LeBourget

We flew from Shannon Ireland to Paris for our first intra-european flight. Flying into LeBourge airport (LFPB) next to Charles DeGaulle (LFPG) places you in some seriously busy and complex airspace. We flew in IFR so most of the complexity was taken care of by the clearances that come with an IFR flight. Also noteworthy is the in a turbine aircraft, you really don't want to be tooling around VFR. In France, the transition altitude is 5000'. So above 5000, you must be on an IFR flight plan. Below 5000 and we could easily be burning over 80 gph and you'd be dealing with some seriously complicated airspace structures. 

One thing to note is the expense. Flying in Europe is not cheap. Landing and handling fees ALONE at the LeBourget Airport are in excess of $700 USD for our 3 nights here [UPDATE: We departed LeBourge after I initially wrote this. The actual bill for landing and handling fees was 1880.00 EUROS! No wonder GA is so weak in Europe]. That does not include fuel. That's just for the privilege of landing and parking on the ramp. Let's not forget just how good we have it flying GA in the USA. 

The day we flew in, the area had marginal visibility, some cumulous clouds, and ceilings generally around 1800'. LeBourge was using the ILS to Runway 7. At first glance, this all seems quite straight-forward. Naturally, since we're in France, it is not.

It all starts with the arrival procedure. We were assigned the PEXIR 7E STAR. First challenge, try getting that from the controllers english with a serious french accent. After figuring that out, try finding it in the G3000 list of 15+ arrivals for this airport. Once found, load it up and all seems OK.

With the PEXIR 7E arrival loaded, you will see on the arrival plate that this procedure ends at MOPAR. We already knew we'd be using the ILS 7 approach so looking at that you see that it starts from a DME fix off of LBG. So, one would assume that to get from MOPAR to DME 11.7 from LBG that ATC would provide vectors. Not the case at all. Turns out that LeBourget has what is called an "Initial Approach" prodedure. It's not mentioned on the STAR anywhere at all. But you'd better figure it out because the controllers expect you to fly it. In the case of RWY 7, you exit the STAR at KOLIV and fly south to PB503 and then vectors to the ILS. Seriously easy to miss. The one savior is that if you think to load the ILS 07 when you load the STAR, the G3000 figures this out and while it doesn't tell you there's a chart you should be looking at, it does enter the correct waypoints all they though the Initial Approach procedure. 

As most pilots are aware, the altimeter setting is read in different units in different parts of the world. In the US, we use inches of mercury, in Europe, we use Hectopascals (aka millibars). When you move into airspace where the unit of measurement changes, there's a quick way to switch from inches of mercury to Hectopascals (HPa) on the PFD and on the backup instrument. 

Here in Europe, they refer to this as the "QNH". The controllers will give you the altimeter setting (ie "1018 QNH") and will nearly always call the assigned altitude "On the QNH". For example, "N930VT, descend 4000 on the QNH".  They seem so intent on always making sure you know that their assignment is "QNH" that I wondered why. In the US, the controllers simply say, "Altimeter setting 3018" (of course using the current value) and we all know that they mean 30.18 inches of mercury. 

Turns out there are two very good reasons. First, since the transition levels vary country to country, they want to be sure the pilot is aware of when to use the standard altimeter setting (29.92 inches of mercury or 1013 hectopascals) vs the QNH. Second, it turns out that there was a close call recently with an American aircraft where the controller told the pilot the altimeter setting was 982. The controller meant 982 Hpa of course but the American pilot interpreted the 982 as one would in the US; 29.82 inches of mercury. So the pilot set 29.82 inches in the altimeter rather than 982 Hpa. Well, 982 Hpa is equal to 28.99 inches of mercury. So that pilot's altimeter was off by .83 inches. As a result that pilot descended nearly 1000' to low! So now, it's very clear. When EU controllers speak to N registered aircraft, it's always "On the QNH".