France for Lunch

Introduction –

We had originally planned to fly to Luxembourg from Friday to Sunday. However, for safety reasons, the weather on arrival in Luxembourg was unsuitable for our aircraft, so I had to cancel and re-arrange.

This meant we would fly elsewhere on Saturday, but the weather was just about suitable for a fight to France. However, there aren’t many options that can be made on short notice. So the question we had was, “Can we fly to France for lunch?”

The Plan –

Daylight increases to almost 4 minutes a day at this time of year but with the unsettled weather since the start of last summer plaguing us, timing for trips and planning the safest IFR flight possible was proving very difficult, especially with the lower ambient temperatures meaning higher likelihood of icing and with frontal conditions, the risk is made even higher.

The plan was simple, fly to France, IFR for lunch and the most convenient place to do this is Le Toqueut.

Airport Choices –

The choice of airport for IFR flights is determined by several criteria, such as reasonable handling fees, accessibility (both customs and police), and a recently implemented restriction: The airport does not allow aircraft categorised as Category A. Airports like Barcelona El Prat prohibit this, and in some cases, even though they are not allowed to, they do so informally and charge you outrageous costs. For the kind of aircraft we operate, Jet A1 availability is not a problem at the majority of significant international airports.

Flying to France today is no easy feat, especially at short notice due to the PPR or PN requirements, in most cases 48 hours and rarely but noteworthy in some cases 72 hours prior. Le Touquet doesn’t require this, and that’s mostly due to the fact Macron has a Summer house there so customs are almost always available. Some French Airports are like this, but they are very rare.

Another thing to bear in mind is that LFAT has a planned lunch closure for ATC, during which IAPs and non-French-speaking communciation are not possible. See the AIP for more details.

Lunch for ATC in Summer is between 11h30 and 1300UTC = 13h30 and 15h00 local = 12h30 and 14h00 UK time
Winter ATC lunch is between 12h30 and 13h30 UTC = 13h30 and 14h30 local = 12h30 to 13h30 UK time.

You can also read more about Aeorport Le Touquet on their website.

Handling/Airport Quotations –

We emailed Le Touquet a few days before with a planned arrival and departure time with the following information as requested by the AIP whom initially did not reply, but eventually, I received an ACK from the airport itself. Customs won’t respond but if unsure, you can call them.

Weather Forecast –

The weather forecast for Saturday morning was for various layers of IMC associated with the frontal system to the North East, although situated between an area of two low pressures, a slack area of high pressure with fairly settled conditions ensured. Based on the TAFs and F215 charts, we would have no issues with the morning sector flying to France. The weather associated with cancelling our trip yesterday continued east towards the Alps.

Flight to France –

As we initially planned to depart at 0730z, landing in France at 0830z we unfortunately got a little behind schedule. Simply more time is needed before a flight, especially early departures as there are limited transportation options at these hours. Whilst this isn’t an issue it meant less time in France, but this wasn’t an issue as we would have plenty of time to meet your lunch booking.

I called Swanwick as a result of the airfield not being open yet, this was to get my squawk and after-departure frequency. This was a normal process I’ve followed on previous trips when I had to depart early hours and this took a little bit of time which delayed us slightly. Once this was complete, we jumped in the aircraft and prepared G-ZANY for the short flight across the English Channel to France.

We initially taxied for 03L to depart and avoid any housing low level, something I do out of hours before the airfield is usually operational and this is to keep good neighbours with those surrounding the airfield. It had reached 0800z so I then elected to depart runway 21L as we were currently 20 minutes behind our departure time.

We climbed away and contacted Thames Director for further climb and entry into controlled airspace. The timing of this couldn’t have been less perfect, as a British Airways CityFlyer called up at 3000ft heading straight for the point where we would level off at 2400ft (Outside of controlled airspace). This is only 600ft of separation, but because we were outside of controlled airspace this is normal to happen and whilst the aircraft was given further climb, they did state they had a Positive TCAS RA.

Once that aircraft was clear, we were climbed up on track DET (Detling) VOR, 3000ft then 4000ft before behind handed off to the London TMA controller for further climb into controlled airspace. This is one of my favourite parts I ever had when I got my IR, was soaring above a thick cloud layer to our destination. I was so delighted to see Vannessa’s face and the amazement that this moment contained. It’s something that can bring out much emotion in most people.

