Overnight in le touquet

[windymiller7]

I am going to Le Touquet this week end 10 July with Girlfriend and 2 year old daughter, Does any one have any recomendations for hotels preferably close to centre and beach as I think I will be building sandcastles.

[S-Works]

rich, the Holiday Inn is right in town. PM me and I will give you the phone number or call me. It is clean, cheap, has a pool and is very child friendly. I also may have a life jacket for the windysprog.

And of course I still have your garmin book!

B-X

[FNG]

The Westminster is rather pleasant if you don't mind faded grandeur. Haggle a bit on the price.

[benhurr]

Hope you have better weather than I did last Friday...

After all the deliberations I ended up at LFAT - gave me the chance to practice my crosswind landings though! (Runway 14 in use - wind 250/016G26

I went from East Mids, via Clacton - my passengers enjoyed the flight down the channel, and I enjoyed not having to have the aggro of passing through the south east...

I am thinking about a family flying holiday this summer so let me know how child friendly you find it!

[Ludwig]

Watch out for those Mayor inspired randon runway closures!:mad:

[Maxflyer]

I know you're planning to fly there in an Archer, but as the little one is two will she be in a child seat of some sort? I want to take my two year old in a Warrior from the same base as you, but my car seat won't take lap belts.

[windymiller7]

What is it with the mayor??? landed there on 24 June on 24 Wind 250 25g40kts, just after we landed the tower told us it was now closed and we had to use 32,:mad: !!! After a deputation went to the Tower they reopened 24 :p . Is he looking to redevelop runway ? With regard to the child seat, the one I use is from Mammas and Pappas but it will only go into Piper arrow. The warrior only has lap belts at back and I have same problem. I did have a look around for a lap belt fixing child seat but could not find one.

[mark147]

I cancelled a trip to Le Touquet on Saturday because Rwy 24 was NOTAM'd closed (wind about 250/25G30). I hadn't heard anything about the Mayor being the cause. What's the story?

Mark

[windymiller7]

on 24th June after about 6 planes had landed on 24 the Mayor called the tower and ordered it closed. I didnt think the local mayor had the power over safety matters!:confused:

[sharpshot]

Windymiller 7

Rwy 24 was notamed closed again last time I looked.

Accommodation is very hard to come by over the next fortnight. I was looking for the following weekend and all I could find was accommodation in Montreuil abot 10km away.

It is Bastille Day on July 14th - If I recall accurately. Most places wanted a min of three nights stay.

If you put Le Touquet in the search engine there is a LFAT tourist www. with lots of accommodation - it was just all full for the 17th/18th.

Good luck - tell us what you found and whether you would recommend.

[S-Works]

we were one of those aircraft almost left stranded along with Ludwig and Windy. The LyddAir guy was very unhappy as with 40kt winds he was also stranded with a load of punters.

The LFAT staff were very embarassed by the whole situation. They believe the mayor wants to develop the 24 runway area as some sort of business school. But they also said this is France and the local elections are coming soon and this mayor is not popular so things might not be as glum as we first see.....

[2Donkeys]

The approach to 24 brings aircraft very low over some of the more expensive housing in Le Touquet. Operations on 24/06 inevitably bring noise complaints - one of the most vocal, ironically, from a resident Brit.

The view has been promoted strongly that departures off 06 are a really horrible accident waiting to happen - a view supported by a few rather cack-handed heavy departures on the average windy Saturday.

Such is their keen-ness to avoid the use of 24/06 that the ATIS-wind and the observable actual often bear little resemblance to one another

2D

[sharpshot]

And guess what the prevailing wind is in this part of the world:ouch:

There's no problem with having a preferential runway in light winds..........but this sounds ludicrous.

[windymiller7]

Sharpshot was right about hotels in lfat cant find one any where, I wonder if I should ring the Mayor see if he can help a pilot?

[sharpshot]

Try www.hermitage-montreuil.com

They had space but you'll need the cab fare:{
Believe me I too tried everywhere else.......fancy picking this fortnight - I'll remember next summer:ugh:

THE MAYOR
I wonder what the overheads are to run LFAT - not cheap I'm sure. I also wonder if the mayor appreciates the commercial value of the airport to his area. And I wonder where the income comes from to keep the airport operational.

Monsieur Mayor.................WAKE UP

[2Donkeys]

I wonder what the overheads are to run LFAT - not cheap I'm sure. I also wonder if the mayor appreciates the commercial value of the airport to his area. And I wonder where the income comes from to keep the airport operational.

Despite what you might imagine, the airport is reputed to run at a substantial loss - thanks in part to their inability to attract a commercial service beyond Lydd-Air and the like. A few 737 charters in the summer doesn't cut the mustard.

Whilst the apron looks packed on sunny Sundays in July, there are large numbers of days in the year when it is substantially empty.

Where does the money come from... well funnily enough, it comes from the Le Touquet Tax Payer. The airport is owned by SEMAT, an organisation owned and run by the Town. It receives a grant each year from, amongst others, the Mayor's office.

2D

[sharpshot]

Therefore 2 D, they should be encouraging traffic to cut their losses.
Next we'll find out that they get an EU grant.

CURRENT NOTAM
Paved rwy 06/24 is closed until 23:59 040930.

Can't find current Metar however, along the coast its
060 at 26 gusting 36 kts:{

(Can't be good for business on 14:{ )

[2Donkeys]

Can't find current Metar however

In another move which has nothing to do with cutting costs, but which does have a little local politics behind it, the Meteo France office at le Touquet was closed well over a year ago when the Bureau de Piste in the tower closed.

Therefore, no TAFs or published METARs. Use LFQQ as a (very) poor substitute.

2D

[windymiller7]

Has any one tried to listen to the atis, any idea of the size of bucket he uses

[sharpshot]

2 Donkeys

Thanks for that local knowledge. I haven't been this year but looking forward to getting there soon. Seems to be a lot of "Local Politics" when it comes to running this airport.

You'll have to keep us up to speed. Is this Mayor making any electoral promises which might make matters worse should he get re-elected?

I trust avgas doesn't get the chop - I'm going to need an uplift!

[2Donkeys]

I don't think that there is any risk to AVGAS at Le Touquet!

On the other hand, in terms of both cost and neighbour-relations, I suspect that 24/06 now has a short time to live.

2D

[sharpshot]

Sounds very much like the runway outside my office - but we do have an Avgas supply problem.