Useful advice on flying VFR in French Airways  

Date of Visit = Various

Pilot: = Nigel Webb

e-mail = nigel@warp9.org

Field Report = Whilst it is common to talk about flying VFR in airways in France, the terminology is misleading.

In France, airspace is structured somewhat differently to the UK. Below FL195, all airspace in France is open to everybody. This starting point is modifed by the addition of a number of relatively harmless control zones and local TMAs (mostly class E). There is then the further addition of a significant number of low level restricted zones, corresponding to the low level military network, and a few big military practice areas. The only other major airspace is a significant blob of class A that surrounds Paris.

Bearing this in mind, if I wish to fly VFR direct from one place in one corner of France, to another place in another corner of France, I am pretty much free to do so, providing I infringe none of the aforementioned airspace. In many instances this enlightened stance allows me to fly as direct a route as my navigational skills or GPS will permit.

So, what about airliners and the like flying IFR? Notwithstanding the fact that most airliners will be operating for the most part above FL195 (where VFR is not allowed), there still needs to be some way of ensuring that I keep out of the way of IFR flights. For this purpose, French pilots have the semicircular+500 rule engrained from an early age. It is an offence not to cruise at an appropriate level in France, although I doubt that enforcing such a rule is not high on DGAC's priority list. Just try telling a French ATC unit that you are cruising at a whole number of thousands of feet...

OK, so far so good. So what about "flying in airways" VFR?

Certain parts of France (such as the area around Reims), are littered with bits of military restricted airspace to the point where just trying to interpret the half-mil VFR map gives you a headache. To the rescue comes the IFR airways map. It turns out that if you follow the airways routings, but obey the aforementioned rules on level, then you will magically miss all the restricted airspace and tunnel through that airspace without undue flight planning. The lazy man's way to fly. I use it all the time.

(1) "Doesn't flying on an airways routing make life difficult if you need to deviate for cloud/IMC?" Not really. You are never "on" the airway as such, you can leave it, join it, cross it, weave around and change level all you like. The only caveat is that you loose any guarantee you may have had about staying clear of restricted airspace. Nobody in ATC will care one way or the other.

(2) "What about separation for IFR flights using the airways?" Whilst IFR flights file airways routings in France, these are treated with a considerable degree of freedom by French ATC. It is not at all common to be routed "direct" or on a radar heading across several hundred miles of France, presumably because the ATCO sees that the path is clear and that the route will save time. A recent trip up France saw me routed direct from Poitiers to ORTAC despite the convoluted airways routing I had filed.

IFR flights in France are under positive radar control, and the airways are really only there to assist in route planning. This is not always the case elsewhere in Europe. As if to further emphasise the point, I flew all the way from Macon to Le Touquet last weekend VFR at FL105 "in an airway". The closest traffic I (TCAS) "saw" in the airway was another flight that came 12000' over the top of us.