PetitCessnaVoyageur wrote:
I was taught you must consider the altitude of the VFR traffic pattern as your minima.
No, VFR traffic pattern is definitely not your IFR minima. Your minima will be in the “Circling without ATS” minimum section of your IAP charts.
However, if the weather allows you, you should stop your descend above the highest VFR traffic pattern and join the appropriate VFR traffic pattern like a VFR.
And if you are under a FPL and there is no AFIS/TWR, you should call this phone number 0 810 437 837 to close the FPL for you.
PetitCessnaVoyageur wrote:
At night, uncontrolled airports can have STAP and runway light trigger (by radio).
STAP = AWOS (Automated Weather Observation System)
runway light trigger = PCL (Pilot-Controlled Lighting)
just to demythologize it:
STAP = Système de Transmission Automatique de Paramètres
boscomantico wrote:
Yes, that’s basically the way it is.
Wow… We should have this in more places/countries.
All of Scandinavia works like this (even though many small fields obviously don’t have lights, so they effectively are “days only”).
I think Poland too.
UK unlicensed airfields work like that.
Italian Aviosuperfici work like that.
And as I said, all of North America.
It’s really the standard. “Opening hours” for a runway are much like opening hours for a road… pointless.
As this thread is about Colmar: it says PPR for AFIS outside of ATC operating hours. I’ve never tried so far
I also believe Colmar is FR only outside of ATC hours. Which means, you need a French Language Proficiency entry in your license of level 4 or greater unless you want to risk harassment in case of a ramp check. I know that there are people here who deny this, but I have recently had another report that a flight school had to repatriate an airplane whose pilot was not allowed to continue for the lack of a LP4 in French. In the case of Colmar you’d have to wait to depart during ATC hours, but be probably subject to a hefty fine.
Guillaume wrote:
And if you are under a FPL and there is no AFIS/TWR, you should call this phone number 0 810 437 837 to close the FPL for you.
Or use the “close” command implemented with the autorouter / telegram bot ?
you need a French Language Proficiency entry in your license of level 4 or greater
No. English is sufficient
unless you want to risk harassment in case of a ramp check
nobody other than you seems to spread these things.
I suspect that these “reports” come from Swiss pilots who didn’t have any English LP either.
I know that there are people here who deny this
This makes it sound as if they were a small minority!…
but I have recently had another report that a flight school had to repatriate an airplane whose pilot was not allowed to continue for the lack of a LP4 in French.
Usually, in these reports, there are some details missing…
It’s also illogic: in the above case, the pilot could have just waited until the ATS is available again. (There are only two handfuls of ATS fields in All of France which are entiely fr-only.
Again: According to EASA, English is sufficient for fr-only. And DGAC has confirmed that they comply with that EASA rule. Here the extract from a report from Jan Brill from the EASA conference in Rome last year:
Genau das Thema “braucht man auf FR-only Plätzen in Frankreich eine französische Language-Proficiency oder reicht gem. FCL.055 die englische?” kommt im Pausengespräch mit einem EASA-Rule-Making-Officer zur Sprache.
Klare Aussage des EASA-Manns: “Englische LP reicht. Steht ja so in der Verordnung.”
Bedenkenträger: “Aber da sind doch schon Leute festgehalten/bestraft/gegroundet worden”
EASA: “Ist uns kein Beispiel bekannt”
Bedenkenträger: “Ich hab das aber gehört.”
EASA: “Wir haben sogar beim DGAC nachgefragt, denen ist auch kein Fall bekannt”.
In diesem Moment läuft der Chef des DGAC vorbei. Wird vom EASA-Mann hinzugebeten: “Ist Dir da was bekannt?”
DGAC-Chef: “Non, nur Fälle in denen Besatzungsmitglieder gar keinen Spracheintrag hatten.”
boscomantico wrote:
I suspect that these “reports” come from Swiss pilots who didn’t have any English LP either.
Do you have any basis for this suspicion? In the german part at least, most (I know at least) have the english LP, because it is more or less mandatory. The french part can get the french LP easily.
