Hire of aircraft in France

[SWK]

Hello folks,
I will be in Paris in about a fortnights time and was hoping that I
could hire an aircraft to do some private flying. Somewhere to the
north or northeast in preference. The license side I have already
sorted out.
I have found a few aeroclubs in the area which seem to be OK, but they
generally want a joining fee of 100+ Euros. Since I will likely only
have a day or so spare I was wondering if there are any straight hire
and fly places.

Any (helpful!) comments welcome.

Regards
SWK

[[email protected]]

Hi SWK,

I do not know about any aeroclubs that rent out just like that.
You need to do a check out, so you spend an hour or so with an
instructor anyway.

A workaround for this if you only like to do some sightseeing is just
rent a plane with a pilot( or instructor).
Probably they let you handle the plane a bit.
Or if you are cheap ask for a "bapteme" (do not mind the spelling),
this is French for introduction flight, these cost about 40~60euro/hr.
Again, probably you can do the flying.
By doing this you see all the nice things in the surrounding of the
aerodrome and you are not the one who has to pay about 45.000 euro if
you accidently overfly one of their nuclear powerplants. And you have a
thing overthere that is called French RT :-(

Have fun,
Kees.

[Stefan]

Most private flying in France is through aeroclubs. The joining fee
("cotisation") is required for insurance reasons and maybe tax
regulations (I don't know nor care about the details). You'll have to
pay that "cotisation" in every club.

Commercial FBOs as in the USA don't exist in France. The only way to
"just rent" a plane would be to find a fully commercial flight school.
Those are very rare in France. Your best bet would be to contact some
clubs and just ask them. They may or may not know such a school.

Stefan

[Sylvain]

SWK wrote:
> Hello folks,
> I will be in Paris in about a fortnights time and was hoping that I
> could hire an aircraft to do some private flying.

you may want to ask the question on fr.rec.aviation

--Sylvain

[[email protected]]

Hi SWK,

If renting an aircraft in France gives you too much trouble maybe look
a bit further north.
>From Paris it is about a 1.5~2 hour drive to Belgium.
Here is a website with aeroclubs in Belgium:
http://www.raac.be/GA_BE.php
I think you can best try Kortrijk first.

If you really do not mind driving go further north for 2 more hours and
you are in The Netherlands.
We have some schools that also rent out aircraft.

Good luck,
Kees

[Sylvain]

oh, and another place to look: UK. You can
fly a G- registered aircraft anywhere with a
FAA certificate (once checked out that is, as
it would be any other place) -- which is not
necessarily the case in other countries...

--Sylvain

wrote:
> Hi SWK,
>
> If renting an aircraft in France gives you too much trouble maybe look
> a bit further north.
>>From Paris it is about a 1.5~2 hour drive to Belgium.
> Here is a website with aeroclubs in Belgium:
> http://www.raac.be/GA_BE.php
> I think you can best try Kortrijk first.
>
> If you really do not mind driving go further north for 2 more hours and
> you are in The Netherlands.
> We have some schools that also rent out aircraft.
>
> Good luck,
> Kees
>

[SWK]

Ta for that Sylvain
SWK

[SWK]

Stefan and Kees,
thanks for your comments.
I had been in contact with a few clubs near Paris and had discovered
the joining fee (with insurance) to be 225-280E. Which is a bit too
much for, at most, a few hours flying.
However, a back up plan may be to just do some local flying with an
instructor (as per Kees suggestion), although I had hoped to do a short
cross country.

SWK

[SWK]

Thanks Kees,
I hadn't thought of Belgium because of the airspace. I was in Germany
about 14 months ago and did some flying there (mostly gliding
http://slash.dotat.org/womens-preworlds-2004/sk-04-08-2004.html , but
a little bit of power too).

The Germans that I spoke to seemed fairly negative about flying in
Belgium, but that may have been a gliding perception only.

SWK

[[email protected]]

Belgium is ok, their airspace is indeed a bit difficult but doable.
I never had a problem with it, it is just a case of careful planning.

-Kees

P.S. Do not tell the Germans, Belgian food is much better ;-)

[Sylvain]

SWK wrote:
> However, a back up plan may be to just do some local flying with an
> instructor (as per Kees suggestion), although I had hoped to do a short
> cross country.

read your posting on fr.rec.aviation and found out you
were a glider pilot! if you get a chance, try to
get to one of the large glider ports there, i.e.,
Vinon, Sisteron or Fayence (in the south east, near
the Durance); really worth the detour, and might be
quite nice if you could spend a few days there (lots
of pilots from all around Europe converge there during
summer, and the locals are quite used to foreign
pilots)

---Sylvain

[SWK]

Sylvain wrote:

> read your posting on fr.rec.aviation and found out you
> were a glider pilot! if you get a chance, try to
> get to one of the large glider ports there, i.e.,
> Vinon, Sisteron or Fayence (in the south east, near
> the Durance); really worth the detour,

> ---Sylvain

Unfortunately I won't be able to as time is against me this trip.
However, I am thinking a little about going to Vinon to help one of the
Australian pilots next year.

Regards
SWK