How old is the French ban on VFR above FL115 in the “Paris area” (which is actually a large part of France)?
I am fairly sure I used to fly above that in France, 15 years ago.
@Guillaume may know.
That makes quite a difference because often you cannot get above the layer at FL115.
Paris area is in no way a large part of France, unless you are talking of the part controlled by the area control centre responsible in which case it is about 1/4.
I must look up this no VFR above FL115 I have always been under the impression it is FL195.
But then for the last many years I have only flown IFR at those altitudes.
Most club aircraft here were equipped with VOR and ADF and the PPL course included instrument and practical training for flying VFR on top, long before EASA in fact even before JAA.
At the time French PPL students were very much encouraged to take the night VFR rating and the theory for it was part of the PPL course and exam.
With JAA or perhaps it was EASA came the requirement for an extra 5hrs VSV (vol sans visibility ) training. This was aimed mainly at teaching a student to make a 180° if s/he should enter cloud and lose sight of the horizon.
Many instructors took advantage of the time to also teach how to line up on final using a VOR or ADF just in case one got stuck above the cloud layer and had to descend through it to land. Not on purpose of course. It was my first experience of foggles or was it froggles:)
I would say local VFR flying didn’t change much, except the price.
In France, long navs became easier. FIS is better organized and joint than 10 years ago. They mostly warn of P areas and such.
International trips changed. From what my dad tells me, it used to be real adventures. Like showing up at a spanish airport with just a FPL. Communicating with hand signs with the local employee who ended up driving you to a small town which only had one cheap hotel. This kind of adventure 
Now it is matter of multi-factor planning and constant re-planning (PPR, FPLs, fuel availibities, lodging, visits, ground transport, customs, now covid measures). The flying is the easy part. And of course €€€.
Peter wrote:
I did all my long VFR flights with long VMC on top sections, but I was legal because the IMC Rating removed the sight-of-surface requirement, and that removal was not restricted to UK airspace (very few people knew that). The IMCR also reduced the 3km min VFR vis (ex JAA) to 1.5km, also worldwide.
That’s because most people don’t know the difference between license rules, operational rules and airspace rules. Lots of things are easier to understand if you do.
The 3 km vis limitation was a limitation on the British PPL or possibly G-reg ops. OTOH, if another country had airspace (or even ops) rules that limited VFR to 3 km viz, then a UK PPL+IMCR holder could certainly not fly legally in 1.5 km visibility.
The No VFR above FL115 was/is a permanent notam, which would come up every time one did a narrow route briefing in much of France.
Yes I suspect it was about 1/4 of the area of France, but I don’t know of any way to find out the geographical extent of an enroute notam. Probably, there is a French graphical notam site. The gotcha here is that if you try to go “low down” in France you encounter a lot more military airspace. The by far most easy way to fly distances in France is to fly the Class E (VOR to VOR) routes, which have a base of mostly FL065, and you can get easy CAS transits on them too. And while VFR pilots must always do an enroute notam briefing (usually a narrow route one) these routes almost never had anything affecting them. They exist all the way up to FL200 AFAIK but VFR is not possible in the Class D (FL120-FL200) in the area mentioned. I recall a discussion at the time where it was said that the reason for the ban was to stop King Air ops flying VFR at FL195 and avoiding the Eurocontrol route charges
The 3km came with JAA. It’s gone now; VFR in the UK is 1500m (subject to height I am sure; nobody I know can remember these rules; same with the cloud spacing rules matrix).
If it is one thing that has changed it is people getting lost while flying. It is very easy to get lost using compass and paper map. Pre-GPS this happened all the time. Ceiling getting lower, having to fly “into” the terrain, in fjords and valleys with no radio coverage (nav or talk), taking a wrong turn into a wrong valley, and you are completely lost from that point on (unless you know the area well). Some got lucky finding a football field or some other stretch of land, others crashed. With GPS that never happens anymore, literally never.
That alone makes VFR much easier today. Other things have changed, a massive reduction of certified planes vs growth of uncertified planes, but that haven’t changed VFR as such. Much more CAT than 20-30 years ago, and I have seen a gradual change in ATC towards concentrating on CAT (heavy jets operation) exclusively, and larger differentiation. Before we were all flying together in the same airspace in a way. It hasn’t made VFR more difficult, only more nuisance and uncertainty has been added. Uncertainty in the way it is not always crystal clear if you have got a clearance or not. This was never an issue before. You simply got in contact with ATC and that was that.
The whole concept that infringements are such a big deal, and that it is even possible to infringe when:
It’s IMO a display of utter incompetence of those who have planned the system and those who are operating it.
First hit on this search.
Maybe it is gone now?
See the referenced thread in post 14.
I’ve been saying this for some time now and have always been too optimistic, but the rumors are now really becoming strong that the Spanish CAA will indeed make life easier for UL aircraft. Meaning being allowed to fly higher than 1.000 ft AGL and allowing 600 kg MTOM. Still not clear whether flying in CAS would be allowed or land at AENA fields (if one wants that..)
Here it is :
LFFA-F0591/21
Q) LFFF/QAFXX/ V/NBO/ E/115/195/4838N00249E155
A) LFFF PARIS FIR
B) 2021 Apr 23 13:58 C) 2021 Oct 25 23:59
E) VFR INTERDIT AU DESSUS DU FL115 DANS LES SECTEURS GERES PAR PARIS
CONTROLE SAUF ACTIVITES PARTICULIERES AUTORISEES PAR PARIS CTL.
