[Charles Hunt]

Google French AIP and select "VAC Atlas" from top left menu.

There you go.

Haven't got charts etc with me. Broad brush make your way through France to MTL Montelimar VOR, then track towards Cannes. Report as required WD (IIRC) west of Cannes. Then you head just south of East overhead the autoroute in the valley to the south of the airfield, normally make a downwind join heading north just to the east of the runway, make a left turn and land pointing towards the sea.

[JWL]

Just in Cannes now, there is no briefing required, just read the AIP with entry routes via specific VRPs depending on the direction you come from.

It's easy, although not a location I'd recommend for a quick fuel stop. You have to park the plane and go into the terminal to pay and back out through security. And the restaurant has gone bankrupt so you can't eat there.

They did however lend us a car for 2 hours to go and get some food which was very nice of them, they didn't even ask for a driving licence.

[Charles Hunt]

Even Better

https://www.sia.aviation-civile.gouv.fr ... 2.LFMD.pdf

Looks to be WL for inbound, WD for Outbound to the West.

If going out to the East along the low level route you'll be restricted to 800 or 1000', and although there are full co-ordinates for the route, you're pretty much going headland to headland.

Departing to the West we got 'Turn right at 800'.

Nothing to stop you making a splash and dash and being invoiced for the landing fee at a later date.

[JWL]

Nothing to stop you making a splash and dash and being invoiced for the landing fee at a later date.

I did think about doing this, is it accepted behaviour?

Sorry I'm fairly new to all this.

Thanks

[Charles Hunt]

Once outbound to the Raduno, we simply forgot, and paid on the way back.

This year returning from the Raduno we passed through on a Saturday or Sunday, and the payment desk was unstaffed so we simply could not pay.

Johnm was expecting to be invoiced at some stage as they have the a/c details. Standing by.............

[MichaelP]

The impression I get from this is that it's a lot more complicated to fly in France, bordering on CVFR.

In 1997 I did White Waltham - Beauvais - Le Plessis (alternator failed - no charge whole rest of journey so used transponder sparingly) - Macon - La Mole - Cannes - La Mole - Abbeville - (nothing left so Icom handheld,no transponder, had to call LHR to cut corner at Bagshot due Wx over Farnborough) - White Waltham (and get the blasted alternator fixed, give me a reliable dynamo please).

It was simple in those days, no GPS, basic navigation, no argie bargie with controllers etc.

So I read this, and I read Richards article on flying the Taylorcraft in France, which seems closer to my own experience, and I wonder whether we are making it more complicated for ourselves, and whether we are making CVFR more the norm than good old map reading.

It's still a good article, and good for you for doing this. No criticism intended.

[JWL]

MichaelP, thanks for reading and taking the time to respond, I do appreciate the input of more experienced pilots

I suspect that it's my post(s) that has made it look more difficult / complex than it actually is. As someone fairly inexperienced, this is my longest navex, as well as to new countries, and I did find the maps / planning daunting at first.

My biggest lesson learned is that it is not as difficult as it looks.

[JWL]

PS. Not sure who Richard is, so please can you send me a link to his Taylorcraft France trip so I can learn from it.

As an aside, on this trip (which includes Italy as well as France) I planned to avoid as much controlled airspace as possible, however there were times when I had to pass through Restricted areas, CTRs and TMAs, and unfortunately that generally means CVFR unless I'm missing something (and I may well be!)

[mick w]

[quote="JWL"]PS. Not sure who Richard is, so please can you send me a link to his Taylorcraft France trip so I can learn from it.

As an aside, on this trip (which includes Italy as well as France) I planned to avoid as much controlled airspace as possible, however there were times when I had to pass through Restricted areas, CTRs and TMAs, and unfortunately that generally means CVFR unless I'm missing something (and I may well be!)[/quote

viewtopic.php?f=67&t=101089

Richard was my co Pilot for the Trip .

[JWL]

PS. Not sure who Richard is, so please can you send me a link to his Taylorcraft France trip so I can learn from it.

