 Poster: A snowHead
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We're just back from Val Thorens. While there I read a French magazine proudly proclaiming that flights to Chambery have increased 200% this year, but I'm not sure if they meant doubled or tripled. It sounds wonderful news, but it would be really good if the airport was ready to cope with it on the ground. A week ago (23rd) many flights were around 4 hours late, some were changed, for example a Manchester flight went to Birmingham, to allow us lucky people at Birmingham to get out, and a few were cancelled, including a Gatwick flight that went to Grenoble the next day. Yesterday (30th dec) was better, we arrived at 3pm and watched the early morning Edinburgh flight take off, but most delays were almost gone by mid afternoon, when a further delay was introduced by the arrival of a Russian flight.
This was interesting to watch. The plane, white with pink flashes,was roaring down over the lake but then veared off, a few seconds later a bright green Russian plane took off, thankfully someone decided that two Russians in different directions on the runway was too much. A couple of minutes later the pink flash came back, this time towards the lake. It almost touched down, but too far down the runway, so went round again. A third attempt and it finally landed, roared past the terminal building too fast and went up to the sky again, to head for Grenoble.
Good luck if you are flying to / from Chambery, it's bound to improve as the year goes on, possibly the Russians will learn how to land as well.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Jane L, to be fair to the Russians, the standard instrument approach to Chambery does involve approaching over the lake and then 'veering off' to the left if the approach needs to be from the other runway. There's no direct instrument approach from the south due to high ground. Page 8 of this PDF illustrates the procedure I imagine he was flying.
Doesn't explain his inability to land from the south, though - but at least he didn't go off the end of the runway and end up in the Lake.
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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Alastair, I'd struggle aswell if my approach plates were in french!!
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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pielot, it can be alarming when they translate to English - the last sentence on page 5 of this PDF, the plates for Courchevel, helpfully refer to a "Preferential crashing zone"  .
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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Jane L, To be fair to Chambery, a lot of the problems on 23rd Dec were caused by fog in the UK. Some flights leaving from Bristol were re-routed to leave from Gatwick, Exeter etc. Our Bristol to Chambery flight became (several hours later) Exeter to Grenoble only to become Exeter to Chambery some 30 minutes before landing.
Every time I go through Chambery, I'm just thankful that I am not in that hole known as Lyon charter terminal.
PS I also saw the plane with pink flashes demonstrating the art of how not to land at Chambery. I bet they were glad to get rid of it and send it to Grenoble.
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Ah ha - I remember Chambery in the old days -ie 20 years ago, when it was 8 portakabins labelled "aeroclub de chambery". You had to get your luggage off the trolleys they unloaded the plane onto. All things being equal, I believe from a commercial pilot friend, and personal experience of gettin gout of there when 737s were grounded, that it is better to be on a Bae148 or RJ100 than a 737 flying in there, as they can land with a lower cloud/visability level. I think you do have do have some kind of extra training certificate to land there because of the interesting approach. It is still way better than the Lyon Charter shed.
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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Don't get me wrong - I love Chambery, and have never found it a problem, other than 23rd December. I really love the external bar area, much better than the stuffy bars at other airports, we sat out there drinking our Pelforth brune we had brought from VT, watching the planes come and go. This time there were no incidents where planes taxied away from us, but I do remember last time when everything was blown off the tables in the jetstream.
On 23rd Dec we sat on the plane at Birmingham waiting for Chambery to be ready for us, but yes, I suppose things originally went wrong there that day because of external problems like the fog in the UK and possibly further Russians.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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| SHello wrote: |
| Can't really blame the weather, my office overlooks Gatwick and there was very little fog there all week - in fact Friday was a glorious sunny day.: |
Well you probably can.
| SHello wrote: |
The problem was the airline (Astraeus) not getting it together. Although other airlines had a few delays, this shower were by far and away the worst performing as seen by the delays/cancellations they had in comparisson to everyone else - never again  |
We were scheduled to leave from Bristol with Astraeus early on the 23rd. That plane started its journey from fog-free Gatwick that morning but couldn't land at fog-bound Bristol. Consequently we were bussed to meet the plane at Exeter. By the time we landed at Chambery, I guess the plane was about 5 hours behind schedule. As others have mentioned, other airports in the UK had similar fog problems. So whether Gatwick was fog-free or not wasn't the issue. It all depended on where the plane had been to (or had been trying to get to) beforehand. Given the circumstances, we were happy with the performance of Astraeus.
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SHello, Aren't Astraeus the mob who Bruce Dickinson of Iron Maiden pilots for sometimes?
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FAQ
. most places south of manchester were unable to deal with the volume of flights and there were a large number of aircraft left in the 'wrong' placeto start the next sector. (glad I'm not a scheduler!!). As for the russians - nothing changes!! I once flew aeroflot... only once mind ... never again! 
