Hi
I live just up the mountain from Bex and can watch the movements from my house. I know the airport manager and a couple of pilots based there, and can speak French, so if there are any questions you have, need suggestions for places to visit or stay, fire away. Plenty of people there speak English, and there are several English pilots based there.
Since I moved here I have been meaning to join the flying club there and get checked out, but work pressure means I haven't had time so far.
The flying club website can be found at:
Groupe de Vol à Moteur du Chablais
Gliding club can be found at:
GVV 'Les Martinets' - Accueil
There is a live webcam which updates each time you refresh your browser, and is nice hi res, so you can watch the movements (lots of gliders on aerotow at the weekend). (
http://lesmartinets.dyndns.org/axis-cgi/jpg/image.cgi)
You can always translate the website to English using google translation.
As one of the other replies says the runway is about 700m of grass. Most approaches are from the east as the prevailing wind is usually from the west though it tends to flip in the afternoon as it cools and the air falls down the mountain, as the west side is open to the lake and the east side is surrounded by mountains.
If you have google earth you can "fly" the approach quite nicely with the built in flight simulator.
The runway is quite narrow, and often you will have powered aircraft to your left doing run up checks, and gliders on your right parked or lining up for a tow, and you need to land between them.
Next nearest airfields are Sion (down the valley to the East) (
Accueil - Sion airport, Sion aéroport) , or Lausanne Blecherette (
Lausanne Airport : Home) to the West, both long Tarmac. After that you have La Cote near Nyon (close to Geneva) (
http://www.aeroclublacote.com) - [where Phil Collins lives], or Geneva itself.
Cheers!