Ceramic Coating at Chambéry Savoie Mont Blanc (LFLB)

Why ceramic coating during the Alpine season?

Most operators arrive at Chambéry between 1 December and 30 April, when the business terminal runs daily from 07:30 to 21:00 local and the airport limits arrivals to five slots per hour on winter weekends. Ceramic Coating makes sense in this window because the aircraft will spend the next two winters exposed to de-icing fluid, road-salt spray from resort transfers on the apron, and the freeze-thaw cycle that etches unprotected paint. A two-layer ceramic system applied now means every pre-flight wash in Courchevel or Megève takes fifteen minutes instead of forty-five, the belly sheds contamination instead of collecting it, and Type I fluid rinses clean without leaving a haze on the cheat line.

The coating cures under ambient conditions on the stand, so we monitor surface temperature and humidity throughout the application and allow twelve hours before the first engine start. The finished surface is hydrophobic within twenty-four hours and reaches full hardness over the following week. You leave with a batch-numbered warranty document and a maintenance schedule that specifies inspection intervals and the rinseless wash technique that preserves the coating between seasons.

What changes at Chambéry Savoie Mont Blanc?

Chambéry has one paved runway—18/36 at 2,020 metres—and a 700-metre grass strip that serves gliders and light singles. The field sits at 779 feet, 6.5 kilometres from Aix-les-Bains and 3.5 nautical miles south-southwest of the town centre. The airport is Level 2 schedules-facilitated during the winter period: every operator must request a slot through the MyHandling portal, which returns a COHOR authorisation number for field 18 of the flight plan. Overnight parking from Friday to Sunday is limited, so multi-day detailing projects are easier to schedule mid-week or in the shoulder months of December and late April.

Handling is provided in-house by SEACA, part of VINCI Airports, and all requests go through MyHandling (handling@chambery-airport.com, SITA CMFOPXH). The business terminal is separate from the commercial building and keeps its own hours: daily 07:30–21:00 local in winter, reduced to 08:30–18:30 weekdays and 09:00–18:00 weekends in the low season from 1 May to 30 November. ATS operates 0700–2000 UTC year-round, extended to 0600–2000 on winter Saturdays. Customs attends only on PPR with twenty-four hours' notice, and every flight entering or leaving France—Schengen or otherwise—requires passenger and crew data filed through MyHandling when you book handling.

No hangar space exists for visiting aircraft, so Ceramic Coating happens outdoors on the apron in whatever weather the Alps deliver. We bring heated water, shelter the work with windbreaks when necessary, and will not apply ceramic if the surface temperature falls below the manufacturer's threshold or if precipitation is forecast during the cure window.

What does the handler expect from a third-party detailing crew?

SEACA issues airside passes and vehicle permits through MyHandling when you request detailing as part of the handling order. Every member of our crew holds a valid airside-security training certificate recognised in France, and we submit passport copies and vehicle registration forty-eight hours before the slot. The handler escorts us to the stand on the first day, confirms the work area and the GPU connection, and logs the activity in the daily movement sheet.

We bring our own generator, water tank, and waste-recovery system because the apron has no fixed wash points. All run-off is captured, filtered, and tankered away in compliance with the airport's environmental procedures. The handler expects a daily briefing if the aircraft will be off-line for more than twenty-four hours, and we notify the duty manager before we reposition the aircraft for access to the belly or the opposite side. If another arrival needs the stand, the handler will ask us to pause and tow the aircraft to a holding position; we build that possibility into the schedule when the weekend slot limit is in force.

How do you document ceramic coating for the tech log?

Every Ceramic Coating project closes with a printed maintenance plan, a batch-traceability sheet, and a digital photo report that shows the paint condition before correction, the application of each ceramic layer, and the final cure state. The maintenance plan lists the coating product, the batch number, the application date, and the inspection intervals—typically every six months or one hundred flight hours, whichever comes first. The plan also specifies the rinseless wash chemistry that is compatible with the ceramic, because some alkaline detergents will strip the top layer and void the warranty.

The photo report is indexed by panel: nose, engine nacelles, winglets, belly, tail cone. Each image is GPS-stamped and time-stamped so that any future detailer or paint shop can see exactly what was done and when. If you operate under an approved maintenance organisation, we can format the documentation to match your tech-log style and provide a certificate of conformity that references the coating manufacturer's data sheet. The warranty itself is valid for two to three years depending on the product tier, and it covers delamination or loss of hydrophobic performance provided you follow the maintenance intervals and avoid abrasive wash methods.

Can you coat an aircraft between weekend charter blocks?

A full Ceramic Coating needs three to six days: one day for decontamination and paint correction, one day for the first ceramic layer, twelve hours of curing, one day for the second layer and brightwork, then a final cure period before the aircraft returns to service. That schedule does not fit between a Friday arrival and a Sunday departure, especially when overnight parking is restricted on winter weekends. The more practical approach is to block the aircraft mid-week—Tuesday arrival, Friday or Saturday departure—so that we have four clear days and the handler can allocate a stand without competing for weekend slots.

If the calendar will not allow a mid-week gap, consider staging the work across two visits: paint correction and the first ceramic layer in December, then the second layer and brightwork when the aircraft returns in February. The first layer already delivers seventy per cent of the hydrophobic benefit, so the aircraft stays cleaner through the Christmas peak, and you complete the system when the schedule opens again. We store the batch number and the correction photos so that the second visit picks up exactly where the first ended.

What happens when de-icing fluid meets a ceramic surface?

Type I and Type IV fluids are designed to be fugitive: they leave the aircraft during the take-off roll or they sublimate in flight. On unprotected paint, glycol residue bonds to microscopic contamination in the clear coat and leaves a sticky film that collects exhaust soot and apron dust. A ceramic coating changes the surface energy so that the fluid sheets off instead of pooling, and any residue that remains after flight rinses away with plain water. The result is that an aircraft returning from a dawn departure in Chambéry—engines started on a stand dusted with snow, Type I applied to the wings and tail—can be turned around at the destination with a ten-minute rinseless wash instead of a full decontamination cycle.

The ceramic itself is chemically inert and will not react with propylene glycol or potassium acetate. We do recommend a rinse within seventy-two hours of de-icing, not because the coating is at risk but because glycol attracts dirt, and dirt left in place for days will eventually require abrasive removal. The maintenance plan we provide includes a one-page guide for line crews, explaining how to rinse the aircraft with a pump-sprayer and a microfibre mop after a de-iced departure. That simple step, repeated throughout the winter, keeps the coating clean and extends the interval before the next polishing correction.