dublinpilot:
I take it, these would be marked in a VFR guide or such?
As Whirly says, the Jeppesen/Bottlang VFR plates have all these points marked.
And these days you can also get the French plates from their online AIS system as follows:[list=1][*]Go to
http://www.sia.aviation-civile.gouv.fr/default_uk.htm[*]Select AIP -> France Metropolitaine[*]Select "CARTES D'APPROCHE ET D'ATTERRISSAGE A VUE (VAC)"[*]Select T -> AD 2.LFOT TOURS VAL DE LOIRE [/list=1] This takes you to
http://www.sia.aviation-civile.gouv....D%202.LFOT.pdf which is the visual plate for Tours LFOT, and you will see the points marked:
- Novemeber - to the north
- November Echo - northeast
- Whiskey - just west of the field
- Echo - east of the field
- Sierra - Sort of south east of the field
- Sierra Whiskey - a long way south-west of the field
- Langeais - a town to the south west
To be fair to our froggy friends, all of these correspond with some sort of ground feature, such as a road-junction, but I must say if you are not anticipating these then at low level all the road-junctions (or villages or whatever) look similar and so it is hard to be certain you are where they want you if you haven't planned for this!
Writing them on your chart, or sticking them into your GPS via Navbox or similar before you go is easy solution - but as Whirly says, you don't always need to use them, and anyway if you just tip up at a field (whether for pleasure of diversion) you need to just figure it out from the plate.
I think generally speaking the bigger the airfield, and the more MIL activity, the more likley it is you will need to use these points.
Andy
