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Airfields with bicycles

I flew to l’Aigle Saint Michel LFOL (just west of Paris) at the weekend. The 4-plane club seemed to be flourishing, doing lots of normal and discovery flights, and the people were friendly. They were flying to Spain the following day to look at buying an SR22, so must be successful. An unexpected and pleasant surprise was that they had 4 bicycles for visitors. Apart from Le Touquet, who charge, I’ve never seen this elsewhere.

This is really good, as usually it’s too far to walk into town / restaurant / point of interest, and taxis are extra cost and hassle. Not forgetting cycling in the sunshine is really fun! Whilst it’s nice for visiting pilots, I can see there’s no incentive for a club or airfield to spend money on something that’s free, and may cost them to administer and maintain. Well done to LFOL for putting this in place. No landing fee, but they do have a piggybank on the bar for donations

  • Does anywhere else have bicycles for visitors?
  • Is there any way to encourage other airfields to do this?
EGHO-LFQF-KCLW, United Kingdom

At Bubovice LKBU (20 km SW of Prague), we don’t have officially announced guest bikes, but if you are flying in and want one (or two or three), drop me a line.

LKBU (near Prague), Czech Republic

Yes, no idea why so many small GA airports don’t even think to sort out their “mobility problems”, not even one taxi around !
But then they are the places where you can ask the refueler for a “free drive” to the city (also it does not hurt to ask nicely for drive drop/pick up while PPR-ing, it tells you how much you are welcome )

On bikes specifically, that was always a hassle even for big CAT airports, the few exceptions I had were Spain (Barcelona), Belgium (Ostend) and Holland (Schiphol), still you need around 30min to get to the place where you pick a bike then you have to drive in some interesting roads around if you want to avoid highways

I think nothing beats buying your own folding bikes (something less than 10kg) but then fitting 4 bikes and 4 pax inside a GA aircraft will be tricky…

Maybe after disassembling the bikes? most airfields will have some hangars/tools if you are tempted by assembly/disassembly (I never tried it in GA airport but I did in CAT airports in Northern Europe that have proper bike facilities)

FYI, some aero/flying clubs in CIs do have “spare cars” to take around (I think the reasoning is that these cars are the only option and they are not going anywhere ) but I am surprised they don’t have “spare bikes” but probably there is no demand without offending anyone here I think it has to do with the health of the average person in our pilot community

Last Edited by Ibra at 28 Feb 14:55
Paris/Essex, France/UK, United Kingdom

There are a lot of small airfields at scenic places with bicycles available, but they are also visited quite often by aircraft carrying their own folding bikes.

Texel (EHTX) and Midden-Zeeland (EHMZ) in The Netherlands have bikes available, both have one or two cars available as well.

Texel – EHTX has bikes for hire

EHLE / Lelystad, Netherlands, Netherlands

Folding bikes the way to go. My Brompton rides super well (I routinely do 60+ k rides), and transports easily. Of course, if you are going 4 up, taking 4 bikes a bit of an investment!

Here on an a318 but so far I haven’t found a plane it didn’t fit in! (Until I get checked out on the druine turbulent)

Past summer I flew to Isle d’Oleron LFDP and I would say there were several bikes to rent. I’m not sure since I didn’t take one.

LECU - Madrid, Spain

Rheine (EDXE), St-Peter Ording (EDXO), Norderney (EDWY) have bikes.

mh
Aufwind GmbH
EKPB, Germany

Visingsö (ESSI) has bikes. (The island is a very nice destination btw.)

ESKC (Uppsala/Sundbro), Sweden
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