After an initial turn or two, London climbed us to our cruise FL110 and gave us a shortcut, direct to our destination. Because this was a short flight, I decided to start my approach brief early and planned for a runway 31 arrival into Le Touquet using the RNP. The weather was fine, but we would be descending through another layer of IMC before breaking out for what would more than likely be an approach in VMC conditions.

We barely had reached our top of climb and were handed off to Lille who barely a few minutes after we reached our top of climb, gave us descent and informed us of our impending approach as expected. We were then given direct to EKLEB to commence the RNP for Runway 31, this was crazy as we had barely left UK soil and already we were in descent for our destination.

We went through an initial layer of IMC and broke out where the French coastline and a visible view of Le Touquet itself came into view on our right-hand side. in 36 minutes we had reached France but had to continue our route IFR around the procedure at 2000ft. A few lumps and bumps as we came through the boundary layer but nothing too notable.

We established at ESIVI and continued into RWY 31 for an uneventful landing into Le Touquet. We vacated and the strangest thing ever, was a Deer running around the Apron, but an empty apron and probably the first arrival of the day. It was already 10 am, but we had lost an hour in the time difference from GMT and I suspect most other pilots would arrive in the hours after.

A short taxi to a space outside the tower, shutting down for another IFR flight to Europe.

ATC Flight plan and route flown –

Lunch in France –

There are a few ways to get into town from the airport: a cycle and a walk. I’ve never taken a taxi, but the walk is beautiful, and I am sure the cycle ride is, too. Once you have walked through the car park, there’s a long road called Av De Picardie that will start taking you towards the seafront, where you’ll find a further three branches, depending on where you are staying or where you intend to walk.

We started arriving in town and found a place for a light snack and some coffee called Monsieur David Hodin. This is a huge bakery that is very noticeable when you walk past, with fresh baguettes and pastries and an outdoor sitting area. We had time to kill, and this was the first place we came across on our way to lunch, and the coffee was much needed.

It was news to us, but there were a lot of Rally Cars passing by and heading towards the seafront and as we ventured further towards our lunch restaurant we noticed signs for the Touquet Pas-de-Calais Rally, which is part of the 2024 French Rally Championship. This was pretty cool but completely unexpected to witness.

I’ve visited Le Touquet many times, and have stayed here a couple of times, first at Holiday Inn Resort Le Touquet many summers ago, and just after COVID in Hôtel Résidence Hippotel. Both hotels are reasonably priced and both have different qualities, the former being a 4* hotel resort. This is a place to stay for a long weekend for sure with plenty of food options and it’s only a 1 hour flight from the UK.

One of my favourite places for lunch or dinner is Restaurant l’Enduro Plage which is located overlooking the seafront on the promenade next to some former waterpark. There is some talk about the development her eon this complex for the more than 35-year-old venue, but it remains to be seen if L’Enduro will be moved or not survive.

There are many other restaurants but this one is the most suitably priced one for the occasion and has many options available including non-traditional French food, but offers seafood platters, traditional dishes & pancakes. If you plan on coming here, this is a must-book and do so in advance as just turning up on some days can make it impossible to get a seat or face lengthy waits, reviews are good and the quality and price are genuine.

5 minutes away are many more restaurants and if you are here for more than a few days or nights, there are plenty of options including breakfast. In the summer I would recommend booking most locations that you fancy, as turning up can be difficult. With such a big event (The Rally) it was fairly busy.

I showed Vannessa around town before making our way into Rue Saint-Jean, bringing memories of my time visiting Le Chatham (Nightclub) before finding a nice ice cream spot. Pretty expensive but huge and tasty before we decided to head back to the airport to prepare for our flight back to the UK. This was a fairly quick trip and staying here for longer is beneficial, but a lunch trip here is possible and hopefully, customs and police remain here for the foreseeable future.

Weather Forecast –

The weather for the return sector was slightly different, with high pressure stretching further north and a warm front situated to our west coming in from a system associated with a North Atlantic Low. With the weather deteriorating overnight and as the evening progressed, this would have been a concern for tomorrow’s planned flight back if the outbound had taken place the day before.

