First Flight to Le Touquet

[barne_as]

Well, tommorrow is my first flight to Le Touquet,

The PLB and lifejackets are at the airport, the plane is booked, my headset and camera are both charged, passports are in the flight bag, the GAR form is complete, the flight plans are both saved on my AFPEX account for sending, the route is checked and relevant frequencies written down.

The weather looks good, I've been watching it for days now.

I think I'm all set to go. Just need to check TAF's and METAR's tommorrow, get winds aloft and add to plog, file flight plan with confirmation of times, get down the airport and pray that the weather is as good as we have had for the last few days! ............

Thanks to all advice from pprune'ers past and present who have given me good hints and tips for taking the plunge abroad. I have researched this site for anything that might help me.

I will add an update after I've made it back!!!!

[GGR]

Good luck and enjoy! Reading your post,transported me back to 1978! Be sure to have a great day, try to eat at the famous eatery la Scala before your return, in the words of Mr Winner....''historic''

GGR

[Fuji Abound]

Enjoy!

Make sure you do something when you get there. Hire some bikes, have a good meal, visit the supermarket (5 minutes walk from the airport across the old runway, path on the left as you leave the airport just after the new college buildings).

If you coast out at Lydd they are in the habit of asking you to report 8 miles (I think it is 8) south abeam so be ready for that, dont forget the ATIS at L2K cycles between French and English, and, most importantly, if it is a nice day the world and his wife will be L2K bound tomorrow, and there will be more than a few wallys about. I have seen things fall to pieces at L2K more than a few times when things get busy and the controller cant keep up with the English - dont worry, if you are not happy give yourself time and space as always.

[BackPacker]

Good luck and let us know how it went.

Your first channel crossing is just like first solo - something you'll never forget.

[jollyrog]

I expect it will be BUSY tomorrow. Be prepared for the lunacy of the Le Touquet approach on a busy day, it can be quite frantic.

Print the Visual Approach Chart from the French AIP. When it gets busy there, the controllers start refering to the entry/exit points and I've heard plenty of British pilots making fools of themselves, when they clearly don't have the chart with them.

Enjoy the trip!

[PPRuNe Pop]

Have fun its a great experience. I have a log book record of many many trips.

Whatever the VFR max height is - use it. It is best to be as high as it will allow. Its safer and its prettier.

A trip into Etaples is good. You can go to the supermarket en way.

[barne_as]

Well I made it ..... there and back.......

After all the aprehension, it wasnt too bad at all. It went a little like this....

Everything was in order at my home base, our flight was shown on the departures board, which we had to take a quick photo of! A check complete and full of fuel, we set off. It was a brilliant day for flying, a bit hazy but hardly a cloud in the sky. We climbed out into deep blue skies and set course for SFD VOR.

Changing to London Info I recieved my squark and continued my climb to 4500ft. (Which took some time in my little aircraft!)

L Info broadcast a warning for lots of activity over SFD so we kept an extra special look out. It seemed like everybody was making the most of the nice weather, however, at our level we hardly saw anyone.

We reported coasting out at SFD and set course for ALESO, which was my point to cross the FIR boundary.

Being over the water was not concerning at all. We both had life jackets on and had checked to make sure that we knew how to operate them. The PLB was on hand just in case, but the reality is that we were high enough and confident enough that we would be fine.

There seemed a miriad of jet trails heading north east, and lots of container ships all making there way to their respective destinations, I hope some of them were looking up at us with envy as we made our way across Le Manche!

At each FREDA check I checked and double checked frequencies and tracks using GPS and VOR to make sure that everything was ok. Soon the French coast was visible and the estuary close to LTQ was easy to spot.

I changed frequency to Lille Info and made my intial call to a french controller, crossing the FIR boundary shortly afterwards.
I must admit that at first it was quite difficult to understand the controller, even though she was speaking English, she was also speaking French and swapping from each language really quickly. The transmissions were of poor quality but we managed to get a new squark and relevant pressure settings without too many "say again squark".

We were only with Lille for a short time when we were told to contact Le touquet tower which we did.

The ATIS took a few attempts to get all the infomation because once again it was so quick. I suppose it was because we were not used to french and english, but soon after we managed to understand the transmissions.

We were told to report at point NB which was not on my approach chart. We were too late to read the advice above about visual reporting points and if there was one piece of advice to PPL's I would say take a look at the SIA approach charts for reporting points.

As it was, we informed the controller who stated that NB was "just a bit north of early downwind right for runway 32" which made things clearer. We tracked parallel the river and easily found the airport on our right. Reporting "point NB" around the estimated area, we were placed at number 2 behind a robin on long final. We had to stretch the downwind leg a bit to accomodate the robin but the controller was really good and patient and we landed in quite a strong crosswind and taxied towards the terminal.

We were met with a funny sight, there was a man on a bicycle who was riding round the apron, marshalling people into relevant parking places! What a nice job for a sunny day!

We shut down, reported to the reception who took our fuel order, walked straight out of the terminal and into the town to enjoy a lovely day at Le Touquet.

If I were to offer advice to any cross channel first timers, I would say to go ahead and do it.

Make sure you have a good plog with a reporting point for crossing the FIR boundary, have checked and double checked the weather and Notams, filed the correct forms, (my flight plan was done through Afpex and I did a GAR form which was emailed to the relevant address the day before, and have a current approach chart with visual reporting points.

The RT is not bad at all, it takes a little time getting used to but soon you will pick it up.

I expect Le touquet get a lot of nervous foreign flyers over and they are very understanding and accommodating

I will definatly be doing this trip again. Maybe next time I will be a little more adventerous!

[jollyrog]

We were told to report at point NB which was not on my approach chart. We were too late to read the advice above about visual reporting points and if there was one piece of advice to PPL's I would say take a look at the SIA approach charts for reporting points.

I tried!

Your write up sounds like an excellent trip under any circumstances, let alone your first time. I'm glad you had an enjoyable day.

We should have mentioned the marshaller on the bicycle!

[Fuji Abound]

Well done.

I was there today in somewhat more windy conditions with 19 across the runway. It was still busy and we ended up in the over flow parking the first time in a long time. Good to see GA alove and well.



PS Love the photos it is nice to see a few in the posts. wish I had taken a few today if only to show the poor old twin is still parked up on the pan after a hard landing a few weeks ago.