As an aside, on this trip (which includes Ity as well as France) I planned to avoid as much controlled airspace as possible, however there were times when I had to pass through Restricted areas, CTRs and TMAs, and unfortunately that generally means CVFR unless I'm missing something (and I may well be!)[/quote

viewtopic.php?f=67&t=101089

Richard was my co Pilot for the Trip .

Sounds like a grand trip, thanks for the link and the original post. You (pilotbarry?) have a much better grasp on the English language than me, it read like a novel!

[A le Ron]

Thanks for all the tips on Cannes. We might try it in September.

[JWL]

Tuesday 2nd

Venice Lido – Cannes
Cannes – Carcassonne
Time logged 5:05

And then there were 2 - when I parked up on Saturday I found a spot in the middle of the parking line, there were a 15+ planes there (plus the ones parked on the hard), when I departed on Tuesday, there were 2!



I tried to upload the Venice – Cannes flightplan and the G1000 rejected it. It was the same one it accepted from Cannes – Venice, I’d just reversed it in Skydemon and saved it. Odd, for some reason it keeps implanting erroneous waypoints – one to watch. I’ve posted a query on Skydemon forums so let’s see if I get a response.

Venice is a great place to visit, especially for people that haven’t been there before, it’s a shame it’s ruined by tourists

Also once you’re off the main strip, Venice feels like it needs a big investment, so many once grand houses now look in disrepair. This building has a now faded grand entrance which is blocked by wooden posts which themselves are now starting to rot. It’s a great shame but it’s seems typical:-



My yacht is bigger than your yacht:-



The local Venice Police Station:-



Today was basically the same journey as we’d done before so I was prepared (with fewer waypoints), however we planned only a quick pit stop at Cannes rather than staying overnight. The weather possibly had some challenges for us though, there was a forecast of rain from midday local at Genova with clouds scattered at 6000 ft (on the way there they underestimated the cloud cover, so this was a worry), and Cannes Cumulonimbus at 5000 ft from 2pm local. Then CAVOK the rest of the way. I planned to get ahead of both forecasts.

I’ve always been uber conservative when it comes to flight planning around weather, and only recently got (a tiny bit) more bullish when a more experienced pilot said “30% means it’s not going to happen, 40% means it’s going to happen”

The idea was to crack on, quick pit stop at Cannes to avoid the CBs and stop at Carcassonne for a few days.

We flew under cloud and airspace until we hit VOG, then we had to start climbing to get over the high ground, the clouds over the high ground where broken, turning to overcast. I climbed as quickly as I could once clear of Milano airspace. I only just made it above the clouds before it was completely overcast. Phew.

It was VFR on top again. There is something magical about being above the clouds (apart from the worry of getting back down ), it’s a real motivator to do some kind of instrument qualification.



Once coasting out, the cloud cleared again (no sign of rain at Genova even though it was just after midday) and we descended down to 2000, then 1000 as per controller instructions.

Cruising at 700 ft as per our clearance



We followed the low level coastal route past Nice to Cannes

A jet just landed at Nice as we flew past



Nice gaff (feels a bit voyeuristic!)



We landed in Cannes and refuelled then parked at the GA apron. Given the forecast for CBs, even at 30% chance, I wanted a quick turnaround.

As said already on this thread, the bar / restaurant in Cannes has gone bust which is a shame and didn’t help for my quick turnaround. They have some really cool aviation furniture, I wonder if you could pick it up from the receiver 



I’m not sure if it’s because the restaurant was closed, but they lent us the crew car for 2 hours included in the 30 euro landing fee:-



Even though it’s not ideal having to go into the terminal to pay the fee, fill in a passenger manifest and clear security, they are all very nice including the police and both there and back they gave us a lift to the plane in a golf buggy. This is good service.

No sign of the CBs so we then took off (no request to copy clearance this time as we didn’t have a flight plan), via SW onwards to Carcassonne.

The flight was uneventful as we got passed from one service to the next with levels varying from 700 to 1700 feet.

Once approaching Carcassonne I was dumped with no onward frequency (first time on this trip from memory), I looked at the map, there was no controlled airspace so I elected for some silence and to talk directly to Carcassonne next. I checked the ATIS, it was runway 28 with the wind almost down the runway, happy days.

