Unfortunately it’s beyond my intellectual capabilities to understand a French VFR map …
You are not alone. A fellow pilot (and intructor/examiner) I know well, who at that time was employed by a German aviation authority and – among other things – was in charge of prosecuting airspace infringements got fined in France after flying through the wrong type of airspace class 
One thing that I found surprising (in a good way) about France is that the Info frequency will quite often clear you directly through controlled airspace, without having you juggle between say Nice Approach and Nice Info.
I guess we would have never even thought of getting a PPL in a country with airspace like France, Netherlands and the like – and be willing to keep the licence for some time
France is one of the best countries in Europe to flyin VFR. It’s so easy! The airspace might look complicated at first, but the trick is to embrase controlled airspace (as distinct from restricted) and head straight for it! You will almost always get a clearance through directly on your route. And all the restricted airspace seems to disappears so long as you’re talking to the right agency.
The question I would ask is, then, why is there so little French GA that flies more than short hops. The overwhelming impression is that 100nm is regarded as a long way – despite the bottom half of the country being scenic enough (the top part is mostly like this). So I do think that their pilots are genuinely frightened of the maps. And I wonder why… all this starts with the training, and the UK instructors rarely go very far too.
IOW, yes, the reality is that one does get cleared straight through (usually; one might be advised of a prohibited area almost too late, forcing a sharp dogleg, and IME they will let you fly straight through a nuclear power station ZIT and try to bust you 5 months later) but it doesn’t look like all that many people know that the CAS transits are actually OK.
And the reason they are OK is because there is almost no GA flying at any significant altitude. I too have never had problems in Belgium, NL, France, at FL075-115… It gets you above most of the mil airspace whose activity is hard work to check out.
I therefore wonder if this is why the locals fly mostly short hops – because they fly at low levels (just like the UK actually – most GA flies ~1500ft) it is hard to get very far without some significant planning. You don’t get a radar service, for a start. In the UK it’s different… apart from an occasional summer airshow, you can fly in Class G all over the country, non-radio, never checking notams. Not carrying a transponder of course helps but 99% of the time there is nothing there. The UK has virtually no military airspace which is formally closed to GA.
I therefore wonder if this is why the locals fly mostly short hops
I could be wrong, but my suspission would be that it’s more of a languange thing. As soon as they cross a border, they need to be able to speak another language apart from French. Given that the majority of the pilot population is 50+, I suspect a large percentage of them don’t speak anyting other than French.
If I had to be able to speak French or German to be able to leave Ireland, I’d probably never fly out of the country either ;)
“The question I would ask is, then, why is there so little French GA that flies more than short hops”
Money possibly.
i agree as vfr jockey that inital looking at the french map scared me off a bit! having crossed france now many times i have a completly different opinion for vfr realy first class air traffic controllers always helpfull and with great english
on a other issue i needed to go to the uk 10 days ago throu belgium and i was again a bit turned off from there airspace mapping i spoke before the flight to a “local” flyer and he took out some of my “fears”
flight was great with a bit of altitude changes in belgium from ATC but very helpfull will do it again in the end of this week hope it will work out again
but for sure this is clearly keeping pilots away from flying to these contries!!
I guess this is the thread for all the VFR pilots to look at the “IFR SkyGods” and wonder what’s so hard that they don’t understand
France is one of the best countries in Europe to flyin VFR. It’s so easy! The airspace might look complicated at first, but the trick is to embrase controlled airspace (as distinct from restricted) and head straight for it! You will almost always get a clearance through directly on your route. And all the restricted airspace seems to disappears so long as you’re talking to the right agency.
And what’s your plan B when access to CAS is denied? I’ve flown to Sarrebourg in the south east of France before and had CAS restrictions imposed on me, had I not worked out a VFR route OCAS, I’d have been up a certain creek without a particular implement.. It’s just an almighty PITA having to calculate 2 or 3 routes just in case you don’t get clearance……
And what’s your plan B when access to CAS is denied?
Of course I will have a backup plan. It would be madness not to. I’m not suggesting that anyone takeoff without a backup plan. I’m just pointing out that it’s rarely needed in France. What might look like an endless day of climbing, descending and turning, invariably turns out to be a day of direct headings and holding altitude while talking to just one controller.
Hmm. While I would agree that the area around Belfast is needlessly complex, it’s not that complex, and a lot of the airspace is depicted is class E. I’ve never been deterred from flying VFR in the British Isles by airspace design.
Trouble is, asking for “easier” airspace will often enough end up with the opposite of what we want.
The complex upside down wedding cake struktures are there for the benefit of VFR. Nothing else.
I was at a safety meet not too long ago and some of those circuit kings were bitching about what they felt was too complex for them an airspace around Zürich. Well, yea, you need to check it out, work it out, but generally, that airspace is pretty generous for us VFR guys.
The guy from the FOCA who was there listening and explaining simply shrugged and asked if we wanted to see the alternative? Sure they did.
It looked pretty much like Airspace A starting at about 2500 ft AMSL for the whole flat part of the country or 1500 AGL whichever is higher, G below.
“Yes, we can make your work easier, you can make OURS a lot easier too if you agree to this kind of structure. "
Wait, does that sound familiar? Darn right, check out Milan and Rome. Exactly that, only that recently they put “VFR sectors” within Airspace A which makes them illegal.
Do we want this? No. Should they clean up the airspace? Yes but not at the price of simply reserving everything and forcing VFR into scud running.
The future is relatively simple. We need to get usage of airspace data in a electronic form, where all the applications can dowload it and have the active airspace visible and the rest gone. If you look at the usual DABS or equivalent maps, maybe 10% of the R and D areas are ever active. But the pollute the maps and therefore make it difficult for people to figure out how to fly. The future for that is products like Sky Demon and Easy VFR e.t.c. with ACTUAL and CURRENT Airspace data which all European states should be forced to prepare and release on a daily basis, with an alert time of about one week. So your charts should only show what is active. That would stop most of the complaints very fast.
