From: olsen@xn.ll.mit.edu
Subject: Quebec City Trip Report (and Customs Horror Story)
Organization: MIT Lincoln Laboratory, Lexington, MA
Distribution: na
Date: Fri, 28 Aug 92 02:05:21 GMT


Here's a report on a recent trip I made to Quebec City (YQB).  The
visit to Canada was very nice, but the return to the US was rather
unpleasant.

For our tenth wedding anniversary, my wife and I planned to spend the
weekend in Quebec City, leaving on Friday evening and returning on
Monday morning.  We made our reservations months in advance, and were
delighted to find that the weather was forecast to be nice the entire
time.

Since we planned to return to Bedford, MA (BED), a Landing Rights
Airport, I called Customs on Friday afternoon to confirm that Customs
permission would be granted on Monday morning.  The Customs Guide I
got from AOPA listed both a Gloucester number and a Boston number for
Customs.  I called the Boston number and told them about my plans.
The woman on the other end said she would contact the inspector, took
my telephone number, and said she would call me back if there were any
problems.  Receiving no call back, I thought everything was all set.

The weather was nice, but there was a chance of some clouds over the
White Mountains and in Canada, so I filed IFR (VFR over-the-top is
illegal in Canada).  We were making an intermediate stop at Laconia,
New Hampshire (LCI), so I filed to start from there.  DUAT doesn't
accept flight plans to Canada, so I had to call the Bridgeport FSS to
file.  The specialist indicated that there was some complication
because LCI is served by the Bangor FSS, not Bridgeport.  We were told
to call Bangor after takeoff, to activate the ADCUS message to Quebec
City.

So, we flew to LCI, and then tried to get a clearance to YQB.  No go:
our flight plan didn't show up in the computer.  So, we departed VFR
and contacted Bangor FSS.  They had part of the flight plan (the part
needed for the ADCUS), and re-entered the rest in the computer.  (It
may be my imagination, but it seems that whenever I try to do anything
unusual with a flight plan filed via FSS, the plan never shows up.)

We finally got our clearance from Boston Center, just in time to bore
thru some clouds above the White Mountains.  After we passed the
border, we were handed off to Montreal Center.  I noticed that while
most of the tranmissions were in English, a few were in French.
Although I know some French, I was at a loss to understand most of the
French radio transmissions; I guess it takes practice, just as
understanding English radio transmissions does.  After a while I could
glean the gist of many of the French transmissions.  (It helps when
you can guess what they're going to say anyway.)

We were handed off to Quebec Approach, and the situation was reversed:
almost all of the radio traffic was French, and I was almost the only
pilot speaking English.  However, the controller spoke excellent
English, and was very helpful and polite.  (And wished me a pleasant
stay in Quebec!)  

After the usual quick and painless Canada Customs inspection, we took
a taxi downtown to our hotel.  Quebec is a lovely little city, and we
had loads of fun, eating at a different fine restaurant every night.

Monday morning came around, a little hazy but good VFR.  I filed a
VFR flight plan to BED with Quebec FSS.  We took a taxi to the
airport, and I called Customs in Boston again, just to be sure:
they said everything would be fine.

After an uneventful VFR flight to BED, we were met by the US Customs
inspector.  After the usual Customs-related questions, he gave me the
first ramp-check I've ever had, asking for my license and medical, and
the aircraft registration and airworthiness certificate.  I produced
the first three, but I couldn't find the airworthiness certificate!
The inspector then mentioned that there would be a $5000 fine for each
missing document.  After several anxious minutes, we found where we
had misplaced the certificate, and showed it to the inspector.

He then mentioned that we had been 'lucky', since he had only been
notified of our flight 45 minutes before, and that if he had been
committed to another airport, we would have had to pay a $20,000 fine.
He said that if he (the inspector) had thought we did it deliberately,
he would have confiscated the airplane; we would have had to buy it
back from the government at current market value.  When I mentioned my
calls to the Boston office, he said that I should have called the
Gloucester office instead, and my calls to Boston meant nothing, since
if there's any problem like this it's always the pilot's
responsibility.  Finally, he released us and left.

While Quebec City was very nice, our homecoming wasn't.  In future,
when I have to subject myself to US Customs, I will punctiliously
record all details of any call, get the name and badge number of the
inspector, and explicitly ask for permission to land.  (In fact, I'll
think twice about going at all.)
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