Peter wrote:
I have seen this at Biggin Hill some years ago. A bizjet was going to Toussus and most definitely Toussus was a no-go from the UK. I asked the pilot (who I knew personally) and he said with a smile “client is paying; anything is possible”.
Sure and it doesn’t even have to be expensive. At the time before Sweden joined the EU (and Schengen) it was easy to get exemptions like this for private flights.
My suspicion is that if had I been flying something a lot heavier and burning Jet A1 they might have been interested. So the AIP would be correct.
I have seen this at Biggin Hill some years ago. A bizjet was going to Toussus and most definitely Toussus was a no-go from the UK. I asked the pilot (who I knew personally) and he said with a smile “client is paying; anything is possible”.
I have seen bizjets being customs/immigration cleared without the “client” even getting out… that was in Jersey IIRC, but most definitely not at the Jersey aeroclub.
If this was a certain very southern country, I would say the handling company has a “deal” going with the airport manager, and the “deal” needs sizeable landing fees to “support” it (an assertion which is substantially less than 100% conjecture 
). In the case of LFLU, in France, this is of course completely impossible
But seriously I don’t understand why airports don’t simply charge say €30 extra, rather than pretending they don’t offer it. Well, Bergerac LFBE charge €50, which is a huge ripoff nice earner for somebody since the police are there 24/7 anyway, due to airline flights.
I did find out “on the day” 4 years back that they didn’t do immigration (for a C210).
When I was there in June there was what looked like a falcon 7X on the tarmac, and I doubt these have to stop at LFLY to do customs. It’s a shame as it’s a very nice airport with 24h access, LPV200, parameters over radio. and 24h pumps for avgas AND JetA1 (although only with BP card)
I have had a series of email exchanges with Valence airport today.
They seemed quite helpful initially and requested extra information. In their 4th email they requested the aircraft type, which would have been a TB20. At which point I got a very quick response, within a minute, that Immigration facilities are not available.
My suspicion is that if had I been flying something a lot heavier and burning Jet A1 they might have been interested. So the AIP would be correct.
This is purely conjecture on my part, or am I becoming a grumpy old man.
The AIP clearly states “customs and immigration” (where “immigration” = “police” in the French AIP meaning of “police”)
Yes, that’s the problem nowadays.
The only definitve doc on immigration (the UK case) is this one.
What the AIP likely wants to say is that customs is available (the CH case).
It’s confusing and poorly documented.
OK.
The AIP dated 19 Jul 2018, says that it is (PPR PN 24HR from AD operator or from CLI Lyon) and gives email addresses. I will contact them and find out.
Valence is not a port of entry anymore.
I shall be there next week on Wednesday hopefully.
I am also using the airfield as a Port of Entry as I will be arriving from the UK. We will refuel and have lunch before going on.
Thanks for the info @jeff64 and I agree with everything you said about the Apron access out of hours jeff64 wrote:
It only appears on the French VAC.although I am expecting to be there during the published operating hours.
I’ll let you know if i find anything of interest to add.
Yes; many of the medium-size French airfields have a TWR or an AFIS only during weekdays, but not on weekends. I understand that is because they want to facilitate some commercial flights during the week (often related to some industry player in the region or for flying politicians to and from Paris), but during the weekends, ATS is not strictly needed, since the local GA (98% VFR, French speakers) couldn’t care less.
Re apron access: I understand that in this case, they want to issue a discrete number to each crew wanting to get airside access outside of ATS hours, right? Most airfields are much more straightforward in this regard, and have a permanent code (usually found on the airside) to get in.
Re fuel: of course, no automatic card machine and no staff on site all weekend is a bad mix. Still, I would think that if you contact the local aeroclub (Aeroclub Valence in this case) in advance, you could get fuel and pay to them.
The bottom line is that at many midsize GA airfields, even though they are technically open 24/7, visitors do have to do a little prior due diligence in terms of fuel availability and aerodrome/apron access. Also, one has to be prepared to cope with the FR-only requirement for A/A radio comms.
