Les
May I mention for your Francoflyers web site a couple of airfields in France that I can highly recommend.
- CHOLET (LFOU) in the Pays de la Loire
A very large runway (see photo) right on the edge of town. English spoken on the radio and a very warm welcome.
Great restaurant, no parking fees charged for my two day visit and a minimal landing fee.
Fuel and hard standing available.
- Argentan (LFAJ) in Lower Normandy.
A grass strip in the middle of nowhere but a great base to visit Normandy.
I have landed there on several occasions and have never been charged any landing or parking fees.
No ground radio, just land and visit the open club house to book in.
Here you will find a phone number to call if you require fuel, someone will arrive 15 minutes later, cash only.
No English spoken.
Les, May I add a bit about Cholet. Delightful friendly airfield, long runway and a parallel grass glider strip beside. Great cafe, very helpful tower. Interesting rusty WW1 relic is a rotary engine bolted to a rock in the carpark. Several local hotels, Formule 1 hotel pretty basic but OK.
BUT BUT BUT. If you overnight there, and phone for a taxi back to the airfield, you may discover a crucial difference between our languages. If you ask for a ride to the aerodrome de cholet, you'll be OK. If you ask for the Aeroport de Cholet, as I did, they will say they will come, and an hour later not have appeared. If you then ring five other taxi firms, they will all say they can't come, because they think you mean one of the International airports at Nantes or Tours 50 or 80 K away, an uneconomic trip for them.
This delay could lead you into making marginal decisions later in the day - it did me.
John Chapman Plymouth UK
Posted by: John Chapman | 26 November 2011 at 06:33 AM