The Macron house is owned by Madam Macron, it was an inheritance. C+I presence is governed under regional/departmental laws and is decided by the préfet of the region. The police presence is decided by the local CCI in conjunction with the préfet. You may notice several branches eg Police Municipal, Police Nationale, Gendarmes, all of which are controlled at different levels of town, regional and national government level. The PAF is scheduled at Préfet level and the Préfet is a civil servant not a politician.
The presence of C+I and the presence of police, especially the surété responsible for guarding political figures is decided at the National level and the numbers present will depend on whether or not there is a threat or whether the family are present. This is similar in most Western countries.
Yes €30 is too expensive for most French pilots to just fly into. There are so many more costing a lot less, so why bother unless there is a meet up of some kind in which case it will be normal for there to be a price reduction for the club aircraft attending.
The Le Touquet club has 2 aircraft both Robin. It is far from dead and has always been much smaller than the Parisien clubs, but it is about average these days for the size of town. Le Touquet is also a theory exam centre for the PPL.
The aeroclub Jean Piquenot at Cherbourg is alive and well with 2 Robin and a Jodel.
I have no idea who you have been talking to but it seems to me that they are not reliable sources of the French scene.
Finally I will point out that very little has changed, police and C+I presence wise at Le Touquet since the days when Chirac and Holland were president’s. So I am not sure how you come to the conclusions you have reached and regularly post here.
The only grain of truth you may have posted is that a large proportion of housing in the area, are the holiday homes of Parisiens.
I can report that the “yellow jackets mandatory” appears to be a myth on the ground. Nobody seems to be wearing them.
I am amazed that €30 is too much for French pilots. How could they have got a PPL in the first place? The difference between €30 and say €10 is a tiny fraction of the cost of 100LL burnt going anywhere. There must be other reasons for the low aeroclub activity at these “larger” airports, and it may be a lack of social activity at the airport. Whereas grass strips tend to have stuff going on right there. That also avoids a taxi fare which is usually more than the landing fee…
When did the Macron family inherit the house?
Le Touquet round trip from Paris can be as cheap as 200€, so 30€ is not negligible. “Too expensive” doesn’t mean anything. It’s just that if you can go to Le Tréport or Berck instead you’ll go there just because it’s that little cheaper and (more importantly) less hassle (no ATC, etc.). Choosing between free laid-back walk-in walk-out airfield, and a large paid airport where it takes you 15min just to walk out of airport limits, is a no-brainer.
Le Touquet has the big advantage of on-site food which means you can reasonably do a quick lunch hop in. Most other places require two taxi rides (or 30+min walk), which is a lot more cumbersome.
One of the Paris airfields to LFAT is a very short flight. Not enough to heat up the oil. Sure; if you are doing that, then €30 is significant…
I am still surprised there are people flying who worry about €30 against €200! That would indicate a GA community which is only just hanging in there, and the smallest factor will collapse it. I used to fly with some UK pilots who flew EGKA-EGMD-LFAT, 4-up, and change seats on each leg so each of them would get a logbook entry! They got out at LFAT and pulled out sandwiches and ate them in the LFAT office. So, yeah, they exist. But also not a single one of those people is flying now, and I don’t think any of them lasted more than a year or two.
Also the LFAT restaurant (Escale) is not cheap. A lot more than €30 by the time you have something You can cycle into town in no time, but the LFAT bike rental is not cheap! But food in the town will be a lot more than €30 too.
The view here on this board is very skewed towards people who go places. I belong to an aeroclub with 5 planes and 100+ members, a significant number of which are “international” and appear to have means. The vast majority of flights are local. The rest are almost all to small uncontrolled domestic fields 20 minutes away or to EHMZ (a whole 42nm away), with very very very few flights further away or to a controlled field.
LFAT is only 110nm away, and in my mind an ideal destination due to the english-speaking ATC, and bike rental, but yet no one goes. Other closeby places close to the sea are expensive (EBOS,EBFN) have last-mile issues (EBFN,LFAC,EGMD), or are on the other side of a scary body of water (EGMD). But even LFAT is clearly out of most people’s comfort zone, with flight plans, ATC, ATIS, Ground, different-looking charts and EBR24+EBR25+EBFN CTR forming a wall in the way when someone looks at a map. I don’t think the €30 is the problem. Fear is.
