From: k9jma@cbnewsc.cb.att.com (edwin.m.schaefer)
Subject: Re: Quebec City Trip Report (and Customs Horror Story)
Organization: AT&T
Distribution: na
Date: Fri, 28 Aug 1992 12:53:47 GMT

In article <1992Aug28.020521.16407@xn.ll.mit.edu> olsen@xn.ll.mit.edu writes:
>
>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.
>
much deleted
>
>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,

Note that the determining factor is the _opinion_ of a single police agent.

>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.
      ^
And, that is true no matter what you do. You lose no matter what.
No escape, no appeal. Punishment first, trial later if they don't sieze
all your assets to prevent your hiring a lawyer to sue them.
That's the beauty of the seizure - they can impoverish you and don't,
under their rules, have to pay for your lawyer because its a civil action
where you have to sue them to get your property returned.
>
>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

You should beware of this tactic. If you do _anything_ that looks like
you will cause any kind of trouble you will be on the *hit list and
have no end of trouble will all kinds of unfriendly apparatchiks.

>inspector, and explicitly ask for permission to land.  (In fact, I'll
>think twice about going at all.)
          ^
Yes, that is the desired result. The government will punish and harrass
until we all give up. But after all everyone knows those pilots are
just rich no good drug, or gun, or money, or ivory, or ?? smugglers and that
they deserve whatever we can do to them. After all we government agents have
seen the evidence and know they are guilty.

Yet another example of the reason that some of us have a fairly hostile
response to the informers and (worse) people wo take government pay to
participate in this kind of opression. Bah. Restrained myself all through
the trees flames but lost my temper this time.

Best Regards - Ed Schaefer  Skylane N97178   K9JMA