Here's a thing that I found interesting and it is a little nerdish I suppose, but the musing came to me after noticing something
the other day on the FlightRadar24 website. I've browsed the net for the answer, but I'm still not sure if I'm up-to-speed with it.

One morning, I chanced a look at the 'hole' in the global aviation traffic around the Ukraine and Belarus on the flight-monitoring
website and after seeing that all commercial airlines were avoiding the area, I swung back to take a look around Britain's skies
for purely selfish reasons. There is an airport close to where I live and the landings there are few-and-far-between, usually the roar
of engines comes from a couple of small aircraft belonging to Cobham Aviation Services flying out to the North Sea for surveillance
and reconnaissance.

With the website showing that my local airport was quiet and barren of aircraft, I moved around the British Isles with an idle eye
and clicked on a small airplane that was meandering northwards from the Isle of Wight. When an object is clicked onto, the website
often displays to the viewer an image, details of its altitude and speed, along with a path of its flight from its departure location.

This aircraft was a private Piper-style plane and it had taken-off from an unlicensed aerodrome called Bembridge Airport on the
Isle of Wight. I Googled its flight-distance potential and read that its travel range is 465 nautical miles. At the time of locating the
plane, it had travelled vaguely northwards with a slight migrate towards Lincoln on the east of England. After a while, it landed at
Sherburn Aeroclub near Leeds in West Yorkshire. I believe the plane (a Piper PA-28-161 Cherokee Warrior II) is a training aircraft
from this Aeroclub.

My question is (and I'm confident 727Sky will assist!), are private air-travellers and aircraft like this generally checked by any on-the
-ground Governmental officials before or after the journey? Just askin'.

Customs and immigration usually only have anything to do if the aircraft has crossed from one country's border to another or is suspected of carrying contraband. Otherwise if you can afford the gas you are free to travel anyplace withing you own country or a claimed territory.. Hopefully that kinda answered the question ?

No different than driving your car from one place to another only much quicker in most cases.

(07-05-2022, 10:01 AM)727Sky Wrote: Customs and immigration usually only have anything to do if the aircraft has crossed from one country's border to another or is suspected of carrying contraband. Otherwise if you can afford the gas you are free to travel anyplace withing you own country or a claimed territory.. Hopefully that kinda answered the question ?

No different than driving your car from one place to another only much quicker in most cases.

Cheers Sky, I'm surprised that a plane leaving technically an island can fly to the mainland without be checked!

I watched a couple of these types of aircraft fly from Cannes France to Birmingham England and guessed Customs
would be involved in these cases. I was going to write about a 'lonely-Aerodrome-to-lonely-Aerodrome' flight could
be open to abuse, but the webcam at Sherburn Aero Club as I typed this implies otherwise!

Thank you.

(07-05-2022, 03:20 PM)BIAD Wrote: Cheers Sky, I'm surprised that a plane leaving technically an island can fly to the mainland without be checked!

I watched a couple of these types of aircraft fly from Cannes France to Birmingham England and guessed Customs
would be involved in these cases. I was going to write about a 'lonely-Aerodrome-to-lonely-Aerodrome' flight could
be open to abuse, but the webcam at Sherburn Aero Club as I typed this implies otherwise!

Thank you.

I think some of those smaller airports are just the ticket for smugglers. This area is dotted with tiny airports with next to no oversight. There was one about a half mile from my last job site that could be used to bring in all manner of untoward objects and substances. It had a rather long runway for such a tiny insignificant airport, but I presume part of the reason for that was the sheer drop at the end of the runway.

Many years ago, a gentleman with a slavic name contacted me about the purchase of a portion of my land. The part he wanted was on a ridgetop, and his explanation was that he wanted a private airstrip so he could "fly in for hunting trips". I checked the owners of all the lands around there, and his name never came up - so where could he have possibly been hunting? Outsiders were looked at askance by the locals, especially if they had a slavic name in those days of the Cold War, so I'm pretty confident that he didn't have permission to hunt the farms of any of the locals there. The consensus in my family circles is that he wanted the landing strip for smuggling rather than hunting, so I wouldn't sell it to him. It didn't help matters for him that he wanted what was probably the only agriculturally productive part of that patch.

As an aside, my uncle DID find a fairly large pot patch in proximity to that landing strip area one day when he was out hunting. I don't recall whose land it was on, but am fairly sure it was a guerilla farm on the lands of an absentee landowner who rarely if ever came to check on their land. The pot patch mysteriously vanished one night not long after it's discovery.

