How can I tell which French airfields only speak French? (I'm looking for one that speaks English)

Dublinpilot wrote:

I’d go with Calais because flying VFR (as I think Howard does) we’re more subject to weather and more likely to have to change or plans.

Yes, I agree. The customs queue, I am told, is much quicker at Calais on “Good VFR” days because it is a less popular destination than LFAT.

I haven’t been back to the UK, in my plane, since the ferry flight last year. However back then the problem with Calais was that they had only one English speaker, and therefore had no fixed times on the radio, despite being a customs airfield. I am not sure of the current status, but I had heard they were training up other ATCO/AFISOs who can speak English. Hopefully the issue I faced is solved.

I would still try to use Calais on a return flight, but I will always have LFAT as an alternate. I was turned away from Calais when I tried because I didn’t/couldn’t speak French. I didn’t have a translation card on board, nor actually did I have the plates for LFAT… Thankfully I had a 3G card in my iPad so I could download the plates very easily, and the diversion was almost a complete non-event… But a very big learning experience.

. I was turned away from Calais when I tried because I didn’t/couldn’t speak French

That is a very interesting data point… that atc would implement that.

I diverted to lfat once when they were non towered (every Tuesday back then) but atc didn’t say anything.

BTW I have never seen any sort of queue at LFAT except last time when the French police did a huge show of force there

Peter wrote:

That is a very interesting data point… that atc would implement that.

I have previously given you another data point. I was on denied a departure clearance from Toussus (Villacoublay) once when the tower was closed, hence the airport was for based aircraft only, and FR only. I had to call them in French to get my clearance.

Peter wrote:

BTW I have never seen any sort of queue at LFAT except last time when the French police did a huge show of force there 

That was also because my wife was given a run for her money because she had forgotten to bring ID with her and 3 customs officers were scratching their heads trying to figure out what to do with her. After it was all over a female officer told her that she loved her shoes!

Peter wrote :

BTW I have never seen any sort of queue at LFAT except last time when the French police did a huge show of force there

Agreed actually. There was a queue when I went to the desk, but i was all done within 10 minutes. I tried Calais because of what I was told before hand. I was only dropping into an airfield in that area to brim the tanks and clear customs…

On landing I thought “Oh Hell!” because it happened to coincide with those few days last year where we had a huge high pressure over the whole of Europe and the entire GA fleet from Blighty were on a cross channel… It was marshalled parking and I was a long way from the terminal… Hence I thought this is going to take ages to clear.

But as said I was at the desk and paid within 10 minutes (about 15 if you include the fuel uplift) but the bowser was straight over to me after I had parked.

In fact the bottleneck was the 1 hour wait after filing the FP. Because I had filed to Calais and then on from Calais, I had to cancel and refile. But it’s a nice place to have a bit of a walk and a leg stretch.

Before suggesting Calais, I did check the AIP entry They only require French when there is no AFIS, and the AFIS is there pretty much all day Tuesday-Saturday.

Last year, you are correct that they didn’t have any AFIS for much of the summer, but that was all NOTAMed. If Howard reads the NOTAMs,then he won’t get caught out by that if it were to reoccur (which can and does occur in various airports in France all the time).

Take care not to get weathered in at one of these ‘absence atc’ places if you are not a French speaker. It happened to me once with freezing fog for days, eventually clearing on the Saturday morning. Despite being given explicit clearance by the tower to depart in their absence, and even the security codes to the gate to get in, I was yelled at (in English) by an aggressive voice on the radio who said “Non! You cannot do zis! It is forbidden!”. (a weekend instructor, presumably).

I departed anyway (non radio), but but spent the next several months casting anxious glances at the letterbox…

DO NOT USE METZ !
LFJL has no AvGas, which I learnt by experience, landing with about 15 liters (!) of AvGas remaining in the hope of refueling.

(I did call ahead to know if they would take the credit card, but assuming they had avgas, while the person on the phoned assumed I wanted Jet because that’s the only they’ve had for at least 10 years…)

It’s around a 20 minute cab ride into the city of Reims, and as always in France taxis aren’t cheap. But it’s worth the visit.

Here are some addresses for your shopping: http://www.reims-tourism.com/Discover/Gastronomy