Schengen
 

Can someone explain this to me please?

If countries are members of the Schengen thingummy does that mean you can fly from any airfield to any airfield without any kind of customs etc.? e.g. France to Italy?

Do you always have to file a flight plan to cross a Schengen border, however?

QDM

Q1. Yes. Same as driving.

Q2. Yes [technically there are no "Schengen borders", so in the spirit of your question, the answer is yes].
(Flight plans across Int'l boundary is still an ICAO requirement, nothing to do with customs/Schengen. Funnily, the FIR boundary England/Scotland is exempt, but I don't know why).

Because it's not an INTERNATIONAL FIR boundary.

How come they talk funny then? :confused:

;)

QDM

Be a little careful because you cannot fly between Greece and another Schengen state. You have to go via a Customs airport first, in or out of Greece.

If the UK would only introduce ID cards and join the Schengen community, travel would become a fair bit easier in Europe. Going through the non-Schengen arrival faff at Frankfurt airport is a real PITA!

There are 1 or 2 minor exceptions to the flight plan requirement, but mainly restricted to short hops between flying clubs close to a border.

I've flown between small strips in France, Italy, Germany and Sweden (Schengen but not EU) with no formality except activating your flight plan when airborne and closing it just before landing; all perfectly legal.

If only flight plans/ customs / immigration / special branch could share information and have a single interface, wouldn't life be a whole lot easier?

Mark,

I think you will find that Sweeden is in the EU ;)

dp

Thanks, everyone.

Dublinpilot - correct.

I really meant Norway that is Schengen but non-EU.