Filing flight plans France to UK
 

Hi All,

Wondering if someone could help out. I am flying to Le Touquet for the first time next week and have all the details for filing the flight plans on the outbound leg from the UK, but have no idea how to file the flight plan for the return (home) leg. Is there an on-line French flight plan site that you can file flight plans via or can it be done instead at the airport for example? Thanks in advance for any knowledge on this

Most French airfields will have a computer set up to file on OLIVIA.

I suggest you have a look and get yourself familiar with it.

Whatever method you use to file the outgoing FP can be used to file the return FP, at the same time, or at another time.

UK pilots are "encouraged" to use the AFPEX online system, which is a little "opaque" but is easy enough once somebody has showed you. Some notes on online filing and here and in addition there is RocketRoute.

You have some options...

- Do it at the same time as you file your outbound flight plan
- Fill in a paper one at Le Touquet and hand it to the desk
- Use their free wifi to file via the net (Afpex, SkyDemon, Rocket Route)
- Call a BRIA and read it over the 'phone (Lille in this case)

I don't think there's an OLIVIA terminal at Le Touquet

HTH

Ian

Funny how something that was very simple 30 years ago has been made more difficult by technology!

That's true in the UK, for most pilots.

For those who walk around with mobile internet, it is probably more convenient. Whether it is "easier" for IFR is doubtful because the whole Eurocontrol business has made the actual filing operation rather moot, because it is preceeded by a fairly involved process of getting a valid route.

Also, I think it is true everywhere outside the UK that you can simply write out a flight plan on the paper form and hand it in. The time that falls over is when there is nobody around at the airport :)

If it is being made more difficult, it's not the technology as such that is doing so. Behind technology and its application are minds, human minds mostly. It seems to me these human minds have made less progress over the last couple of decades than the technology they are supposed to control.

I don't think so. There's plenty of aerodromes on the European continent with no permanent facility whatsoever for filing a flight plan. But one can always call the local authority and file the flight plan by word of mouth. The simplest of mobile phones will do the job.

Yes; I was thinking of "international" airports.

Plenty of little places around but one can't fly to/from those and the UK.

The bewildering variation in the number of different places French airports seem to hide their flight planning facilities is a constant source of annoyance I find.

The most common arrangement though is a simple telephone usually placed near to where the big yellow 'C' symbol is which usually has a direct line to the regional flight planning office. However I have encountered everything from absolutely nothing to the aforementioned Olivia system in various places. The safest option since it gets you talking to a real human being is to have the number of the regional flight planning office so that you can always call them if technology defeats you.

At Le Touquet you shouldn't have a problem, have your return route written down and then if it isn't obvious just ask someone were the computer terminal or phone is to file it.

It doesn't matter how one approaches this old topic... there is just one reasonably elegant solution and that is a laptop with internet connectivity.

Everything else is just a hassle (at best) or a big problem (at worst).

Even if the airport has a GA office where you can just hand in a flight plan, you will probably prefer to file it from your home or the hotel the night before.

Especially if it is an IFR one which can get chucked out by Eurocontrol and if this is going to happen you want to find out the day before and not when you are about to go out to the plane.

This is what I have been doing since 2004 and, subject to getting an internet connection, it has always done the job well.

Before that, I used to do it the old way and, with VFR flight plans, quite a high % simply vanished if I used the DOF/ specification on them. On one 4-leg trip down to Spain, 3 of the 4 vanished.

The most important telephone number to have when flying to small customs airfields in France is08 10 437 837. You are going to need it to close your FPL outside AFIS hours, in order to avoid the cost of a SAR operation. :ouch:

Just ring Nantes BRIA and file a flightplan over the phone.

0033228002570

How right you are. I have a nephew in IT you lives not far from you who says most IT projects fail because of poor project management. He recently left Euro-control saying they were a total shambles.

Eurocontrol has always been a bunch of technocrats who apply the most complicated solution to everything.

You start at their access control system, where each person stands in a tube, and at the base of the tube is a mat which has sensor pads in it which are connected to a computer which works out how many feet are standing on the mat - to prevent more than one person squeezing in. Fairly obviously, one could defeat it by each of two people standing on one leg each.

It's no wonder they have implemented a horrendous routing system which ATC do not operate on the day anyway.

The reality is very easy if you have internet, and very easy (in France at least) if you have access to a telephone (wsmempson - it's the BRIA at Lille that covers Le Touquet +33 (0)3 20 16 19 65/66).

Peter (as I am sure you know), with Rocket Route or Eurofpl even IFR is easy if you have a 'phone with a 3G connection.

Ian

Just picking up on a point raised in one of the above mentioned replies.

DO NOT FORGET TO CLOSE YOUR FLIGHT PLAN WHEN LANDING IN FRANCE. It could be very expensive.

As President of Atlantic Airpark I am telephoned frequently by Nantes or Bordeaux if somebody landing here has not closed within a short time of intended landing time. Not only that, it seems that every "G or N" reg 'plane that fails to close with an intended landing anywhere near here, I get those calls too.

Its nice to know we are being looked after, but its a pain for me, especially if I have to get out of the pool to answer the 'phone. Bons vols.
RT

If I was the original poster this would all sound very complicated to me, and I would be worrying about my first trip to le touquet. Filing in Le Touquet will be easy for you. Do not worry !

Filing a flight plan in Le Touquet could not be made easier. They are very helpful, and that is one of the reasons apart from being a great short trip across the water, that they are my favorite weekend bimble.

Simply fill in the paper flight plan on the table to the right as you enter the arrivals hall. Give to one of the people behind the desk. They send to the tower. Go into town and enjoy the bike ride etc.

On return I usually ask if all is ok with FP and they check with tower.
Fly back. In France its usually all made easy for you.

Enjoy your first trip. You will go back often.

EB

For the original poster - don't be put off, because as echobeach says, the traditional way still works in LFAT.

When I first went to Le Touquet, some time in the last century, the only way of filing a flight plan home again was by writing it on a paper form and handing it to the person behind the desk.

Now as various people have pointed out, you can also do it on AFPEX, on your Blackberry, on a dedicated terminal, from the business centre of your hotel, and by telepathy probably. If you have one of these toys, this is great - I'm all for progress and alternatives.

Fortunately however you can also still write it on a paper form and hand it to the person behind the desk! :cool:

Enjoy your trip.

You can
File
change
or close

a flight plan at anytime in France in English, with one simple phone number

0810 IFR VFR (0810 437837)

Works from a mobile phone too (assuming you have roaming).

This covers flight plans in all of France, not just one area.