I asked for a straight in for 28, they refused ‘due to the City’ and ask me to fly South of Carcassonne City then join left base for 28. This clearance threw me as the plates shows right base for 28, I queried it and he said, no “turn right to join left base for 28”. Fair enough, that’s what I did.

Just about to fly South of the City:-



After we landed, we refuelled, taxied to the GA parking and then saw 2 of the water bombing aircraft take off, I hope it was a training exercise rather than for a fire. On our outbound trip, we'd walked down to have a look, they are impressive looking things.



Now enjoying Carcassonne for a few days.

PS Just heard from @Alexw82 and he’s arrived safely in Venice and is enjoying a beer

[Cufflinks]

Thanks for taking the time to write an interesting trip report, it sounds like you lot are having good fun!

I really don't understand what all the fuss is about - France is a doddle to fly into and fly around. I find it very laid back and although the airspace looks complex from afar when you're actually flying it, ATC are incredibly relaxed.

The U.K. based pilot who has never flown abroad before should read up on the international rules of the air and familiarise themselves with what Class D/E airspace actually is and how to use it. We're very stuffy about it in the UK - the French aren't (mostly).

Interestingly, in your last post you made reference to an unexpected base leg direction - I have found that the French will just work you in however is most convenient. By all means have the airport briefing in your head, but take it with a pinch of salt.

Above all else, relax and enjoy the flying in some beautiful scenery!

[JWL]

Saturday 6th
Carcassonne – Annecy
Time Logged 2:20

This is one of those journey’s that looks complicated (to me at least) when you first look at it (but turned out that it wasn’t), more of that in a moment.

Firstly, bye bye Carcassonne. Carcassonne has a lovely Citadel (as per my aerial photo on the last entry), but beyond that there is definitely an underbelly. Walk not far from the main town square in the centre of Carcassonne and there are squats, homelessness, drug deals and undercover police.

Don’t let that put you off going as the tourist parts are very nice, although I am glad I didn’t live in Medieval times, we went to visit the Museum of the Inquisition, it is barbaric. They exhibited an Iron Maiden device, it impaled someone until they bled to death (apparently this took 2 days!). The Ghost House was brilliant, it is interactive and as quite scary 

The Citadel:-



By the ramparts in the Citadel:-



We were due to leave on the Friday but unfortunately there were CBs forecast enroute (only 30% chance but I didn’t want to take the risk, this was supposed to be a fun holiday, not a scary one for the family!). Also the wind was forecast at 30knots gusting 45 which I didn’t fancy either whilst flying over ‘mountains’ (not sure what the technical definition of a mountain is, so these were either large hills or baby mountains).

My experience of flying over mountains in the US with strong winds was that it could be very turbulent and I didn’t want that for the family.

The route I planned from Carcassonne was out to VRP NC, through the Grenoble overhead to LTP (VOR), via the charted VFR route around Chambery (WG – WB – WC) to VRP NW to Annecy. Although I did tweak it a bit to avoid some RA’s / Notam’d issues where it didn’t take me too far off track.

Looking at the terrain on this route, the peak was just under 4000ft at one point, so given the French semi circle rule, I elected to fly at FL55.

The areas I had to consider at during planning were:-

Restricted Area (RA) LFR45D 800agl – 5400ft – planned to fly over this.

Montpellier TMA / Class D (3500 – FL115) – planned to fly through this with clearance.

Danger Area LFD182S Surface – 5500 – planned to fly over this.

RA LFR193B 800 agl – 5500 – planned to fly over this.

RA LFR193E3 4500fr – FL75 – planned to get clearance through this or fly over it and get clearance through Montpellier TMA above it (FL75 – FL95).

RA LFR 55D – 4000ft – FL75 – planned to get clearance through this.

Lyon TMA – 1000 agl – FL115 – planned to get clearance through this.

Grenoble CTR (surface – 3500 – planned to fly over this in Lyon’s TMA (which is above Grenoble) with clearance from Lyon.

Chambery TMA – 1000agl – FL95 – planned to get clearance through this.

Plus there were a few Notams enroute – gliding & parachuting but easy enough to avoid.