Last time I was at Le Touquet the internet was broken so their credit card machine didn’t work. The result was no landing fee. I therefore recommend visiting at times when their internet is faulty for a more cost effective day out. :)
Oh bugger. We will now see a new pilot forum created, lfat-power-cut.com, with 20k members, and 50k usernames.
JI’s post above is very informative, and exactly in line with what many other French pilots have told me. However I think there may be more to it because there should be no flight plan, and for most French airports that have PN, there should be no PN to do if coming from France (with some big exceptions admittedly). And if the super-relaxed and friendly LFAT ATC is seen as a problem then the pilot will struggle flying anywhere really.
If the police presence at LFAT long pre-dates the Macron family house, that is very encouraging, although I suspect it would have been posted a long time ago, since this topic has been so often debated. There is a huge Parisian presence at Le Touquet, which is bound to include many influential people, but do many of them come via the airport? I’ve seen the occassional bizjet or a PC12 there…
Wasn’t @ji posting about flying to LFAT from Belgium.
IIUC Brigitte Macron had already inherited the house before she married Emanuel Macron.Nowadays the Macrons spend many weekends and holidays there which is why the police presence. Is there no police presence at any residence where King Charles 111 is present? Remember Macron is head of State which is equivalent to the British monarch, or to the President of the USA.
Around 50% of the population of le Touquet are retired.
But all this has very little to do with police presence at LFAT. That is more likely to be there, as I have posted before, If because of the number of Brits who fly in
You don’t need to file a flight plan to fly VFR within France.
€30 is expensive when there are other airfields in the area where landing fees are much less and where the local clubs are very welcoming and helpful eg dropping us into town to a restaurant of there isn’t one within walking distances. Alternatively many restaurants in the smaller towns will send someone to pick you up and return you to the airfield after you have enjoyed a good lunch.
Compare LFAT with LFBH, LFRI, LFBN all GA airports with a tower and RNP approaches and all of which cost less than €10 for use of IAP, landing fees and parking while you go to lunch. A couple of Sundays ago I flew to Quimper. The invoice for the landing fee arrived during the week €3.50. LFRQ is about the same size as LFAT with instrument approaches and English speaking ATS. So yes a €30 landing fee is expensive for French pilots. We are happier spending that money in a restaurant.
If all you ever do is to fly to airports like LFAT you really are missing out on some gems.
Especially some of the altiports where a short 15 min walk through beautiful countryside will take you to a small village with at least one restaurant with great food. And where landing fee, parking and a 3 course meal will cost you less than the landing fee at LFAT. That is the sort of flying that many French pilots prefer.
Does anyone know when (or if?) there is going to be an ‘official’ dedication/naming ceremony for LFAT as ‘LE TOUQUET ELIZABETH II’?
There was bar-talk that King Charles was planning to do it during his last visit to President Macron; but the schedule got changed and it was squeezed out.
The event would be a wonderful excuse/weekend for a EuroGA FlyIn.
gallois wrote:
If all you ever do is to fly to airports like LFAT you really are missing out on some gems.
Especially some of the altiports where a short 15 min walk through beautiful countryside will take you to a small village with at least one restaurant with great food. And where landing fee, parking and a 3 course meal will cost you less than the landing fee at LFAT. That is the sort of flying that many French pilots prefer.
Gallois,
Would you consider making a list of maybe 10 good recommendations for such fields to visit and maybe a good restaurant close by? And maybe what’s the best way to get to the restaurant (Bus 10X goes by the airport or, It’s a 30 minute walk, or you’ll need a taxi etc).
I don’t mean to give you work to do, or put any time pressure on you! But it would be a wonderful resource for us visitors and in doing so you might help to expand the destinations frequented by our esteemed colleagues!
I for one would really appreciate the suggestions.
If you do decide to do that, please make it a new thread so that the wonderful resource won’t be lost in the mix of this thread.
Colm
[ New thread here ]