A little day trip to Le Touquet. Always great value and this time I went with Justine…
It was quite hazy (de facto instrument conditions) and with strong crosswinds across both runways (070/18 at LFAT and 030/17G25 at EGKA) hardly anyone was flying, which is such a pity because it was a great flying day.
We discovered a really nice cafe (Alge’s bar) right under what I think is Mr Macron’s house – heavily guarded and probably the safest place in Le Touquet 
I put in a pic of the aeroclub to ask if anyone has ever seen any activity there. I never have…
One interesting thing, for those Brits who ritually slag off the €30 landing fee, is that – unlike most French airports – LFAT gets no external funding. I wonder what the ILS costs? Does anyone have any ideas? It is certainly into 5 digits a year
This image is painted on the side of the house!
I guess we crossed each other as we landed to LeTouquet from Abbeville? We were in a blue dreamliner style C172 nearby…
Yes, sunday did not look like a busy weekend at LFAT, we had someone at Abbeville who could not fly his Boeing (Stearman) to the UK via L2K on the day due to haze and sporty cross-wind
It seems there is a lot of IFR training and testing from French/Benulux schools that happens at L2K, so that ILS should be paid off?
Fyi, yes Mr President was in town Saturday afternoon: you could not book a table at Perard ;)
I heard something like “Exam 91” on the radio, which sounded like a UK FTO, but last I heard they could not train (and especially do tests) outside the UK. The student also had a native UK accent. They were banging the ILS.
I wonder if LFAT charges for no-landing approaches. I have no idea if they do but they should. The other airports down there (Calais etc) did them for free and the planes rarely landed. In the UK nobody does it now because they get inundated with “free” traffic.
Yes LFAT is fully self -funded, including the ILS, the PCL, the METAR machine and a guy who writes the TAFs.
The Tower is paid by DGAC of course, but I think they need a certain level of movements (and especially IFR) to keep it open. That may be why they don’t charge for the training approaches
And an IR school is based there FYI.
I’ve heard some discovery flights on the radio, but you’re right, it’s not the the kind of place you spontaneously get invited to a hangar barbecue
Looking at the aéroclub’s website they have a DR400/120 and DR400/160 and the membership cost is very reasonable. I’m surprised the club isn’t bigger, but the town’s population must be low in winter. A lot of clubs in the south of France and the Alps have Parisian members who only fly a few weeks a year while on holiday, so I’m surprised there isn’t more of this at LFAT.
I’m perfectly happy paying €30 for Le Touquet, with a decent tarmac runway, douanes, and a nice town in walking distance. What I don’t like is paying £10 for 600m grass in the middle of nowhere with fluorescent jackets and a reheated all day breakfast.
