Calais (LFAC)

[Steve H]

Culled from another thread elsewhere on Flyer Forum regarding on line customs notification, I thought I would try to 'get the ball rolling' on getting useful Calais information on the ATIS section.

From Morgan 22/5/2011

Calais has recently introduced 2 hour customs notification via this webpage: http://aeroport.capcalaisis.fr/en/forms/customs-form/ What other foreign airfields have an online notification for customs? It would be useful to build up a reference of the airfields that are more hooked up into the modern age.

From Julian Storey 22/5/2011

I dropped into Calais yesterday for some fuel and was delighted to see that it seemed to be really buzzing. The restaurant is open again, there were lots of aircraft coming and going and the customs arrangements seem to have been sorted out (as per the original post). Took more than 20 minutes though for a friendly but VERY jobsworth French bureaucrat (who types with one finger) to prepare invoices and take payment for fuel and landing fees. The same process at Lydd took less than two minutes.

From Tony 22/5/2011

Calais is well worth a visit. The landing fee for a Pa28 is only 9Euros. The food in the restaurant is very good and reasonably priced. Please support Calais. They deserve it for all the effort that they have put in.

[jollyrog]

I ended up at Calais unexpectedly yesterday, after a divert.

I had notified them using the new web page and included "LFAC is my alternate" in the comments section. They seemed quite happy with that when I arrived and had my form printed out. €9 to land.

The restaurant is great. I met friends and four of us had two courses, various drinks, one ice cream pud and it came to a shade over €100. Excellent food and excellent value. The landlord says he's open every lunch time now. Hardly any aircraft there yesterday, but the restaraunt was busy with local people which is a very good sign. Some reviews here:
http://www.nordlittoral.fr/actualite/calais/Economie/2011/06/14/article_la_brasserie_des_aviateurs_vous_attend.shtml
http://www.linternaute.com/restaurant/restaurant/101648/l-aviateur.shtml
In french, but Google Language Tools is your friend.

Getting to the town is tough if you don't have a car - last time, it cost me €70 round trip in taxi fares - but if you want to pop over the Channel, get some good food, a cheap and easy landing and claim your Drawback, Calais is certainly the place to go.

[delattre]

Hello,
My name is Xavier, i work to Calais airport, and i would like to share with you, the subject of my airport.
when i read, your forum, i see, that he has a little problem with calais team

Now, you ll have the possibility to send a mail two hours before your flight on a web site:
http://aeroport.capcalaisis.fr/en/forms/customs-form/

The restaurant is open and we have the WIFI for internet

The price to avgas and Jet A1 is very cheap

Now we rent a elctric car for 4 personn to visit calais or for to go shopping

We have make a new price for landing and training
9€ for the landing to a plane less than 1500KG
15€ for the landing to a plane less than 2500KG
and for a training, that's 3 €

I stay at your discretion, for to your flight to Calais

and i sincerely yours

[Steve H]

Free WiFi in restaurant.

There is a PC internet access in the flight briefing room.

[Pete L]

Very friendly welcome from ATC, fueller / pompier / immigrator and the chap that runs the restaurant.

Lovely light lunch on the way out and very helpful when we wanted a quick drink on the way back to beat the weather.

Determined now to stop for a proper meal.

[Keef]

I have been many times.

It's an excellent airport, friendly, good food in the restaurant, and there's a supermarket within walking distance for that other stuff you want to take home.

If you have an IR (or an IR instructor) you can do ILS practice approaches for not-a-lot. Sadly, you can no longer do them in VFR under the hood because of the ZIT over the nuclear power station. You need an IFR clearance to enter that.

[XX]

On Tues 31 July Stampe wrote:

Just had an enforced 24 hour stay in Calais due to a failed impulse magneto. After a 35 euro taxi ride into town discovered the No1 local bus running betweem the Calais Marck Square outside the Mairies office ..an obvious 5 minutes walk fron the airport runs every twenty minutes to CiteEurope (a huge shopping centre I believe) flat fare of 1 euro per person,For the centre of Calais alight at the "Theatre" 2 minutes walk to the centre of Calais.I,ll definitely be using this bus service in the future very good.

[ROG]

There are also boris bikes in village--first half hour free--if you can work out how to use them. Wasn"t that interesred personally but looks like works on credit card.