Re: juggling canisters
Get one of these for less hassle/spill when filling up from a canister:
I hope they all are, but make sure they come in anti static and resistant to fuel.
Lessay LFOM has or did have a 100LL from an automatic fuel pump. It is more likely to be Total than anything else but I would suggest double checking. It is Fr. only so I suggest if no one in the group speaks French and you are working from crib sheets, again it is a good idea to contact them in advance. Best contact is the aeroclub on 33 2 33 46 44 22. If you can get a mobile phone number for the club president so much the better as you can SMS him and if needed use Google translate.
I take it your port of entry will be Cherbourg which IIRC also has 100LL.
Nearby Lessay there is the ULM site of Portbail LF5022 which has is not far from a supermarket. Just a reminder that the first 2 numbers of the BASULM in this case 50 are the number of the department for ease of reference. In case it is of any interest there is a BASULM field at Omaha beach.
A little further south of Lessay is the airfield at Granville Mont.St Michel. It used to be very active and was a Port of entry but budget cuts took hold there. It does have 100LL via a Total card although if there is someone at the club cash will do.
It used to have a good restaurant on the field but I don’t know about now.
There are many many BasULM sites travelling south I haven’t visited them all, but some are in convenient locations for towns, tourism and beaches.
BasULM are on Skydemon
I don’t know Santa Cilla de Jaca but in case it’s of any help you have (non BasULM and non CAT):-
100LL
Ancenis LFFI (automatic machine by credit card)
Cholet LFOU (can pay by CC)
There are many others which accept Credit Cards and many Total Card down the west side of France serving 100LL but I have just realised I would be writing all day
Mogas etc:-
Montaigu Saint George (Skydemon claims it has mogas but not shown on the CC)
As I mentioned both Saint Pierre d’Oleron and Couhé Verac.
We have quite a lot of airfields of different sizes down this side of France and there are possibly 4 BasULM fields for each CAP airfield. I have tried to cover the ones nearer to me. As you are on a journey to Spain I won’t offer to talk to the people here to see if we can organise some sort of welcome at LFFK. Maybe next time.🙂
But so I don’t bore everyone (if I haven’t already) if you have any specific questions I will happily try to get answers for you.
boscomantico wrote:
Yes, but again it strongly depends on what „type“ of aerodrome one preferentially uses. Again, if you mostly use PPF fields, it will be less of an issue.
Understood! So for EN-only pilot, likely to be no problem as hey would not be able to fly FR-only A-A airfield anyway.
Thanks!
@gallois – The OP wrote that they will be flying ULs but don’t mention whether or not they will be using Bass ULM fields.
Ireland to Murcia via EGTU/LFRC, west of the Pyrenees outbound and east of the Pyrenees inbound. We will have fuel bags and have correlated our stops with Google maps for petrol stations. Didn’t check Bass ULM fields database yet, working off Skydemon. We have requested ppr for underwing camping and refuelling at these fields too. Lessay and Santa Cilia de Jaca are out two overnight and fuel stops.
I think for a UK pilot this is less of an issue because the first stop airport (which needs to have C+I) does take normal CCs in every case I know.
More interesting exceptions are e.g. LFAT which takes CCs for the bowser but the bowser costs a fair bit more than the fixed pump which is TOTAL card only! But very few Brits refuel at LFAT.
If you are going to do the small aeroclub type places in France then – as Bosco pretty much says above – you want to have AIR BP and TOTAL. But many/most of these are also FR-only, which is another reason “you” won’t be going there unless you actually want to.
I also often found AIR BP pumps which, upon insertion of a UK AIR BP card, correctly put up a menu in English, but soon return to French menus deeper down 
Since I can’t speak French (and my phone translate feature did not seem to work with an LCD display) I tend to check with the airport that they offer human assistance with fuelling, and if they don’t (or don’t reply) then I don’t go there. Human assistance may also be needed if the pump has FR-only instructions printed on the outside. Having been stuck in places for hours due to this (and with others too so it wasn’t just me) I take this quite seriously. And all those that do offer human fuelling assistance will IME accept normal CCs.
Yes, but again it strongly depends on what „type“ of aerodrome one preferentially uses. Again, if you mostly use PPF fields, it will be less of an issue. If you want to use non-PPF, aeroclub-type airfields without ATS, you might occasionally be lucky and find a club official who can use the clubs fuel card and then charge you the amount on you credit cards, but in most cases, you find these fields more or less deserted and they only way to get Avgas is to have Total and BP cards. That said, in some cases, even those won‘t help as
boscomantico wrote:
Ok. Again, it can‘t really be expressed in percentages, because it depends on whether staff is present.In short, anyone flying in France frequently should get these two cards. Those who only fly to PPF airfields (which tend to be the „bigger“ and more staffed ones), which tend to be UK pilots of course, can usually get slong wothout them. But those who like to travel around within the country and those who can do A/A (ideally in French) should defo have them.
My question was mostly about the situations where you simply cannot get fuel without some BP/Total/…
Does this happen often?
I m still learning about the best way to get the UL95 when travelling. Most seem to do as you do and carry fuel bags or expandable canisters (I don’t know what they are called.). Some seem to have a way of transferring the BasULm and other airfields to Google maps and where you can see and measure the distance to the nearest fuel station. When I am on my own I carry some empty 10litre plastic fuel bidons (canisters?) and often one of the members of a club or the field owner will drop me off at the nearest fuel pumps and bring me back again for the price of a cup of coffee and a chat. I only use 10 litre bidon because of the difficulty of lifting a 20 litre jerry can high enough to siphon the fuel into the Super Guépard.🙂
I can’t see many BasULM fields installing fuel pumps as they just don’t have the traffic.
The next size level up would probably be the grass strips like Couhé Verac LFBV and Ste Pierre d’Oleron LFDP
which I believe have 100LL and SP98. IMO the 100LL might well disappear from LFBV and others like it at these fields as there just isn’t the demand, whereas LFDP gets a lot of GA tourism in summer and have enough Avgas sales to make it worth keeping for a while.
At LFFK we have let our 100LL pump go as it was too expensive to repair or replace. The club switched to diesel and installed a pump just for it’s own aircraft. We also bought, in conjunction with the gliding club a 300litre UL95 bowser on a trailer for the glider tow and our SG.
The problem is installing and maintaining fuel pumps of any sort is just very expensive and most airfields have so little in terms of sales to passing traffic that they would never pay for themselves.
There has got to be a better way for the future but I am not sure what that is other than finding a sponsor.
johnnyirvine wrote:
a group of ULM
and Mogas preferably? Forget those d**n fuel cards. Take some fuel bags along in case you don’t find empty canisters on the hopefully small airfields you’ll visit. The UL type of fields are friendly everywhere, France certainly included, and chances are you’ll find someone helping you out.
Another thing I’m looking out when choosing where to set down, is the proximity of the next (car) fuel station.
What would be helpful is a map showing which fields, if any at all, do provide Mogas… @gallois ideas?
In the small airfields where the club is responsible for the fuel it is a good idea to have cash. Many clubs would lose money if they took credit cards. If they have Avgas they will have had the pumps for some time, often before the advent of self service Total pumps.
The OP wrote that they will be flying ULs but don’t mention whether or not they will be using Bass ULM fields.
