Too bad, though. There is something magical about seeing the mountains, volcanoes, or beaches of my favorite vacation spots from the air first, before my feet ever touch the ground. Arriving by airliner just doesn?t have the same effect. After all, you can?t very well ask the captain to take a detour so that you can get a look at that inviting little town in the distance.
I can?t tell you how many times I?ve been on vacation in some distant foreign port, looked out at the stunning scenery surrounding me, and thought how much I would love to get a bird?s-eye view of the place. Now I know that I can.
I always thought that the paperwork involved in obtaining a temporary pilot?s certificate in a foreign country would be daunting or that the rules would be too different to learn easily. It turns out that I was wrong.
?ICAO [International Civil Aviation Organization] lays down that licenses [and] certificates issued in an ICAO member State will be accepted in all other ICAO member States for private privileges by day VFR,? says Pamela Campbell, the International Council of Aircraft Owners and Pilots Associations (IAOPA) delegate at the Joint Aviation Authorities (JAA). In fact, the JAA is currently trying to consolidate the various certificate regulations in 30 European countries to come up with a standard European License by July of this year. Any changes made as part of that effort, however, are unlikely to affect the tourist pilot with a U.S. certificate, Campbell says.
Pilot certificates from the United States are accepted virtually worldwide because they closely conform to ICAO?s standards. Pilots with U.S. certificates can usually get temporary VFR privileges in foreign countries with little or no hassle. Fixed-base operators who rent aircraft in Ireland, Great Britain, and Switzerland, for example, can accept the U.S. certificate as is. In those countries, there?s no paperwork at all. In Germany, too, there is very little to do if you rent an aircraft that carries U.S. registration (an N number).
To get into the air in most foreign countries, all you have to do is go to the airport with a valid U.S. pilot certificate (private pilot or better), your valid medical certificate, and your logbook. Basically, you need to prove you are a current pilot, get a good checkout in the airplane you want to fly, and go.
Before you know it, you?ll be cruising around the verdant green hills of your vacation paradise, watching for the spires of ancient cathedrals to appear on the horizon. In some countries, a single afternoon in the air will let you survey a larger area than you might cover in a week on the ground. You can also use your airborne escapades as scouting missions, picking out the sights you?d like to get closer to on the ground. Either way, there?s nothing like coming home with three-dimensional images of your vacation. Best of all, you don?t have to make the perilous ocean crossing in your own airplane to earn the privilege of flying over foreign soil.
It stands to reason, of course, that if you are flying in Switzerland you?ll want to avail yourself of a good mountain-flying checkout before you attempt to cruise over the Matterhorn. In Scotland, you?ll want to understand the local weather trends before venturing over the frequently foggy moors. And you should know better than to try to operate in extremely complex airspace or use the air traffic control services much.
If you want to use the privileges of an instrument ticket, you?ll have to suffer through filling out some paperwork and, more than likely, pass a written exam. Call the controlling authority for aviation in the country you?ll be visiting, as well as IAOPA at 301/695-2220 to find out what?s required before you go.
I rented an airplane on a trip to Australia, a country as vast and varied as our own, and found it to be a fairly simple process. Australia?s civilian aviation authority accepts any ICAO pilot certificate as long as your license and medical are current and you can present a logbook. The easiest authorization to get is called a Certificate of Validation for basic VFR. You need to speak English competently to get this certificate, which is good for three months of day-VFR flying. If you want to fly at night (and you have no restrictions on your U.S. certificate), you?ll have to pass a night checkride.
The formalities don?t take long, but most people traveling 8,000 miles for a vacation want to spend it touring, not doing paperwork, flight planning, and checkouts. For those folks there is a company named FLYOZ that will do the bulk of the preparatory work for an Australian ?safari? ahead of time. For a fee, FLYOZ can save you a few days locating a good FBO to rent from, gathering the necessary charts, and finding the proper officials to issue a certificate of validation. They will get your airplane ready ahead of time?you?ll be renting from them?gather all the charts for your trip, and fill out flight plans and other documents that you might need. More importantly, when you arrive, a FLYOZ representative will have the licensing people lined up, drive you to get an Australian validation, give you a thorough ground school, and take you for a check out flight.
