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Important information about Le Touquet LFAT (FR-only at certain times)

Lille will do the approach control as usual but from when they hand you over to Tower you need to speak French

I did this once, on the end of a horrible long flying day, 30kt headwind all the way from Pula, many years ago, and never realised the FR-only. I just made usual calls, nobody replied, I landed and got fuel from the bowser, and flew on to Shoreham.

This refers to Bosco’s post above.

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

You will still be cleared for the instrument approach (by Lille) no problem. They’ll also give you a QNH.

When established you switch to the TWR frequency (which becomes the A/A freqeuncy then) and report your position (in French).

Now, in theory, you are not allowed to fly the approach to the straight in minimum and land straight in in that case. Instead, you have to join at the beginning of the downwind leg for whichever runway you chose to use for landing. If you don’t already have what the French call the “parameters” you in theory even have to join overhead first.

I have done such approach many times, last week most recently. Now, if conditions are low (ceiling below circuit height), then there will be no other circuit traffic, so even if you land straight in, nothing bad will happen, even though it is technically not allowed. Personally, I have never needed to do so, because conditions have always allowed me to join the circuit.

Last Edited by boscomantico at 19 Mar 11:35
Mainz (EDFZ) & Egelsbach (EDFE), Germany

How does this work on a IFR flight plan arrival requiring a RNAV /ILS approach in bad weather if your arrival turns out to be in the lunch break.?

They’ve replied already and as echoed above, this is what SIA said to me.

At LFAT, ATS hours are in UTC.

Reference to the coordinated universal time (UTC) has been adopted in documents issued by the AIS FRANCE

Unless otherwise stated, the schedules published in the AIP France are expressed in UTC schedules corresponding to the winter period (WIN).

During the winter period, statutory schedules are obtained by adding one hour to published UTC schedules. During the summer period, it is appropriate to withdraw one hour from the published schedule to obtain the UTC schedule.

As you can see, it is written on AD2 :

Qualified PPL with IR SP/SE PBN
EGSG, United Kingdom

I’ve contacted the AIP people via the website to post into UTC as well as LOCAL.

“Thanks for contacting us with your comments and questions. We’ll respond to you very soon.”

;)

P.s.

Visited on Saturday for a quick lunch as cancelled ELLX due to weather on Friday (CBs/TSRA on arrival).

Booked this place on Thursday, good quality yet again – https://www.enduroplage.fr/

Last Edited by pilotrobbie at 18 Mar 08:41
Qualified PPL with IR SP/SE PBN
EGSG, United Kingdom

Sorry, my bad. In winter, the rule says that the winter times are indicated in Zulu time. So 13:30-14:30 local it is.

That is atrocious!!

Local time in France is never UTC. It is UTC+1 or UTC+2.

but this is aviation

No it isn’t – this is madness.

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

Local times would make more sense but this is aviation.🙂

France

boscomantico wrote:

Horaires sauf indication contraire / Timetables unless otherwise specified AIP France : UTC HIV ; HOR ETE : – 1HR / UTC WIN ; SKED SUM : – 1HR

This seems to be applicable when only one whole-year range is given. E.g. LFSN says:

AFIS : LUN-VEN / MON-FRI : 0800-1800

which means that in winter it is from 0800Z-1800Z (09:00 LT CET to 19:00 LT CET) and in summer it changes to 0700Z-1700Z (09:00 LT CEST to 19:00 LT CEST). But when a separate timetable is given for summer and for winter, BOTH TIMES ARE IN UTC. That is what makes the most sense out of the examples… This puts the lunch break at around the same LT always at LFAT and LFQA, the opening time at the same LT at LFMA, the closing time at the same LT at LFKJ, the opening times at the same LT at LFAQ, etc.

But I agree it is EXTREMELY CONFUSING and I will not remember that next month. They should either always put UTC time (and thus always have separate WIN and SUM times), or just put the times in LT since that’s what they mean in the end.

Last Edited by lionel at 15 Mar 18:27
ELLX

Presumably summer and winter change on the day that the clocks change rather than any other day.

EIWT Weston, Ireland

HIV =Hiver = Winter
ETE = été = Summer
The times are in UTC
Lunch for ATC in Summer is between 11h30 and 1300UTC = 13h30 and 15h00 local = 12h30 and 14h00 UK time
Winter ATC lunch is between 12h30 and 13h30 UTC = 13h30 and 14h30 local = 12h30 to 13h30 UK time.
If the times printed above are correct ATS get a 30min extra lunch hour in summer.
If it is French only when ATS is not present then you should make calls in French, however bad your French. Remember you are not speaking to ATS you are auto announcing.

France
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