Flying Clubs in South of France ??

[faidilah]

Holidaying around Cannes/Nice in August... any recommendations on a flying club from where I could hire a 172/PA28 and someone to right seat ?? cheers all

[n5296s]

The Union Aeronautique de la Cote d'Azur (UACA - google for UACA Mandelieu) is about your only reasonable hope. However my impression (I've flown with them a couple of times) is that you will need some French. Also they get booked up - I was unable to fly there last time I was in France because they were busy all week. They have mainly PA28s.

There are a couple of other places at Mandelieu, but one (DA40) is just unbelieveably expensive even by European standards, and the other (Robin only) has never answered the phone when I've called. There's nothing at Nice, that's strictly an airline/bizjet airport.

Mandelieu is a fairly busy towered airport. Flying along the coast towards St Tropez is beautiful. You can't go east very easily because of Nice, and to go any distance north you'll need a mountain checkout.

n5296s

[faidilah]

thanks a million... will check them out

[Squeegee Longtail]

Cannes Aviation at LFMD is a professional school and friendly to foreigners but is a little expensive, however it does have good aircraft - DA40s (some with G1000) and DA42s (again some with G1000). In my experience the other establishments at Mandelieu are clubs and are typically "French" (read unfriendly) with tired aircraft.

You pay your money, you take your choice.

There is a VFR route to go East towards Italy (2 actually) but you need to have a helpful ATC at Nice to make it happen. It does get very busy at Nice (France's 2nd busiest airport).

[Fly-by-Wife]

Going a little further afield, about 1/2-way between Cannes and Toulon is St. Tropez / La mole airport. It's in a valley north-west of Cavalaire and has a single paved runway of about 1200m.

There is a flying club, and they did have aircraft and instructors available 2 years ago (not sure if that's still the case now, haven't followed it up since) when I inquired about checking out to fly into there - it is mandatory to be checked out for mountain flying before using the airfield, given it's location.

Might be a bit tricky for you, as you'd have to get through St. Tropez - the traffic there can be horrendous!

FBW

[acunningham]

As per previous posters, I can recommend Cannes Aviation if you can afford it. They have a good fleet of DA40s and DA42s. I've flown with Christian Parveux and a little with Mathias (sorry, I don't remember his surname) and both are good instructors who speak reasonable English. The only disadvantage is that Cannes Aviation is more expensive than most rental companies.

Several flights are well worth doing:

1. Fly down to La Mole (LFMD) and back. You'll need a sticker in your log book as it's a mountain airport, but Christian can do this in a single flight. The circuit at La Mole is interesting - there's a hill between the runway and the (highly modified) downwind and you lose sight of the airport for part of the circuilt.

2. There's a VFR corridor eastbound over the mountains and westbound at low level just off the coast. You can fly to San Remo and back in a loop with superb views of Antibes, Nice, and Monaco out the right hand side of the aircraft. You need a flight plan filed to do this.

Bring a camera for both flights!