Flying in Northern France / Germany

[TangoZulu]

I am thinking of a trip through Northern France to a small airfield in Germany later this summer and have been looking at possible routes.

Am slightly puzzled that most of Northern France - quite a lot of France in fact seems to be covered by low level restricted areas - if I have understood the chart correctly.

does anyone know what these are - are they permanently active - and if not how does one get the equivalent of a DAAIS or similar to find out what they are up to?

Any advice would be much appreciated.

Thanks

TZ

P.S Does anyone know whether you can get transits through the Ramstein airbase control zone as it id directly on my route?

[bluskis]

Your best source for this info is the SIA Guide to VFR. It is the official French guide, in English and French, with maps of the R and D areas, all contact frequencies, times of activity and heights.

Obtainable from most UK pilot shops. Not expensive. Makes planning in France relatively painless.

Can't tell you much about Germany, but they were helpful to me and in excellent English.

There is something called Clean Hunter on another thread which may be relevant to you, but may well be all over before your flight.

[WestWind1950]

CLEAN HUNTER still goes on from June 30 until July 3 from 6:00-16.00 UTC.. many ED-R's raised to FL 100... lots of low flying military traffic to watch out for.

As for Ramstein: the controllzone only goes up to 3600 ft. MSL, so it should be no problem to just fly over it. For transiting in the area Saarbrücken/Zweibrücken (below 5000 ft UTC): stong recommendation for transponder setting A/C 0021, but if you're in contact with ATC, you'll have a transponder set anyway, so no problem... they'll take you by the hand and guide you along easily ;)

I flew through France twice.. I hate it! we got tons of Notams beforehand and even our AIS couldn't read them! we asked the French ATC if it was ok to continue our course and altitude (we, too, saw all those supposed restricted areas) and they wouldn't answer us!! :mad: so, we just continued our way, and hoped we weren't busting any airspace ...

enjoy your trip!

WestWind1950