Originally Posted by
HuskyDog
Are there any pilots out there with the Mountain Rating (French, Italian or Swiss) or members of the European Mountain Flying Pilots Association ? Or any "mountain strips" in Scotland ? Any recommendation for the best place to get the European rating - Meribel ??
I have the French ratings (as well as the cool sunglasses in the picture above
), and am a member of EMP through my membership of the French Mountain Pilots Association. Robert Barrier, the president of EMP and author of what used to be the definitive guide to French mountain landing strips before the internet came along, tried to find an organisation in the UK that would participate in EMP, but failed.
My vote for the best place to get the rating is, of course, Megève. As Ian points out, it is an aéroclub and not a commercial training school; that said, it is the only serious year-round place to train that is open and active all year, it is run by the most experienced CFI, has a very low accident rate and is friendly and welcoming. I've been a member for 6 years, and QDM is the only person I've ever known to have a bad experience. Alternatives are Méribel, which has some very experienced instructors but is much less active than Megève (it has also suffered a lot of accidents in recent years), the Aéroclub du Dauphiné based at Grenoble Le Versoud, and Courchevel - but they seem more focused on quick site authorisations in the Cessna than training towards the full mountain rating. Also, IMHO, they give out site authorisations much too quickly - Megève instructors will make sure you have a lot more experience before signing you off to fly alone.
You can get a mountain rating in Switzerland for glacier flying. The experience requirements are more formal than in France, and I understand that there are a number of good training organisations. There is no automatic equivalence to get a "piggyback" French rating. The Swiss have only one summer landing strip, at Verbier; in France there are dozens, so you can scare yourself in the mountains all year round. (Summer is much more difficult than winter.)
There is the potential to develop lots of "mountain style" one-way strips in the UK. If it happens, perhaps I'll move back home!