La Rochelle LFBH
Going down there today… just noticed the customs/police contact differs between the AIP and the Notams
I’ve emailed both 
Also the notam does not mention any PNR period. The AIP says 4hrs on weekdays.
Hi Peter,
The NOTAM say PN 8 hours for all international flight…
Have a nice flight
OK, scrapping that flight too Must read more carefully… I now remember going through this 2 months ago for a EuroGA meet-up down there.
I presume LDLO cancelled? The MSLP for Thursday isn’t great.
Yes, lost a load on the apartment too TS everywhere down there these days.
The Notamed customs contact for LFBH bounces back… they could not even bother to check it! I copied/pasted it from the notam, changing just the @ character.
Perhaps I should have faxed it
Peter wrote:
Perhaps I should have faxed it
Or sent a telegram, if we are going to old technologies as a safer backup option… Next: horse courier, 3 months in advance, in the hope he doesn’t get shot by bandits.
Don’t knock the fax. The UK NHS still uses it so it must be good 
For the benefit of anyone else going to La Rochelle, the email address in the NOTAM is wrong. There is an “s” missing on the word “finance”.
I had the same problem of bounceback a couple of weeks ago. After a bit of rooting around, I found that all the customs email addresses had a “douane.finances.gouv.fr” domain. I thought there might be an “s” missing somewhere, though perhaps on the word “douane”.
Does someone know how to get a correction to the NOTAM?
Also for the benefit of any brit planning such a trip, there are a number of other restrictions in the NOTAMs that affect the selection of alternates – particularly for my trip out one Saturday, back the next.
Nantes (my usual planned alternate) is PPR Thurs-Sun for non-scheduled IFR flights
Dinard (my let’s clear immigration somewhere so I’ve got more flexibility) is now 24hr PPR for immigration
Caen (my favourite and extremely cheap and efficient stop into France) is now 24hr PPR for all traffic Fri-Mon
I decided to fly direct La Rochelle. Should a violent and persistent TS appear out of nowhere at La Rochelle and/or the runway be closed with a burst tyre etc, I worked on either asking Nantes nicely or cancelling IFR or to land at Poitiers and sort it out on the phone with immigration. There is a procedure in the AIP for diverting into a non-customs airfield in France.
Quick suggestion: mention the ICAO codes of airports when describing rules about them, thus a later search will reveal the thread and your useful information.
Alan_South wrote:
Caen (my favourite and extremely cheap and efficient stop into France) is not 24hr PPR for all traffic Fri-Mon
You probably mean “is now 24hr PPR”.
