POITIERS BIARD   LFBI

Date of Visit = 08/99

Pilot: = Rob Sawyer

e-mail = RobSawyer@zizicoco.freeserve.co.uk

Field Report = Having a French wife is a good excuse to fly to France. I went to Poitiers via Cherbourg.

I routed from my home base of Bournemouth direct to Cherbourg more or less, picking up the SAM VOR (190 radial). If you phone 01752 557550 you can get a check on D 36 which is inactive at the moment, but does still have some flying. It is worth it because you can save quite a bit of time avoiding the dogleg to ORTAC.

From Cherbourg it was to Laval (LA 401 NDB) then Saumur (SR 372 NDB)and on to POI (VOR). My advice would be not to use this route because both LA and SR have parachuting activities. They are not keen to speak english so I got my wife to talk to them in French which helped, but we still ended up routing round them.

Poitiers has a very long runway, but beware of the gliders and tugs. When you arrive there is only one exit from runway and you will taxy towards the tower then right and park on the left opposite the fuel.

Landing fee is ridiculous, about £7 (that included some parking), but you do not have to pay this until you leave. The airport is typically French a huge runway, an Aeropostale 737 which never seems to move, and basically no 'planes normally, although surprisingly there was quite a bit of activity. (August is when France goes on holiday so that is probably why!)

There are lots of places which are not too far away and it is a great region for wine etc. Also the supermarkets are cheap, my Arrow looked like a freighter on the way back with £70's woth of drink comprising 10 cases of beer and a dozen bottles of wine!

You need to call customs 2 hours before arr/dep or fax them. However my wife phoned them and they took our info over the phone (but that may have been because she was French). Try these numbers 05 49 41 37 07 or 05 49 42 32 27.

When you depart use the excellent Met office which will give you en route METAR's and TAF's. This is under the control tower not the terminal, but you pay your landing fee in the terminal. When you file a flight plan DO NOT lose years off your life with the MINITEL or the MINITEL phone receiver. Use the phone on the left which automatically links you to (I think) Bordeaux. Again someone helped us because of speaking French.

On the way back I routed from POI more or less direct (I doglegged to avoid the gliders and Parachuting at Thouars) to the ANG VOR (mind the little D597 to the west of Angers).

From there it was direct on the 000 Rad for about 65 miles (good signal) and then a turn to the MP at Cherbourg and after that direct to Bournemouth.

In the Arrow (it is an Arrow 1) it took me about 2hrs and 20 minutes at a GS of 120kts-ish. As is fairly normal in France (well in my experience) I didn't see any other traffic apart from someone on finals at Cherbourg.

Two other things to note, most VOR's in France are not DME coupled (which is irritating) and make sure you fly high enough to miss the fast jet corridors that operate from 800 to 1500 agl, and finally if the controllers say 'Bonjour' reply in English because otherwise you will get the info in French and even my wife doesn't understand what they are on about.

Poitiers is a good place to stop en route or to stay a while. From here you are only about 35 mins from La Rochelle or Limoges, or an hour from Bordeaux....all good places.

Good luck!

Rob Sawyer

G-AWBC