And yeah, you DO need permission around there to hunt anyone else's land. Even my own family has always sought my permission before hunting on my land - which was really just a formality, as I've never denied it to them. All the same, they have always asked first. But there are always several absentee landowners in that area who never check on their patches, and an unscrupulous individual might be induced to use someone else's land in those circumstances for their own benefit in conducting illegal or questionable activities, so that such would not be traced back to their stalwart selves.

@"BIAD" - if you recall the "strange rock symbol" near my land that turned out to be a rare tar kiln from days gone by, just above that rock ("above" meaning "upstream" in this context), there is a rock overhang, what we call a "rock house" because of their use by early settlers as shelters, that would be just the ticket for setting up a moonshine still, and the owner of that patch lives in Montana, and never comes to check on it.

There is no telling what really goes on up in those isolated hollers.

.

It does not have to be an outlying airport to carry contraband...just remember Mena Ark. and the Clintons; Big big night time operation there..

One childhood acquaintance during the 80s wanted to fly a rubber coated 3.5 x2.5 x10" package out of Cancun an do a kick out to his 42 foot Ketch sail boat off of some radial and DME distance from MSY VOR. He said at Cancun everything was taken care of.... He was offering 25,000 for the kick out and he would pay for the airplane expenses .  Thanks but no thanks... I figured back in the 80s if you were not a government sanctioned agency it was best to stay well away from that whole scene. Even some of the agency supplied guys ended up getting burnt in the end.

That childhood friend did quite well for several years as he owned 3 night clubs, big house, and several cars.

Supposedly later he was working with the local yahoos on a sting operation and when all was said and done he went to jail for a few years!! His story not mine. It really pissed him off as he had donated to the Sheriffs re-election and was even a deputy sheriff himself at one time. I think back then it was a 5000 campaign contribution and you too could be a deputy with a badge and everything... Was Good for getting out of speeding tickets...

When I got out of the service especially after working for the sneaky Pete bunch and watching Nam fall in 1975 I wanted nothing to do with government anything.. Maybe I have some long lost Indian blood for I know for a fact the government has a bunch of forked tongue lying idiots in wrong places to making decisions that can effect us all. They will burn anyone to protect themselves as you are just a sometimes useful pawn on their game board.

(07-06-2022, 05:07 AM)727Sky Wrote: When I got out of the service especially after working for the sneaky Pete bunch and watching Nam fall in 1975 I wanted nothing to do with government anything.. Maybe I have some long lost Indian blood for I know for a fact the government has a bunch of forked tongue lying idiots in wrong places to making decisions that can effect us all. They will burn anyone to protect themselves as you are just a sometimes useful pawn on their game board.

That's fact. I've got a former Green Beanie buddy who got burned like that just to keep his head down.After he got out, some of the 3-letter guys sold him an AR-15 with a drop-in auto sear, and didn't tell him the DIAS was there until they arrested him a few minutes later. Then they "cut a deal" with him - we'll suspend this prosecution for machine gun possession if you'll just do such and such. Then they told him "we'll KEEP this matter 'suspended' just as long as you keep yer mind right, boy. If you stray, it's always still gonna be there to activate and bite you in the ass. Have a nice day!"

Bastards.

.

(07-05-2022, 08:36 PM)Ninurta Wrote: I think some of those smaller airports are just the ticket for smugglers...

That was what caught my eye, there are many such places where a lone two-seater could fly from A to B and
as long as the logistics were worked-out before hand in regards of delivering an item to the plane and then
retrieving it after the flight, nobody would be any of the wiser.

I'm not suggesting this happens, just that such an opportunity is there.

@"727Sky" I watched 'American Made' the other night and apart from the comedic-aspect, the reality of what went on
is startling in regards of the drug-trade, Governmental agencies and commercial aviation travel.

(07-06-2022, 08:45 AM)BIAD Wrote:

(07-05-2022, 08:36 PM)Ninurta Wrote: I think some of those smaller airports are just the ticket for smugglers...

That was what caught my eye, there are many such places where a lone two-seater could fly from A to B and
as long as the logistics were worked-out before hand in regards of delivering an item to the plane and then
retrieving it after the flight, nobody would be any of the wiser.

I'm not suggesting this happens, just that such an opportunity is there.

@"727Sky" I watched 'American Made' the other night and apart from the comedic-aspect, the reality of what went on
is startling in regards of the drug-trade, Governmental agencies and commercial aviation travel.

Yes I enjoyed that movie and the flying

Back in the 80s with very few contacts there were all kinds of offers to haul stuff for those who might be so inclined.. some of the pilots who got involved ended up in jail or in a hotel room with a few bullets in certain important pieces of their bodies. There was a Viet Nam book called "Chicken Man" and the author of that book ended up in jail for some stuff he did in Florida if I remember correctly.