Albert Bray LFAQ, anyone been?

That doesn’t make a field a bad field.

Not at all, and I would have loved to give them my business, I just wanted to say that don’t forget to check the NOTAMs if you don’t have a french RT entry.

Ah, ok. Yes, do check the notams – always, everywhere – even if you do have whatever entry.

Might have saved me some minor bidirectional annoyance, recently, in the same quarters… I had given great care to the BE Notam site but slightly less to its cross-border counterpart – ask our gracious chief-moderator for his account!

PS as for “your business” that might not interest them too much – my landing fee was a whopping 5,02 € tous taxes compris though that was for the most modest of planes, yours might cost slightly more still not an arm and a leg.

The cheapest way to clear French Customs is Caen which costs me €4.80 (TB20, 1400kg).

Otherwise, Calais, Le Touquet, Deauville, Caen, Cherbourg are all similar, with the cost difference being a few mins’ worth of avgas.

There is a “method” which is fairly widely used to get around “exit customs” which is described here. It involves diverting. I would use it only with care, and I would not use it with both the departure airport and the Schengen-clearance airport in the same country unless the latter airport has a huge CB right over it at the relevant time (which, ahem, can sometimes be arranged). And when you land in the UK you are fairly likely to attract “attention”, as diverted flights tend to.

PS as for “your business” that might not interest them too much

I’d have bought some 100l of 100LL too.

I have been to LFAQ once. Happened to be outside of ATS hours, on a Sunday if memory serves me right. There is nothing there. We did not see a soul. Never received an invoice.

According to AIP (VAC) ATS opening hours are, normally, reasonable from Mon-Sat, closed on Sunday, but right now there is a NOTAM saying no AFIS, valid through Aug 31st. There is normally only Jet-A1 – no 100LL, but right now NOTAM says no JET-A1 available on Saturdays until the end of August. No customs.

So in conclusion, there are better places to make a halt in France than LFAQ :-) Some of those have already been mentioned in this thread. I particularly like LFRK (Caen), not only because of its price. Deauville will charge you extra if you arrive from or depart to a destination outside of Schengen. Yet another port of entry you might consider, depending on where you are headed, is Dinard. Do not remember the fees but they have a reasonable of commercial traffic, customs and a restaurant with a view (of the airport and the sea IIRC)

Never received an invoice.

That’s easily achieved at many airports, but I wonder what actually happens afterwards…

I normally try to make sure that I pay because one never knows what process they run against non-payers. If there is nobody around (again, easily achieved even at Ryanair-size French airports) then IMHO one should contact them afterwards.

At one airport I went to recently, the only sign of life was the ATCO and he basically told me that since I am N-reg, and they use google to get addresses for invoicing, they will never find me, so (he said) that’s OK. I didn’t quite see it that way because I want to fly there again.

Also, Dinard recently invoiced me a year late, so one gets that as well.

IME, the fastest turnaround (which is normally what one needs when clearing Schengen) can be expected at Le T, Caen and Cherbourg.

Never received an invoice.

That’s easily achieved at many airports, but I wonder what actually happens afterwards…

…IMHO one should contact them afterwards.

I agree. I would normally contact them too, but in this case it totally slipped my mind until now.

The best is to pay the fees immediately after landing or before departure. If they have to send you the bill, you may incur additional charges for envelope and postage plus packing&handling like it is the case in Rouen. At some airports like Toulouse Blagnac, or Bergerac, I was never able to pay on the spot. In the first case you need to fill out a form and leave it in a mailbox. In the second case I send an e-mail to the airport operator with my reg, a/c type and billing details. Same thing in Troyes.

It’s worse for the average UK pilot because many airports accept only bank transfers, which can easily cost more than the airport charge. I had this with Pontoise (who took months of useless emails to tie up the payment to the bill) and a couple of other airports I don’t recall. It costs me GBP 25 to make a € payment so I use a friend who has a € bank account. Whereas if one can pay there and then, one can use € cash or a credit card, usually.

Downside is it is French only on the RT I believe.

I think any “international” airport (i.e. one that has Customs) must be English language capable in the tower.

There are a few French airports which are non Customs during certain hours and in that case there is no obligation on them to speak English, and any pilot needs to be able to speak French.

If there is nobody in the tower (e.g. Le Touquet on Tuesdays? – see the latest notam) then presumably you need to make French calls even if Customs is “available” during those hours.

There is never any obligation for any ground staff to speak any English whatsoever, at any time And yes I have seen that – at Zaragoza not even the tourist desk could speak a single word.

it is French only on the RT I believe.

Liam, excuse me for being slightly annoyed. You should not “believe”, it is easy enough to check out on the “Carte VAC” which is official info from DGAC, the French CAA. I told you one way to get to them but of course there are several.

I think any “international” airport (i.e. one that has Customs) must be English language capable in the tower.

In practice it may well be, in at least 99% of cases, but I cannot imagine who could issue such a rule (ICAO perhaps? but such ruling is not their primary function), nor how it could be enforced.