So what was the thinking behind adding a EU IR rating to your FAA and UK one? Actually I mean why has the EU inflicted this upon everyone and what was their thinking?
It depends whether you want a cynical reply, or some attempt at rationalising it
The simple one is that the somewhat left wing self-proclaimed intellectuals who run the EU mostly dislike the USA. The fact that they are happy to sell them Airbus products is a separate matter
The EU is having a high level fight with the USA, on numerous aviation issues, and they threw FCL (flight crew licensing) into the pot, knowing it would screw the many thousands of FAA licensed pilots in Europe, who might then put pressure on the USA to do a deal with the EU.
More practically, the EU has a policy of writing regulation for every area where there is no existing regulation. That is a stated fact (Seebohm, one of the legislators, is on TV saying that). When they got around to writing the regs for aviation, they obviously could not leave out laying down the powers which the EU has over foreign aircraft and licenses, of EU residents. Had they left that out, it would have implied that the EU has no control over these, which would be outrageous. (Previously, obviously, every EU country had control over them anyway, because every country has sovereignity within its borders, but the EU is not a "country" so when they legislated for this, they had to make it explicit). So they drafted a law called Basic Regulation which gives them powers over the foreigners. The BR is very vague. ICAO specifically allows each Contracting State to ban its nationals (meaning: citizens) from flying in its airspace on the privileges of a foreign license or a medical, but the EU used a different terminology, which goes for the residency of the operator (which, fairly obviously, in a case like me, is just me, but with a corporate operation you can easily sidestep this by having a non-EU operating company for the fleet). Nobody could have voted against the BR because voting against it would be saying the EU has no control over foreigners based there! Then, using another millenia old political trick, they built more specific regs using the excuse that the BR forces them to...
There is a derogation till 2014 now, so nobody is affected till then, but in this game, here in Europe, it generally pays to keep one step ahead and collect whatever piece of paper you can while you can.
Frankly I hope the EU melts down, which it is close to anyway, with only France and Germany keeping it together.
So, Peter, what is the reason given for the PPR at these various fields? Or is one given at all?
It varies.
In the UK, PPR is often stipulated by the local council (local government; city govt, whatever you call it) as a condition of the airfield being allowed to operate. It is a piece of meat which the owner throws to the council, which is usually snowed under with objections over noise.
Abroad, PPR is mostly a job creation scheme. In Greece, you find several CAA staff members at each airport, just sitting there, on 50-70k euros/year, doing essentially nothing. At Kerkira, the HCAA office told me it is needed to "control apron (ramp) capacity" but they can park ~ 50 aircraft, and I have never seen more than about 10. And at $120 for any visit they are never going to get suddenly snowed under.
PPR itself is not a huge deal because in general you want to phone the place anyway to make sure they have fuel, etc, but a 48hr (or 5-day or 20-day) PPR is just crazy.
Airport management in Europe is mostly very poor, still in the 1970s labour practices, and they can do it because they hide behind the "safety" banner.
If I wanted to fly a similar trip in the US, I could leave in an hour after checking wx, rather than after weeks of planning
You can do that here too, if you keep to the big H24 international airports. You could immediately fly to Athens LGAV for example. Well, 3hrs PPR in theory but in practice you just call up Olympic Handling and immediately start up your Gulfstream
I come from Prague whose big airport, LKPR; you can fly to anytime, no PPR. They could park the whole Russian airforce
I have never tried this but I am sure you could fly to London Gatwick, Luton, Stansted, etc, immediately. Just call up Signature or Harrods Handling. Their price list starts at £500 ($800) for a PA28
They do have very nice coffee though
It is the smaller airports and airfields, which have pricing acceptable to GA, that operate all this rubbish. And the more south you go in Europe, the more "African" it is.
Greece is fairly bad but actually I don't mind because the airports speak good English, what you see is what you get, and the planning is thus not hard. Just shoot off a load of emails and faxes a few days before the trip. I also have great Greek pilot friends who can make phone calls to the right places. I cannot fly to Greece direct nonstop anyway - except Kerkira which might be doable as a somewhat crazy experiment with an 8hr flight
I won't fly to Italian airports anymore (with few exceptions) because you simply don't know what you are going to get when you turn up at the IAF. And there are great well organised places like Slovenia and Croatia, where things "just work" and the countries are lovely to visit too.
