see if I've got time to get the Trip Kit.
To order your trip kit, call Jeppesen direct. Don't go through an intermediate party such as an online reseller or your local pilot shop. They won't have stock anyway (gets outdated too fast) and thus will phone Jeppesen on your behalf, which adds its own delay.
AFAIK, Jeppesen prints everything on-demand. They don't hold paper stock, except maybe for some things that do not go out of date.
Tell Jepp by when you need the kit and if necessary they can make it a rush order. They might charge a little more for that though.
The call center number I have for Europe is +49 6102 5070 but that's a few years old and might be outdated. Don't forget to order appropriate binders for the kit as well otherwise you'll end up with a very big stack of loose paperwork.
There's also a "general" part to the trip kit which contains stuff like volmet frequencies, marshalling signals, emergency ground signals and a few other things that are either useful as a reference, or are a required item for international flight (interception signals come to mind). Might as well get that too.
Or am I making some very basic error, here?
Not so much an error, as well as forgetting something. Those Danger/Restricted areas may well be time-limited or activated by NOTAM. So you have to check the flight guide/trip kit for the details of that area. A whole load of those areas are only active when the military needs them and, like most folks, they try not to work weekends for instance.
Specifically for R45N4 I found the following in the French AIP:
LF R 45 N4 MOSELLE
49o22’45”N,006o31’07”E – 48o41’03”N,006o41’16”E -
48o40’18”N,006o33’48”E – 49o22’21”N,006o23’29”E -
49o22’45”N,006o31’07”E
800ft ASFC -- 3800ft AMSL
Entrainement très grande vitesse, très basse altitude. Le pilote n’assure pas la
prévention des collisions. Altitude maximale du plafond 3800 ft AMSL
Contournement obligatoire pendant les créneaux d’activation.
Gestionnaire : CDPGE Athis—Mons.
Connaissance des créneaux d’activation par :
-- Internet
www.sia.aviation--civile.gouv.fr (rubrique Notam -- AZBA du jour)
-- Tél vert 0800 24 54 66
-- CIV
-- AD Metz--Frescaty, Metz--Nancy--Lorraine, Nancy--Ochey, Epinal, Nancy--Essey et Strasbourg.
Sauf JF.
LUN : 0730--1000 et 1130—1500.
MAR, JEU : 0730--1000 et 1130 – LS-30
MER : 0730--1000 et CS+30 – 2400.
VEN : 0730—1000.
HIV : +1HR.
So they're doing high-speed training at low altitude and you need to fly around the area, but the activation times are very limited. At least, that's what I glean from this with my limited French.
Beauty of the Trip Kit is of course that the good folks at Jeppesen have nicely translated this in English...
(By the way, I accessed the French AIP via the Eurocontrol site at
EUROCONTROL - The European AIS Database: Introduction to EAD Basic - Home. Registration required, then look for an application called "PAMS Light (AIP)". It requires some minutes of fiddling with the options to get the information you need. The French AIP is also available from
SIA : Service d'information aéronautique. Contrôle et réglementation de la circulation aérienne.)