View Full Version : Aérodrome de Saint-Cyr-l'École, Paris
Sam Rutherford
20th Jul 2010, 12:15
Hi, looks like a great GA field for S.Paris access - anyone any experience?
Cheers, Sam.
Anonystude
20th Jul 2010, 16:41
Was there a few weeks ago.
BEWARE: ATC is all in French. Only French. And RT French, at rapid fire, is very different to being competent on the ground. Both I and the person I was flying with speak very reasonable French, and we had serious issues comprehending what ATC were telling us. If you could only understand the circuit calls you might just be able to get by, but it would be a challenge.
The aerodrome is right up against the Paris zone -- there's a good visual approach chart on the SIA website (St Cyr is ICAO LFPZ if you didn't know that already). Turning finals for 29 means not going beyond the western extremity of the Palace de Versailles lakes (so no bomber circuits, or you'll be in trouble. Refreshing, if you ask me). Two parallel runways, both pretty sizeable -- SOP for the northern one is to vacate into the middle and then wait for clearance to cross. All the grass is in very good condition. The tower may ask you to park on the grass apron to the west of the tower -- if you can persuade them to let you park by the Aeroclubs you'll have a much shorter walk into town.
There is a c.1 mile walk into the town of St Cyr to find a bus or rail station, but when you do there's a good selection of buses into Versailles and regular RER into Paris Montparnasse.
Consider also Lognes-Emerainville. There is an RER (train) not too far from there and seems to be the GA airport that is the most close to Paris. Saw some G- registered aircrafts there, so I suppose ATC can/should speak some English.
Phoenix09
21st Jul 2010, 05:21
I flew in there a month ago and the ATC was all in English then.
There is an excellent website here (http://www.dfk.no/arkiv/turer/20040918/viking.pdf) that gives information on flying in.
The one problem we had, and I believe that it has been a problem in the past, was getting a taxi! We ended up getting a lift into Versailles with a friend of one of the bar staff.