My big worry was cloud base, if I could fly at FL55 I was confident I would get cleared through the TMAs but if I was forced down, it potentially caused a higher workload and potential refusal through the RAs.

We lucked out as we flew on a weekend due to delaying the flight a day, the military areas where all inactive so that made life a lot simpler.

Also as has already been mentioned, the French controller are very easy to deal with.

We flew out of Carcassonne and they told us to free call enroute frequency.

I called Montpellier and asked for transit through the Class D and also the status of the first RA which they advised was inactive. Although I planned to fly over the RA, just for peace of mind I wanted to know in case I had to descend due to cloud.

Just as well I did because as we passed overhead the RA, I got caught in a downdraft / turbulent air, the plane starting losing nearly 1000fpm, I put on full power & full RPM and held 65 knots (best angle) and was still descending 500fpm! This took me into the top of the RA (just) before I could start to climb again. Lesson learned, that given the wind conditions, maybe I should have flown at FL75 to get better clearance from the RA’s rather than just skirting over the top, also I over compensated but as I had been cleared at FL55 into Montpellier airspace, I didn’t want to enter it lower.

See log, doesn’t look much from here but in the moment it felt a lot worse!



Although not as gusty as the previous day when we deferred the flight, today still had fairly strong winds which must have contributed to the downdraft / turbulent air, this shows 39 knots:-



As one stage our head wind was over 40 knots.

Once through Montpellier’s airspace they passed us to Clermont. We were with Clermont for less than 10 mins when I proactively requested a change to Lyon as we were 8nm from Lyon airspace. They gave me a squawk but I had to proactively ask if I was cleared into their airspace, they said yes.

This is the bit I find weird compared to the UK, they don’t always give you a clearance, there is just an assumption that you are cleared. This has happened more than once and for my peace of mind I always clarify it before I enter any controlled airspace.

Lyon asked us to route to the East of Grenoble as there was other traffic, so we did that and once clear to the North of the field, requested to turn back on track and instead of going to LTP we went straight to WG (the start of the VFR route around Chambery) to cut the corner off.
Routing around Grenoble as requested:-



If I flew this flight again, I wouldn’t bother with Clermont but tell them I was going straight to Lyon.

After Lyon, we were then passed to Chambery who told us to call Annecy once we had the field in sight. You need to come over a ridge before you can see the field, and what a great spot it is.

On our 2 previous flights we’d flown in part VFR on top, today we were touching the cloud bases:-



Landing at Annecy:-



The control tower and apron at Annecy:-



Again, this was a simple fight where the controllers were very accommodating, this is really helping boost my confidence with flight planning.

Just a tip – if you want a hire car on a Saturday in France, do your research on out of hours pick ups. We didn’t and had a nightmare even though we’d booked and paid for one. Eventually we tracked a hire car down and drove to Val D’Isere where we’re staying until the weekend.

[JWL]

We're currently still in Val D’Isere, planning to leave for Salon Eyguieres (LFNE) in Provence tomorrow morning which is kind of going back on ourselves, so if I do this again I must plan the itinerary a little better!

We’ve been to Val many time as skiers and absolutely love it, so coming in the summer was a new experience. It’s a great place to visit, surprisingly quiet and not full of Brits

There is so much to do, loads of walking, sports and mountain biking which I tried for the first time – scary, but good fun. It was good to explore the Col de I’seran which is the highest tarmac road in the Alps and is a ski slope in the winter but hosts the Tour de France in the summer.



However I do confess I prefer the look of the mountains in the winter. This is the Men’s Olympic Downhill run La Face, it looks almost sad in the summer:-



Whilst we we’ve been here, they were putting in some ski cannons by helicopter. Excuse the wobbly iPhone footage, the pilot looked like he was having fun:-

On one of our walks we went past the Altiport (La Toviere) which was very quiet. We did see someone landing the following day but unfortunately didn’t get a pic.



Here’s the plate if anyone’s interested:-



At 330m, I think it would be a bit ambitious for me in the 182, even 1 up, although maybe with a nice headwind and less fuel



Fingers crossed for a good forecast enroute to Salon tomorrow, it has been pretty windy up there the last few days:-