Helicopter flying in Germany.
 

I am planning a trip to the Netherlands and Northern Germany for next summer.
I have heard however that you cannot land off airfield in Germany unless you hold a commercial licence. Can anyone enlighten me on this?

Thanks

What you've heard is almost beyond belief, but apparently true.
I've never needed to research the German regs for professional purposes, but my understanding of the position is:

(1) Professional pilots can obtain a general permission from the German CAA to land/take off away from authorised heliports for the purpose of commercial flights.

(2) A pilot on a private flight cannot cannot land at a private site without obtaining specific permission even if he holds a CPL(H).

(3) Obtaining permission for a private flight is not a formality, even if the pilot is a CPL(H). The authorities usually insist on inspecting the site, and impose conditions. Presumably, they don't consider even qualified commercial pilots have the ability to make their own judgement.

(4) If you don't have a CPL(H) your application is almost invariably refused.

I've been told by a German friend that the 'reasoning' (his word, not mine) behind these stupid restrictions is that if all helicopter pilots were allowed to just fly around and land where they want, when they wants, then why bother getting a CPL?

I don't understand the logic :rolleyes: - but I'm not German!

Moral of the story: Avoid Germany if you want an enjoyable helicopter flying holiday! :)


Tudor Owen
http://www.mwhelicopters.co.uk/MWHel...rs%20Right.gif

Don't laugh if these rules seem tight (if they are true). They are quite lax compared to the previous ones (circa 1989) which excluded civil helicopters from landing anywhere other than a licensed aerodrome at any time (at least, thats what Udi from Itzehoe said...):cool:

J d'P
You're right to add "if they are true". I stress I haven't looked myself, and I still have difficulty believing that they could possibly be true - but my German friend assured me those are the rules.

Looks like Germany's a tempting place for a holiday if you're an enthusiastic driver with a high performance car, but certainly not for a private helicopter flying.

I don't know how much of Europe has these restrictions for helicopters, but it use to be just as bad in France, where you required a Helisurface Permit to land anywhere other than at an airoport or licensed heliport. The permit used to be valid for just 6 months and used to take 4-5 months to arrive, so it only had about a month or two of its validity left by the time you got it! I don't know if the situation has changed, but it looks as if it's just not worth having a helicopter in a lot of European countries if these are the sorts of bureaucratic rules they have. We may complain about the CAA, but at least we haven't got the draconian rules some other European countries have to put up with.
:eek:

Thanks for that FL. That pretty much agrees with the info I had been given. Guess the Germans circuits are connected slightly different to ours. ;)

We whinge a lot about how the CAA frustrate our flying but we really don’t do badly compared to a lot of the rest of Europe. :rolleyes:

Guess I can take Germany off the list of places to go flying. :(

Vortex what...ouch!

What Flying Lawyer reported is pretty much the truth. The reason behind it is really the dense population, the noise problems existing all over and the misuse of the existing rules by some pilots.

We in Germany often complain of our restrict regulations, but as mentioned above other countries have even stricter rules. I heard that there is absolutly no legal VFR nicht flying in Holland (and also Belgium?). We don't have much VFR night flying here because of lack of available airfields, but it is legal to do so (on a flight plan basis).

So where in some areas we are more strict ("usually" with good reasons), in other areas we may be more lenient. I guess that goes for all countries.

Come fly in Germany and enjoy yourself!

keep flying!
WestWind

In Germany we have a compulsion to use airfields. It's one of the elementary aerial laws. That means that any offside landing ( with all kinds of a/c !!! ) needs an official permit. For special purposes you can get a general permission. All professional helicopter operators have a general permission according to their proposals.

You can get a general permission as a commercial pilot also for private or executive flights.

You can get a permission for an offside landing (general or specific) also as a private pilot, provided that you have enough flight experience, the owner of the area and the local police or mayor agrees to.

Germany is a federal republic. At each country is a special authorithy responsible for the permissions. And in each country exists different views to the topic.

It's possible that the local authority insists of a special checkride with one of the their examiners or that you have at minimum 300 flighthours... Depends on the officer... You must demonstrate your qualification by logbook, checkride or... or... !

Reasons:
Dense population, noise, private property, environment protection, lot of airspace restriction due to the intensive traffic, ...

And most german private helicopter pilots are very unexperienced and bad trained due to the very expensive helicopter costs ( 1h R 22 > 300€ + dues, Jetranger > 650€ ), restrictions and flying not more than 5-10 flighthours each year. That caused a lot of accidents. Therefore the authorities checking strictly.

If you are looking at flying near Berlin, there is a helicopter school at Schonhagen just south of the city with Schweizer 300s and an EC120.
There is apparently a route over the city that can be flown beneath controlled airspace that takes you directly over all the sites, Tempelhof airport, the TV tower, Unter den Linden Brandenburg Gate and more besides.
Planning to do this trip myself in a few weeks.

Sounds like a good flight.
Please tell us about it when you've done it.

Still doesn't make exploring/touring Germany by helicopter a very attractive option though.

Get the relevant Jeppesen VFR charts for the area(s) you want to fly through and plan a route that way there are plenty of smaller airfields certainly in germany. I flew from Holland to eastern Poland this summer and had no problems.

As for landing off airfield in Holland: you have to get permission from the property owner AND permission from the counsel of the area where you land this all in writing ofcourse.
Then at least 24hrs before the proposed flight you need to fax the dutch CAA and Aviation police with your details.

There are also various heliports within Holland you possibly could use as well.

Safe Flying
;)

LZ outside Airport in Germany LAw??
 

Hallo
Can someone tell me what the regulations are in Germany for landing outside an airfield or heliport with a helicopter (of course :))???