If you want to do the planning yourself, Aviation Theory Centre, Ltd., publishes a helpful booklet titled ?Visiting Pilots To Australia? that can shorten the ground school portion of your checkout significantly.
I didn?t know about FLYOZ before my vacation, but I was lucky enough to happen upon Civil Flying School and Air Charter at Moorabbin Airport outside of Melbourne. I didn?t have enough time for a full safari, but instructor Steve Jamison was ready to check me out for a local flight over Melbourne in a Piper Arrow.
During the hour of ground preparation, I was pleasantly surprised to find that Australian air charts are similar to our own. And, despite slightly different terminology, the airspace use is similar too. Even the operating rules, right-of-way rules, and required paperwork onboard aircraft are close enough to be quickly absorbed by U.S.-trained pilots. Australian radio phraseology is nearly identical, and, of course, English is the first language. If you choose to fly in countries where English is a second language (or falls even further down the language chain), you might find that only you and the controller you are working with are speaking English. When that?s the case, if you don?t know the native lingo, your situational awareness will suffer.
While much is similar in the United States and Australia, transponder use is different. In the United States, code 1200 identifies VFR flights not participating in flight following or other active ATC controlling. Australians use code 1200 for VFR, too, but only within 100 miles of a terminal area such as Melbourne. For instance, at Moorabbin we were asked to squawk one code inside the three-mile airport traffic area, but when we transitioned to our destination, Essendon, we were asked to squawk another code, 4000. Apparently, all aircraft in the Essendon traffic area squawk 4000. It seems to work.
The transponder codes aren?t the only thing that takes a little getting used to in Australia. I quickly became accustomed to hearing barometric pressure measured in hectopascals (hPa), which used to be called millibars (mb). I learned that QNH stands for 1013.2 hPa or 29.92 inches Hg. You can expect to hear QNH just about everywhere except in the United States. Also, altitudes are measured in feet, but cloud clearances, visibility, and obstacle clearances are measured in meters Down Under. Don?t be surprised if you are expected to use metric measurements in most parts of the world.
The air traffic was relatively light while I was airborne, and the locals said that it dwindles rapidly as you get away from populated coastal areas. There is no requirement to do any reporting or even to file a flight plan as long as you fly VFR. As in the States, however, it is wise to do so. You don?t have to make any position reports, and if you don?t fly higher than 5,000 feet you don?t even need to have the radio turned on, except when arriving at or departing from an airport. You?ll probably want to use air traffic control, however, if you?re taking an extended tour of the Australian Outback. The area is so vast and unpopulated that aircraft flying over it are required to have high-frequency (HF) radios for communication. If you haven?t used an HF radio before, you will definitely want to spend a little time with an instructor before heading into Australia?s wilds.
I was only airborne a little over an hour, but in that time I was able to see a vista that included the ridges abutting 7,000-foot Mount Dandenong, the vast golden sand dunes and waters of Port Phillip Bay, and the misty Bellarine and Mornington Peninsulas that guard it. I didn?t get to see much of Australia in the measly seven days I had there, but my time aloft in that Arrow gave me a taste?enough to know how much more I have to see.
Without it I might have come away from Australia thinking the whole country was like metropolitan Melbourne. My aerial tour taught me better. Now I want to go back with a longer itinerary, venturing west, past the 1,000-mile fence and into the expanses of the Outback. Will I rent an airplane for a safari next time I?m in Australia? You bet. What?s more, I?ll consider flying anytime I?m overseas, now that I know how easy it can be. Care to join me?
For more information about touring other countries by airplane, check out IAOPA?s Web site (www.iaopa.org) and the ICAO site (www.icao.org). FLYOZ can be found at (www.flyoz.com.au). See the sidebar accompanying this article for more information about services and products available to AOPA members. Not all countries conform to U.S. safety standards for air traffic control or airport location and runway construction. The FAA lists countries that do not conform to its safety specifications on the World Wide Web.
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