Flying near Chaminox, France

[Grob Driver]

Hi,

Does anyone know of any local airfields near Chaminox in France that does aircraft rental?

I’m going out there in February to try my hand at snow boarding, but fancy doing a bit of flying too.

Can anyone help?

Many thanks

Grob Driver

[BRL]

I am sure someone had posted a link to French airfields on a previous french thread. I will try and find it for you now.

[Aerobatic Flyer]

Grob Driver,

The nearest airfield is Sallanches, but there's no longer an active club there. For a chance of solo rental after a normal checkout, you'd have to go to Annemasse, which is by the Swiss border about an hour from Chamonix.

Much more fun, though, is to go to Megève. You'd probably need a good 2 or 3 days before they'd let you fly solo. It's not all that difficult, but it takes a few hours to get used to the idea of landing a tail-dragger on skis (no brakes) at an airfield which has a mountain at the end of the runway! (Click here to see what final approach looks like in summer).

If you fly with an instructor, you'll probably be taken up onto the glaciers if the weather is good. It is the most exhilarating flying I've ever done.

Let me know if you want to know more. I fly from Megève frequently. The club's contact details are:

Aéro-club de Megève,
Altiport de Megève,
3368 Route de la Cote 2000,
74120 Megève,
France.

Tel: [phone].

[bluskis]

And remember to keep Mont Blanc on your left.

[BRL]

...........and below (sort of)

[paulo]

Now you're talking.

Cham is our favourite boarding place - steep and deep!

Now, to chuck in some mountain flying as a 'day off'... hmmm.

[QDMQDMQDM]

Talking of keeping Mt. Blanc below, this fellow landed on the summit in a stock 150HP Super Cub:

http://www.afpm.org/AFPMdiffusion-HG01.htm

40,000 hours, 100,000 mountain landings!

QDM

[Grob Driver]

Thanks for all your help… Love the idea of flying in the glaciers… I will look into that although I’m not sure if I’ll have 3 days spare to so solo… Unless there’s no snow, and then it will be fly fly fly! Almost hoping that there is no snow now!

Cheers

Grob Driver

[TheKentishFledgling]

Boarding?

Grob Driver and Paulo,

Snowboarding? Tried it once, couldn't get on with it.

If you want some fun on snow, then I reckon the best fun you can have is snow-blading Amazing!

Only kiddin.....I'm sure boarding is wicked if you have the patience - which I don't
Don't think stiknruda will agree with me though

tKF

PS Mountain flying is something everyone should be able to try once! I did from Meribel, and it was amazing, but I'm not sure I'd be rushing back to do it again - way too close to the trees, and it kinda freaked me!

[QDMQDMQDM]

way too close to the trees

The classic mountain flying error is to fly down the middle of a valley because you don't like to be too near the trees. Then, for some reason you have to make a zippy 180 turn and don't have the space to do it and, then, biff.

Sometimes it's good to be close to the trees. Sometimes, of course, it isn't. ;-)

QDM