VIVE LA DIFFERENCE! Flying in France
VIVE LA DIFFERENCE! Flying in France
By Derek Melton, Sustaining Member
A
t the end of 2008 my wife Carol and I moved to France, for what would be an eighteen month stay. I was to concentrate on ecological studies in Francophone Africa, with a main client based in Paris. My base
was to be an office in Lyon, but we decided to rent a gîcte 30km to the west in the Coteaux du Lyonnais wine region, just south of Beaujolais. Needless to say, as soon as I had time I researched what I would need to do to be able to fly in France and who was renting planes nearby. My first visit was to L’aéroclubdu Rhône et du sud-est at Le Bron (LFLY) aerodrome close to St. Exupéry (LFLL), Lyon’s main international airport. Le Bron had 10 JAN & FEB 2022
a single paved runway 1820m in length and was busy with commercial and private traffic. The club was also busy, with a fleet of quite new Cessna 152s and C-172 s-models and several welcoming staff. They explained that I should be able to receive a French licence based on my Canadian ppl. I would need to be checked out on a C-172, including undertaking a dual cross country. I would also need to study “La pratique des communications aéronautiques (à l’usage des ppl)”, culminating in a French language test. The licence would be issued by La Direction générale de l’aviation civile through the Fédération Française Aéronautique and would reference the aéroclub where I was a member. At the time, most small airstrips in France were French language only for communications. My French was “intermediate” at best so radio use would require some practice. I was tempted to sign up there and then since the plane would be familiar, which would give me more room to concentrate on
radio and airspace procedures. However, commuting from the west side of Lyon to Le Bronin the east was not a pleasant prospect, so I headed to the second nearby club, L’aéroclub du Beaujolaisat Villefranche-Tarare airport (Tarare LFHV). Tarare was an uncontrolled airport with only French for communications and a single paved 1040m strip used for helicopter and glider training as well as fixed wing flights. It was a cool but sunny winter morning when the CFI Gilles showed me their fleet and club facilities. Carol had already been won over during the 30 minute rural drive north from where we were staying, through small villages and by many vineyards being cleaned up ahead of spring. I was also quickly sure that this would be the club to join, and not just because the restaurant had an excellent menu, plus a bar and a fine terrace next to the ramp. For many reasons flying out of Tarare airport promised to be more of a real French experience compared to flying C172s out of an airport in the suburbs of Lyon. The club had six French-built low-wing planes
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