Jacko wrote:
The landing fee was €10 on Friday morning (including a free biro), and if I hadn’t been tempted to stop for breakfast I’d have been in and out in fifteen minutes.
Check the ops hours though, as no Customs etc when no ATS, and it’s French only if no tower (Officially)! It’s Tue to Sat 09:00 – 17:00 local from 1st Oct onwards! I often have to go into Kortrijk because of their hours! But a nice place I agree.
Yes; that link was posted loads of times over the years but it was often out of date. For example when France pulled C+I from about 50 airports c. 2012, that URL didn’t show all the removed ones correctly for many months. I recall Pontoise and Toussus being 2 cases. Maybe it is current now… they have had several years to get it right 
@maxallup,
Have you been refused immigration outside SKED hours?
I haven’t, and that’s not how I understand the VAC text:
Douanes, Police / Customs, Police : Vols internationaux / International flights : PN 2 HR avant / before ETA par / on :
- Internet : http://aeroport.capcalaisis.fr/en/forms/customs-form – FAX : 03 21 35 64 77.
I agree about FR only though, and often there’s nobody in the tower during SKED. However, the circuit is seldom so busy as to require much more than blind calls two miles out, downwind, and on final, which any PPL could learn “parrot fashion” in ten minutes.
Peter wrote:
Yes; that link was posted loads of times over the years but it was often out of date.
Since that is the official list, what source of information can override it and make it ‘out of date’? If the crossing is still in that list, it’s legally still available.
Of course that legal purity doesn’t help when faced with an intransigent douanier, who has a different view of the world. But that applies with all sorts of officialdom in all sorts of situations.
Peter wrote:
Yes; that link was posted loads of times over the years but it was often out of date. For example when France pulled C+I from about 50 airports c. 2012, that URL didn’t show all the removed ones correctly for many months.
That particular link cannot possibly have been posted prior to July 2016 because it points to one specific issue of the official journal. There is another page which I recently posted (do not remember what thread) which contains all Schengen ports of entry in all of the Schengen area.
The French link that has been posted over and over again is probably from Legifrance. It makes you think that it is the latest and greatest because the web interface allows you to specify the date of validity you request, but it has not been updated since Schengen went into effect and became invalid at that time.
maxallup wrote:
Check the ops hours though, as no Customs etc when no ATS, and it’s French only if no tower (Officially)! It’s Tue to Sat 09:00 – 17:00 local from 1st Oct onwards! I often have to go into Kortrijk because of their hours! But a nice place I agree.
You must be the only person sticking to these rules
Sure; I was referring to the eur-lex-europa-eu generic link. If that is current that’s great. Is there a generic version of it which doesn’t expire and which could be posted in the other thread which is more on-topic?
Lots of people fly to France without doing the police PNR. I have not heard of it being enforced. Even when a load turned up at LFAT, with 15 police present, nothing was said. LFAT is 2hrs PNR…
for the record Calais customs are available when no ATC but in all cases pnr via website, and you can also do an ifr approach when no atc with Lille clearing you.
Great schengen entry point, very helpful staff (also there when no atc for fuel etc). Nice cafe on site but also great brasserie in Marck.
I disagree about having a lax attitude to notifying French customs, especially now. There are usually very laid back and helpful but in the current environment they are overstreched. I would definitely go through the pnr hoops, especially as it has become easier via email, frankly it is not difficult. I have been checked more times in the past year than I have in the past fifteen years in total, flying to France at least once per month, every week in summer. Always very helpful and efficient but they are definitely more dilligent. If ‘lots fly without the pnr’ they are just going to make it more difficult for everyone in the future and just feed the aeroclub bar scare stories.
