Flight San Sebastian LESO to La Rochelle LFBH

Do it at the weekend. No issues. I flew it last year hugged the coast all the way. Out of LESO, who are pretty helpful, spoke to Biarritz, then all the way to LFBH. Met by customs at LFBH, so make sure you have all documentation. They were quite thorough, as one would expect.

The other way to avoid the restricted ares is to go inland, but this gives some other issues with Bordeaux, Biarritz etc. Perhaps someone else could have a plan about the RA, but I could not see one. Have a good trip.

There is this

http://notaminfo.com/francemap

but I again could not get through during the week

This ancient trip report is on a similar note. The military areas tend to be inactive at weekends. For weekdays you may need to fly inland.

I have heard sporadic stories of people getting a clearance through the offshore ones, in one case flying at 500ft all the way along that straight beach.

That NOTAM map …… http://notaminfo.com/francemap …… while being of interest, is enough to put anyone off of flying anywhere in France.

In reality while you need to dodge around some airspace it is nothing like as difficult as it would initially leave you to believe.

I used to fly around this area regularly when I had a place in Biscarrosse and never had too much difficulty week days or weekends.

quatrelle wrote:

In reality while you need to dodge around some airspace

Sorry quatrelle, but it is end to end restricted military now. Not quite sure how you can dodge around it. All it takes is a bit of low cloud, a bit of high cloud, a negative clearance, and your day all of a sudden gets quite interesting. Perhaps acceptable if you are faffing about, not when you are going from A to B.

One can (generally) get CAS clearances in France – unlike the UK where maybe 1/2 the time you don’t get it, or don’t get it in time, or they never get back to you.

Clearances through French military /restricted / prohibited airspace are something else and need to be taken seriously in preflight planning, because ATC is quite capable of clearing you on a track A-B event though there is a bit on that track which you must avoid. They will assume you did your homework.

I see the famous R31A1 is still there after I first flew there in 2003. I vaguely recall it was Cazaux that was responsible for issuing clearances but no idea of who to call up or phone etc.

This is a piece of the SIA chart (obsolete – year 2010 or so!) showing the easy way to avoid this stuff, by flying down R10 at FL065 or above, and VFR is no problem (forget the silly posts on UK sites about whether you can fly VFR on “French airways” – that’s a total misunderstanding of airspace )

Ultimately however the airspace is a mess and the whole thing hangs together only because ATC issues CAS clearances readily.

Relevant threads about charts are here and here. The higher-up chart above comes from the website mentioned in the latter link. However a moern tablet GPS product (EVFR or SD) should contain this data, if not the full details of when the mil airspace is active.

First, your favorite EFB will probably tell you about the active areas. Then Biarritz/Aquitaine FIS will confirm it if their freq is not too busy (French ATC prefer if you show you prepared your flight). This is their daily business.
This area is pretty active : main weapon range of France (kind of the French equivalent of Nellis AFB), training base, rafale squadrons based there and flight tests occasionnaly. But nothing happens on weekends.
I did the whole shoreline southbound a year ago, it was a breeze. So don’t be put off by those charts.

I’ve done many many times the west coast promenade.
Through controlled zones you will always get a clearance. Almost always through military zones
Call the FIS to ask which zone is active and route accordingly if a clearance cannot be obtained.
There is a guaranteed low level routing shown on the chart (and in the AIP) , ON to OS, or EN to ES, through the sole military zone that goes to the ground.
The airway is doable, but it’s a much nicer scenery along the coast. https://www.ladunedupilat-en.com/ etc.
My favorite chart is Cartabossy, cheap, and issued by a private pilot just like us (My only interest in his business is that I want it to continue).
https://www.cartabossy.com/ very easy to read, everything you need to know is on the chart.

Usually the weather becomes bad when you reach the basque country, but that’s another story.

Don’t forget to request in advance a parking place in San Sebastian, not much room there.