bright spark just pitches up, one during a BBMF display a couple of years ago (the display times and RAT are notamed). Most of the rest of the non-ppr group have glanced at the copy their mate has got with his PPR and then f*** up completely due to the fact they don't know (or care about) the procedures, our neighbours or the notamed display timings. The really good ones are the ones who come in non-radio because they don't have the frequency, carve up the circuit and complain about the strip.

PPR may be a pain, but a thorough briefing which will come on some occasions could save you a red face or worse. I've got the Reds coming to play this year and believe me if their display is cut short by an unannounced arrival then the pilot concerned can expect the bill for the Reds display.

His £ 100 cup of coffee and burger may turn into a £ 15 000 coffee and burger and I will emblazon his name, registration and home club/airfield across this forum, every other forum I can and the aviation press.

SND

Well have n't you just proved that it does n't work? Having seen your posts on this matter previously if you only want things on your terms then iether do not advertise the event, or provide sufficient information including A/G on the day to make sure these problems do not exist.

This smacks of the nonsense that airfield like Leuchars impose for their display days, dozens of pages of instructions, slot times to the second for an airfield where all the visitors could land simultaneously - if there was not already full LARS, approach, tower and ground control........

Actually GASAX we do provde AG as I put in my last post. Because the strip is just one day a year and a very public event we do all we can to mitigate against all risks, and the pilots' guide is a single A4 sheet with a colour aerial photograph with circuit direction, avoid areas etc on it. I don't use slot times so that visitors can fit the flight into their day as they see fit, BUT our insurers insist that we must know as much as possible about visiting aircraft and that we brief visiting pilots about the site as thoroughly as possible.

PPR is not there to deny anyone the freedom to fly, it is mainly there for the safety of all concerned.

SND