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

Aviathor wrote:

French they will approve your “VFR transit” through their airspace. “Transit VFR approuvé”

Yes….I think most people would expect to hear the word “cleared” though….

In French they will approve your “VFR transit” through their airspace. “Transit VFR approuvé”

Peter wrote:

Yet, that is how it has worked on many VFR flights I have done there.

Sometimes you get a “proceed”.

When I (and others) asked for a confirmation of being actually cleared through CAS, I got a slightly puzzled/irritated “yes you are cleared”.

Obviously in this context I did tell the controller my route beforehand. That seems to be the way the system works.

Yes that has been my experience as well in the limited amount of VFR flying I have done in France… including the seemingly puzzled controller response when asked to confirm that you are cleared…,

Yet, that is how it has worked on many VFR flights I have done there.

Sometimes you get a “proceed”.

When I (and others) asked for a confirmation of being actually cleared through CAS, I got a slightly puzzled/irritated “yes you are cleared”.

Obviously in this context I did tell the controller my route beforehand. That seems to be the way the system works.

I don’t quite see what the fuss is about. When you fly VFR “radar contact” will never mean “clear through restricted airspace” – as a matter of fact it won’t even mean “cleared through controlled airspace” unless the controller explicitly says so. And it certainly won’t mean “cleared along a certain route” as the controller has no means of knowing your route beforehand unless you ask specifically for it.

It is however very unusual to have R or P airspace inside CAS.

The way one gets caught is by getting the “easy” French clearance (“easy” as in they don’t explicitly clear you through it; they just say “radar contact”) through some CAS, then you are OCAS, then you are back in CAS, and both bits of CAS are along the route which you declared and for which you previously got the “radar contact” “clearance”.

And in the bit between the two bits of CAS there is a piece of R…

ATC won’t necessarily draw your attention to it and if they do it could be just as you are about to bust it.

The worst was my 2003 nuclear power station TRA bust where ATC never said a thing at the time and I heard via the UK CAA 5 months later (details posted here already). I guess they would not do it today. Back then, one could find a whole FIS region asleep on a weekend!

Also some of the CAS shapes are so complicated that you could end up briefly OCAS and not be aware of it, so flying along may not give you the protection you might be expecting.

But then different people have had different experiences

But then if I do something which has not worked out, I am happy to post it

I think planning a straight line through CAS is OK but with D R etc areas you need to either research them (e.g. via the booklet which comes with the 1:1M SIA charts, or via some tablet product) or plan a route which avoids them.

In a certain way, the nice thing about Belgium (above 4500 feet) and Croatia (above 1000 feet) is that you will permanently be in airspace class C or D and thus you’ll be flying by clearance, which of course has precedence over restricted airspace.

Not so in France, where it’s all airspace Golf (with bits of Echo mixed in) below FL115 (unless flying through some TMA).

Well, to be honest, Belgium, Italy, Poland and Croatia for example are much the same. They have much more restricted airspace than say Germany, but they use it much less. Sure, for VFR GA, the Germany type is much easier, but it’s not the France is so exceptional.

Do as I said in #21. Plot a straight line, then see what you’ll have to deal with.