We would like to go for a trip to Carcassonne (LFMK) from Saturday (21AUG) to Friday (27AUG) and I have asked if 6 days of parking is possible. From operations ([email protected]) I get the answer that they can’t confirm this because the General Aviation is a free access area and they have no visibility on parking here. They also advise me to read the NOTAMS but I don’t see any mention of this.
Can anyone advise me what to do? I don’t want to run the risk of renting accommodation and a rental car without knowing that parking for my plane is not a problem (I already had that problem in Greece this year :-) )
No idea how things are managed in Greece? but I never booked parking spots French “CTR airports”, there is usually plenty of space in GA parking unless there is a fly-in, even when everyone flies to LeTouquet (LFAT) and the ramp got invaded you still have space without making reservation, if you are the last guy to arrive, you stop engine on ramp pavement and push by hand it to park on grass if no space is available 
AFAIK no one manages “the SEP ramp” in these airports, I recall once asking for a parking spot with tie-downs as 50kts was forcasted in one big regional airport, it made everyone laugh from Ground ATC to Operations, at the end I did tie-down of the tail on grass, chock the wheels on pavement and prayed for next days !
Like many airfields in France, parking is a matter of whether or not there is space to park your aircraft when you get there. If you arrive and there is a space where you are not going to hamper anyone, then staying 6 days is not a problem. It’s a bit like parking your car on a road where there are no parking restrictions.
Sadly if there is no parking space when you arrive, it is a problem. It might be worth a call to the Aeroclub of Carcassone (I don’t have it’s name off hand) and ask them what the parking situation is normally like. As far as I am aware, most people using the parking are only there for the day.
gallois wrote:
As far as I am aware, most people using the parking are only there for the day.
Ideed, it’s lot of in/out during the day with empty ramp at start & end of the day at Carcassone, I am sure you can a find a spot as you arrive or shortly after one departs
If you are going to a small private airfields, by no mean get a parking or hangar spot arranged, especially if you arrive late by the day
I think it’s a fair & efficient system than pre-booking parking spots with people who booked not turning up, you arrive at empty ramp and someone tells you none is available for you, then it gets shaped into a money fleecing scheme: none is booked and none is available, then later on into some funky PPR, you will need parking spot payed & booked for touch-and-go, missed approach and fuel stops…
Carcassonne does have quite a significant amount of tarmac around the Fire station area, which is where you’ll likely be parking.
It’s marked as about 8 spaces, with in-reality room for double that (with the will to manage it.)
At a push they could back you up into a corner overhanging the grass.
Unless there is some special festival or fly-in going on I’d be surprised if you couldn’t get sorted.
Take a quick look in Google sat view at the western end of the field and you’ll see what I mean. (It’s marked Aeroclub)
We went this time 2 years ago and were the only one on the tarmac for 3days.
As said above a call to the aeroclub is probably the best.
Check the arrangement regarding the avgas pump. We had a fly-in there in 2016 and the based FTO had total priority over the pump. The airport was quite militant over this. More around here. We had a French speaker but still could not get the pump to work and it was only a call by Nestor to a well placed local official who called the airport manager which resulted in a man being sent down to help, and he flipped a hidden switch and off it went 
This may have changed since but it is worth checking.
The destination is outstanding and we had a great meet-up.
We fueled on arrival, with no issues, but looking back, the look of discust from a man with a jodel, possibly from the aeroclub, that we were at the pump when he arrived was hilarious.
He was arms on hips, arms folded and pacing around huffing the whole time.
90 gallon tanks can take a while to top-off too. :-)
I can only provide my experience when I went there for a few day in 2019 (11/09 > 15/09).
I had no issue with the parking nor fuelling. There was plenty of place on the parking. On departure I requested taxi to the fuel station and used my BP-card.
No hassle experience.
On departure got the possibility to overfly the old city.
On the way back to Belgium I refuelled again with the BP-card at LFQG (where there was nobody) as we made a detour for looking at the Cathar castles
Just make sure you arrive well before closing time stated on the AIP. They are very prompt…..
Which closing time? operation? ATC? Customs? airport? fuel?
I am not sure about international flights these days but on national flights, I think you can land in Carcassonne at 2am if you wish as long as you PPR for STAP & PCL…