Flight to the UK –

We arrived back at the airport at a good time and had a chance to check our flight plan for any slot delays or any issues as well as check the weather before departure. As the aircraft was already fuelled, the only concern at this point was getting through customs but leaving France this tends not to be an issue, although last time the receptionist let me go back to the aircraft to collect something, the border guy went nuts and wasn’t happy even though he had seen me that morning.

Once we had gone through the border, we went to the aircraft and checked everything necessary with a fine-toothcomb before the flight across the water. Attention to detail is needed more so here because we would be flying across the channel at lower levels than normal, that is, climbing for the majority of the crossing rather than cruising.

We taxied to the runway where we received our expected clearance on the BNE 1Z SID from Runway 31, taking us to the right after departure before our routing heads north towards the UK. We lined up and rolled down the runway and climbed away on the SID taking in the stunning views of Le Touquet on our left, unlike my previous visit here where the visibility and weather were shocking.

We initially got to climb to FL60 before giving further climb and direct to DEVAL, behind us was a Cirrus on the same SID and heading towards Biggin Hill, a slightly shorter flight but also quicker as they would cruise almost double our speed. Strangely at this point, as we were climbing above some very thin layers, we were handed off to London Control pretty much coasting out.

We continued up to FL100 on Lille’s instruction and contacted London Control who diligently asked about our speed and gave us a heading change due to the other departure which was faster than ourselves. He was also asked the same question but passed down our side fairly quickly. We did notice some weather ahead but we would be descending before this, this wasn’t convective but there would be some icing risk in IMC at this level so as we shortly discussed this, ATC decided to begin our descent into London anyway.

It made a nice change to have some IMC as we went through multiple layers before breaking out at some point near the Thames as we continued our flight IFR towards Stapleford. It was fairly busy and because it was a weekend we had to do the overhead join to land and with a thump we had arrived at Stapleford, some 10 hours after we had left.

This was a relatively quick flight back to the UK and fairly standard but gave me currency till the next trip.

ATC Flight plan and route flown –

Outcome & Costs –

Flying to France for lunch is possible, but options are fairly limited. Depending on your departure time and the daylight hours, fitting in with restrictions of operating hours, customs hours and how quickly you can fly from a UK mainland airfield to France makes a huge difference. The best option from the UK without massive advanced interest is Le Touquet and whilst Lille is an option, that has become cost prohibitive and handling hours notification a non-starter.

Other places like Dinard which before COVID featured Ryanair have scaled back its operation making what once was a short-notice visit location not so possible anymore.

Airport Costs –

The final bill was split into the following;

Le Touquet Airport

Total Costs LFAT: €36.00 EUR (£30.82)

Jet A1 Uplift: No Uplift in LTQ/LFAT

Le Touquet Costs –

Food, Drink & Leisure Costs: €74.91(Food/Taxi’s split amongst us)

Sub-Total: £64.14

Flying Costs –

Aircraft Charges: £411.76 (@ £183 per hour (2 hours 15 minutes flown))

Airport Fees: £30.82 (As above)

Oxygen Refill – – None for this trip

JetA1: No Uplift in LTQ/LFAT

Total Cost –

Total Costs (Non-Aviation): £94.96

Total Costs (Aviation): £442.58

Total Costs (All): £537.54

Version 1.0 – Last Updated 07/11/2024

Aircraft –

The aircraft is a DA40 TDI, which uses a Thielert “Centurion” 135 hp (101 kW) diesel engine and burns diesel or jet fuel. It has a constant-speed propeller and FADEC (single lever) engine control. G-ZANY is based at Stapleford Aerodrome, Essex, UK and was delivered as new in 2003. 

Read more about the aircraft on the dedicated page

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I am a current PPL(A), SEP (LAND), IR(A) SE/SP PBN, IR(R) & Night holder. Flying the world, exploring its hidden treasures. Taking pictures and vlogging the journey; I hope I can provide you with an oversight of my progression as I develop my skillset and airmanship in exclusive videos on my YouTube channel.

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