No idea – sorry.
Actually this question of rule is not really relevant because if outside AFIS openning hours, they will gently refuse your FPL (happend to me once last year – I got a slot and felt outside hours, and the AFISO called me to say it will refuse my FPL). They will not receive IFR, so you will have to cancel IFR at one time or another in this case.
2 reason for that: their ridiculous opening hours (close at 4pm in the afternoon, unless you’re Bernie Ecclestone), and the approach path crosses the R64 MIL zone, and require a MIL controller to be instructed that you are coming..
When arriving there, I am usually contacting the AFISO while still with the approach controller – just leaving for 2 minutes – to ask for landing parameters and expected winds, but the visual must be asked to the APP controller – he/she proposed this way, but I have never done it because each time I’m going there, is for training purpose.
And once arriving, you are mostly sure that you can (or cannot) do a visual as, even when it’s scattered, clouds are right around the approach trajectory (a bit south along the ridge line of “la sainte Baume”). RW12 in force means winds from the east, and there it is synonym of bad weather. Otherwise it’s the RW30 if sunny and/or Mistral blowing (and prepare to be shaked on the approach, I hit the DA42 canopy while GO because of it…)
As it’s a 2d/non precision approach, you may do it (the RNAV C) “the old step-down way” until you can find a hole in the cheese, to get under the cloud. This way you may make it or not, but if you make it it will be hard to avoid the pattern. It is more or less expected to do this way as they mention “maintain MDA level until overhead aerodrome”. Or course most of traffic are going straight and nobody complains when possible.
I made the flight last weekend. Runway in use was 30 so I flew the RNP 30 approach. Visibility was fantastic but only IFR arrivals were allowed due to something with the pope being in Marseille and I wanted to practice the approach anyway. As mentioned higher RWY 30 may mean windy conditions and that was an understatement – on approach winds aloft were 40-45 kts and you fly just at the level of the surrounding hill tops. I was prepared for mountain waves but had never actually experienced one until then and it still was a bit of a stressful moment flying a 10 degree up angle at almost full power just to maintain Vy. Plan B would have been to ride the wave down but it didn’t come to that. Surrounding geography on the image below
The RNP 30 FAF to MAPt segment is also offset from the runway heading by 15 degrees but does not have a circling segment like RNP 12. I could have aligned with the runway before the MAPt (0.7 NM from threshold) but I didn’t and the AFISO made a bit of fun of me wondering why I was all over the place but otherwise was very helpful. Wind on landing was a much more comfortable 12 kts almost on runway heading. No one else in the air except a large turboprop (Twin Otter style but larger) being filmed on landing for some purpose.
I had emailed the airport the day before and requested hangar space which was confirmed but after landing no one seemed to be aware of our intended arrival let alone the hangaring request. In what I would say is rather typical style this led to a short discussion (in French) followed by first a clearance to park followed minutes later by an approval to taxi to one of their massive hangars, for which I was not charged either. A+ experience in the end.
