I’m planning a trip to LFAE tomorrow, and struggling to understand the opening hours. The AIP says -1HR for summer. Does this mean sunset -1HR?
Any other relevant tips also appreciated!
Hi,
LFAE is the proverbial French VFR field, totally uncontrolled (low hassle, low service). So is usable anytime in Day VFR conditions.
As the VAC says, you must use the hard runway and beware of winds on final 05.
You are expected to speak French on the radio, but radio is not mandatory so you can go silent if you wish (I don’t recommend it).
I didn’t check notams (some airfields are getting 8.33 channels) but 123.5 is the French UNICOM frequency so expect a lot of clutter on good wx days.
You can close you FPL with DGAC at +331 56 301 301 once you are on the ground.
Enjoy !
dutch_flyer wrote:
The AIP says -1HR for summer.
Forget this, it is just for daylight saving time vs winter time. There are no timetables to this field so no worries.
This thing is well explained in other threads.
dutch_flyer wrote:
I’m planning a trip to LFAE tomorrow, and struggling to understand the opening hours. The AIP says -1HR for summer. Does this mean sunset -1HR?
It means that the opening hours are stated in UTC assuming no daylight savings time, When daylight savings time applies hours are 1 hr earlier in UTC – thus being the same in local time all year.
Do at least announce in english
Thanks for the tips! I ended up going yesterday, and what a stunning location! Filed IFR both ways, with the trip out mostly along the coast and the trip back pretty much direct. I made French radio calls, which were no issue, and in fact there was minimal traffic. The approach is gorgeous, and I took a couple minutes extra to fly along the cliffs before entering the circuit.
I attempted to get a taxi once on the ground, but no one answered any of the suggested numbers. There was a very nice guy from the aeroclub who offered to take us to the village, and then he gave us his number to call to pick us up again later in the day. I’m not sure what we would have done otherwise, so we were really grateful for his help. He mentioned that it’s very hard to get a taxi during the holiday season.
I picked the location almost at random, but was very pleasantly surprised by how beautiful the scenery was and how lively and interesting the village itself was. In that area I really enjoy Le Touquet like everyone else, but this was certainly up there with my favorite day trip flying destinations. Highly recommended!
Thank you for the photos dutch-flyer. I did plan a trip to Le Tréport a few years ago, but cancelled due to weather and never got round to it again, so good to see. I found out about the town from the tv series Les Témoins.
Here is a old pic of the same stretch of beach at Le Tréport taken quite a few years earlier
The last time I flew there was to see the ‘total eclipse’ along with dozens of other aircraft, if anyone remembers that
I will probably spend the afternoon at LFAE on Saturday (if the weather complies), if anyone’s around I’ll gladly meet up there !
