Helos in France
 

Hello

I live full time in France and operate a G reg helicopter here.

Obtaining a permit to land anywhere is simple and quick. It is valid for ten years for the named pilot.

Please email me if you require assistance.

Chalmondleigh!

Not saying you're wrong or anything.........:bored: but my helisurface permit's just turned up, and it's valid for 10 years........ahem..........sorry....

You look like a likely candidate to help! I am involved with a superyacht in build and have had problems in the past regarding 'permits' to operate a helicopter in France. We do not own a helicopter nor a pilot but we do have a flight deck aboard and plan chartering both pilot and helicopter. Do we need to obtain a 'helisurface permit'...please help.

ASW Fighter,

Welcome to Rotorheads.

According to the post above,

...the pilot that you charter will require to have the permit in his/her name. I suggest that you make this a condition of their employment.

HTH.

Advice - Jet Ranger trip to South of France
 

Boys and Girls,

I'm going on a trip to South of France (Cannes) next week from Barton (UK) to South of France in a Jet Ranger. I'm not planning the trip or supposed to be doing much, if any of the flying, but I'll be a passenger and I don't just want to be sat in the back.

As far as I know, we'll only be flying into licensed aerodromes and I believe the plan is to fly around the mountains etc. The machine has a PLB which I know is a requirement and we'll have life vests for the cross chanel bit.

Anyone done the trip, got any hints, tips, etc etc?

Thanks in advance.

Joel:ok:

keep quiet , dont touch anything and dont ask " are we there yet ?" every 10 minutes :=
Oh yes ...and make sure you have a wee wee before you take off .

Errr, good advice. sort of
but did I mention it's actually MY Jet Ranger!

JT, that's the advice Nigel is given in his own helicopters ;)

How come your not flying it?

Its an hours building excercise for another pilot.
I'm going along for the ride (and I'll be very jealous)
I'll get some time on stick but I'm doing a similiar trip later on in the year myself

Any tips yet?

Best of luck then! Sounds great for the other pilot yeah......

Contact Biggles99 He does EU trips quite often from what I gather.

It's worth checking before you go as to whether there are any public holidays during your trip, if there are you might find it difficult to get fuel as the airports are largely state funded and run so no service, on that point also be aware that most of the smaller airfields close for lunch, 2 hrs is quite normal.( 1200 - 1400ish).
Also make sure you have enough cash to pay for fuel as not all of the fields have the smart credit card pay at the pump facility.
And watch out for the low level military routes they can be very active! (There marked on the charts).
And enjoy the wine and cheese!

France tend to keep all their public holidays for May (Mai) .....

Carry ALL paperwork for pilot(s) and aircraft esp proof of VAT payment to avoid being impounded

Take any spare specialist lubes you need as France is the home of Eurocopter and asking for Bell certified products may offend and cause you to be impounded

Don't land off field (not even a little bit) unless you have the approved permit else you can get impounded

Make sure the charts are up to date (not usually impoundable)

Avoid military zones (get shot down and they will)

Caution 206 limits at higher altitudes

Get introduced to 'Olivia' ...

File flightplanes well in advance and get the timezone right

The gendarmes at Rodez are hot on paperwork

Avoid France on strike days (usually June but can be earlier in the year)

Speak a little French (usually prefixing all radio calls "Parlez-vous en Anglaise Si Vous Plaiz") and especially on the ground.

Avoid ladies in Cannes asking for lift to Monaco by helicopter (hookers)

Don't get tetchy with ATC (impound)

Don't get tetchy with police/ gendarmes/ army/ airforce/ navy/ customs (shot)

Don't get impounded

Bring back good Bordeaux et le fromage pur moi. Merci, a bientot. HR

Make sure your documents are up to date and neatly presented in a folder, all 3 times I have been over my docs have been checked. Presenting them in this way makes a nice impression and gets the task done in a couple of minutes.

How's your French? A lot of the smaller airfields self annouce in French only, so it helps to know the aviation basics, heights, circuit positions, take off, numbers. A Few of these are in the front of Delage (French Pooleys)

Wylie's point about fuel is spot on, unless you have a French Total Card, you will generally have to pay cash all the way. Plus you really need to watch the lunch thing, can easily take 3 hours to get fuelled at the wrong time of day.

Other than that if you are putting into a airport, chooses one with a big river, a big bend and a few hills and it'll generally be quite pretty too, e.g Besancon.

It's generally a doddle, very quite, v good atc, lots of the medium size airports have nice restaurants, so at least you wont starve while you wait for food.

One other thing, stay miles away from nuclear facilities and restricted areas generally, they'll shoot you down and ask questions later.

N joy

Just about all French airfields have visual reporting points and ATC expect vistors to use them. I used to use the french 'carte d'approche a vue' which has maps of them plus the procedures to be followed. Vital!

You can check on French Notams etc here.....

SIA - La référence en information aéronautique


Have a great trip,

Joe.

dead jealous Joel! sounds like a great trip to test out your new comms - park the 695 in the back with you!!!

catch up soon re: battery etc

JP

JTobias,

Did this trip a couple of times and last time went from liverpool to Lydd. then lydd to Troyes LFQB then to Valence LFLU then on to cannes. Very helpful in all airfields and both troyes and valence have self service re-fuel where you just insert a credit card.Hope this may be of help.

Agree with the above posts about documentation - both aircraft and pilot. They are very thorough and strict.

Another route is over to LFPN (Toussus les Nobles) or even Issy Heliport (not as expensive as Battersea and much easier to get into from the West) then down the centre of the country to LFLY Lyon Bron, very efficient and cheapish, then on to Cannes.

For Cannes, if you do not flight plan then you must do an 'Intention de vol', as Cannes is one of 7 airfields which require this (part of the military requirements - phone the local CDC - see AIC 69/03 on the French AIP website). As with the other airfields, make sure you have the VRPs along with required altitudes. At Cannes, they could send you out over the water to join from the SE.

Apart from that, take a comfy cushion.

HO

Once at Cannes, make sure you don't wander around airside, they have recently clamped down on the security and will lock you up if you do not have the correct passes.

Have done this trip many times and have not once been asked for documents (8 times in total). So maybe I am just lucky.

That being said, my trip takes in Le Havre (LFOH), Nevers (LFQG) and then Marseille. Le Havre does not have much to see but it has customs, fuel and crap weather. Fog can hang around for days. Nevers is a great little airstrip but the tower is not manned during lunch (12-2) nor on weekends which means no fuel avbl. Also, French only on the radio outside of tower hours.

I use the Jepp VFR charts and they have all the VFR reporting points on them.

Alot of military airspace and restricted areas. Nuclear sites are marked on the chart and you normally have to be a minimum of 1-2 miles clear of them.

I don't know what your plans are but one trip that I can highly recommend is down the west coast via Nantes, Bordeaux, Biarritz then across the Pyrennes (spelling?).

I like the French ATC and I hope you find the same.

Have fun.