And the contact details of the German General aviation authorities??

Just to be clear it's a one time landing, non-commercial......

thank you

This reminds me of a unique pleasure that we had the other day here. It turns out that a rellie of ours marries the daughter of a manager dude from a large HEMS outfit operating in Germany, Austria and Italy. He looks after 40 or so machines on the German operation and 70 odd drivers.

They all turned up here for a day or so, talk about a United Nations, we had around the dinner table, a couple, young poms from sheffield, Two estonians girls, one a scholar of Ag science the other holds a degree in archeology?, a frenchman (ag student), four germans, a canadian girl, four os us oz's and three Mexicans. Well that's what we call Victorians.

anyrate, Gorge the german, had a great day being checked out in Mustering and then doing a check ride with yours truly. he was really impressed with the Robinson and the mustering techniques, absolutely amazed that we didn't just yahoo around like a bunch of cowbows.

He talked about an uncomfortable trip that he had when he did a donk in a BK a few years back, and relevant to this thread, he had to fly in recovery mode at very low level along a very populous section of the Rhine for a good ways, but the company did not draw one noise complaint.

We didn't talk at all about other GA or Private flying, but I will contact him when he gets home and seek his opinion.

Hi onegabel,
the authorities for off-airfield landings are the so called "Landesluftfahrtbehörden" , so you have different ones for several regions of germany.

Heres the list of all the german authorities:

LBA A-Z

skadi

Offsite in Holland and Germany
 

My experience

-> I have to fly to Germany from Belgium. I also did some type ratings in Germany : offsite is a no go. The procedure communicated by FL is correct, but in practise one has to contact so many districts that is is hardly practical. Even for CPL's this is considered "an exception", so cannot be planned 14 days in advance because then he probably could and should organise for an alternative transportation (call a cab)...

-> Holland : Again the said procedure by Nomads is correct, so possible, but the 24hrs only will only work if the township has some experience with it (for instance Hotels etc that have some landing experience, so that the secretary of the maire/counsel is knowledgeable and efficient). Otherwise I apply the rule : if it costs more time to get the permit than to drive to the next airport, why bother....


m2c

It's in § 25 LuftVG (due to the lack of English version here is the German quote)

Freely translated: Aircrafts may start and land outside of authorized airports only when the land owner or otherwise authorized person agrees and the aeronautical authority has issued a permit.

Same article, Section 2 (2), deals about precautionary or emergency landings.

I had to go down in a field in Germany last December, because of a door popping open. After I was back on base, I checked regulations to see what they say about this unscheduled precautionary landing. Art. 25 S 2 (2) LuftVG is your friend, says you can land and subsequently takeoff for safety reasons (note, you cannot take off again if it was an emergency landing). However, what you have to do is to leave your contact and insurance details with the landowner, so that he can claim damages in case there are any. He then cannot prevent you from taking off again. Seems this paragraph also deals with hot air balloons ("when the landing site cannot be predetermined because of the type of aircraft").

Being in Germany, I was waiting for the police to call in and ask about the incident. Thankfully didn't happen.

This no-offsite landing rule in Germany (Austria as well, by the way) sucks, but on the other hand there are plenty of small (and cheap) airfields in Germany and you are welcome almost anywhere with a helicopter. Even PPR ones are usually happy for anybody to come in and may even assist you with transportation etc...

Not trying to be a smart ass or ignorant, but since I almost solely use the helicopter for my job I can't really relate to spending 100's or 1000's bucks an hour for fun - it just doesn't sound all that "recreational" to me; but then again, I'm fortunate to make a living with what others would pay for...

My question (assuming for the sake of an argument that germany would have the same regs as the US or UK): except for the remote chance you have a friend/relative in germany that has a big enough property (like Runway101 said: very densely populated), why would you try to arrange agreements with a stranger (e.g. farmer/landowner) just to land off airport, when its probably be safer on an airfield (security, fuel, maintenance etc.) just 15 min driving distance away?

I have certainly made my share of "commercial" landings off airport here in the US, but even in the land of the free some states require an official offsite landing permit (NJ for example)). I have yet to meet a person that would plan a cross country journey with landings on some random farmers field, lets say to camp.

Final word: lets say if nothing else, this overregulation in my home country is another example why I enjoy my profession and life overseas - although I still love my motherland and miss it at times.

have to say that my one experience of flying heli's in Germany was not a lot of fun. Didn't have a JAA licence at that point, but had a CPL from a decent ICAO state plus currency on a 44. So took an instructor who insisted on flying from the right seat, wouldn't let me touch the controls below 300 ft and then followed through quite heavily when I did have the controls.

Then took control when we flew down a valley because it is "always quite tubulent here" and then much to my surprise didn't back the speed off at all but sat there looking very tense and taking little or no action while i suggested something in the 70's might be better than something in the 120's !

As we fought our way back on the controls I finally got bored and handed her back control only to get a 30 degree yaw as I took my feet of the pedals as i didn't even realsie how much we had been pushing against each other.

Then on further questioning I discovered that she had half the TT that I did and 1/4 of the R44 time... oh and then there was the cost :ugh:

Not a rant against German aviation, well maybe a bit :p but it was a shocker..

Nothing against you personally, generalspecific, but with a Hong Kong PPL holder on board I would also want to follow through on the controls. Just kidding of course...

aha, but you assume I have a PPL and one from Hong Kong as my primary ;)

I is proper trained and everyfing.

I can do a stable hover within the confines of a 1 acre field
Given it is Hong Kong, I once went on a 15 nm cross country solo
Fuel is very very expensive though so i don't like carrying a resrve or anything as it just wastes money

Frankly though I am a bit rusty as my maid does most of the flying these days :p

hat on....